You can find the list at Mike Glyer's File 770: 2013 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot
So far I've reviewed the following:
APB-SAL is a blog about education, science, science education, fiction, science fiction, literature, literary stories, poetry, and anything else that strikes the blogger's fancy. NOTE: This blog interrogates art. It rarely make moral proclamations. For that attend the church or politician of your choice. This blog concerns aesthetics, not propaganda. Consider this as interviews with books where the interviewer presents interviewees, so you get what you need to do your own thinking.
Showing posts with label Lisa Mannetti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lisa Mannetti. Show all posts
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
"Corruption" by Lisa Mannetti
First appeared in Nightscapes: Volume 1.
Lisa Mannetti has won the Bram Stoker, but these two stories are my first of hers (here's the other, "Hunger Artist"). Clearly, she is a talented writer. Both evoke well the early twentieth century--the problems and concerns. She has a sentence-level mastery that's impressive, which rarely gets the better of sense (one sentence spoke of a hand "curving" an object when it wasn't creating a curve but simply following it). She is one of those writers to watch. At least I'll be looking out for her name.
In these two stories, it is the center nugget where the author draws her narrative strength although both might benefit from shearing off their beginnings. This one has the stronger ending.
In this, a young woman opens the tale contemplating suicide, holding a bottle of carbolic acid (despite having a degree in chemistry, I had to look it up. It's a weak acid--now called phenol--that numbs your throat when you gargle Chloraseptic). You could say I'm spoiling the story, but the opening intends to hint at the ending anyway.
She falls in love with a beloved playmate she's grown up with. However, they are not the same class, so she's harassed, even maimed. When she's displaying the wound to another who hopes to share her pain, she's discovered by other girls who concoct an affair between girls.
It's an effective story of doom and conspiracy where people, who could come forward to your aid, don't. As it sheds light on humanity's uglier side, it's one that should be read. Mob mentality and fear of it are still too common.
Lisa Mannetti has won the Bram Stoker, but these two stories are my first of hers (here's the other, "Hunger Artist"). Clearly, she is a talented writer. Both evoke well the early twentieth century--the problems and concerns. She has a sentence-level mastery that's impressive, which rarely gets the better of sense (one sentence spoke of a hand "curving" an object when it wasn't creating a curve but simply following it). She is one of those writers to watch. At least I'll be looking out for her name.
In these two stories, it is the center nugget where the author draws her narrative strength although both might benefit from shearing off their beginnings. This one has the stronger ending.
In this, a young woman opens the tale contemplating suicide, holding a bottle of carbolic acid (despite having a degree in chemistry, I had to look it up. It's a weak acid--now called phenol--that numbs your throat when you gargle Chloraseptic). You could say I'm spoiling the story, but the opening intends to hint at the ending anyway.
She falls in love with a beloved playmate she's grown up with. However, they are not the same class, so she's harassed, even maimed. When she's displaying the wound to another who hopes to share her pain, she's discovered by other girls who concoct an affair between girls.
It's an effective story of doom and conspiracy where people, who could come forward to your aid, don't. As it sheds light on humanity's uglier side, it's one that should be read. Mob mentality and fear of it are still too common.
"Hunger Artist" by Lisa Mannetti
Appeared in Zippered Flesh 2.
Of the two tales of Mannetti I've read (the other, "Corruption", will appear here), this one has the more powerful core.A young woman and her sister voluntarily submit themselves to one of the many fads going on around the early twentieth century--a "rest cure" where participants subject themselves to a broth diet and scalding enemas. It turns out that the whole thing is a sham, to confuse the women and have them give or sign over fortunes, but by the time they realize that something fishy is going on, they're too weak too protest.
The perspective from the hundred and two year old woman is nice although I wonder if it could have been better utilized (why then? why this reporter?)--which might have resolved the meandering opening. Maybe the 102-year-old's vantage isn't necessary and you could start with the trial. Maybe 102-year-old's POV is intended to convey that a delusion instilled long ago still persists--a really cool theme if intended--although that's not yet clear. The ending might have been stronger if it had been better prepared for.
Of the two tales of Mannetti I've read (the other, "Corruption", will appear here), this one has the more powerful core.A young woman and her sister voluntarily submit themselves to one of the many fads going on around the early twentieth century--a "rest cure" where participants subject themselves to a broth diet and scalding enemas. It turns out that the whole thing is a sham, to confuse the women and have them give or sign over fortunes, but by the time they realize that something fishy is going on, they're too weak too protest.
The perspective from the hundred and two year old woman is nice although I wonder if it could have been better utilized (why then? why this reporter?)--which might have resolved the meandering opening. Maybe the 102-year-old's vantage isn't necessary and you could start with the trial. Maybe 102-year-old's POV is intended to convey that a delusion instilled long ago still persists--a really cool theme if intended--although that's not yet clear. The ending might have been stronger if it had been better prepared for.
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