Kelly Link just kicks my butt. I'm in the middle of Magic for Beginners and enjoying it immensely. It's be a while since reading an author has adjusted my voice, but Kelly Link is doing just that (argh, that's not my voice! delete delete delete). So I need to finish that book soon. There are things of hers I want to take away, the ease of telling a lie. Seriously. She'll just walk right up to your reading eyes and say, "tricked ya." I've been trying to place where I knew her style from, and once it hit me, of course, it was so damn obvious. She's writing down stories like oral tradition. Now I know that, I can see the mechanics, the hard-worked simple presentation, the "breaking the fourth wall" style of including the reader. Understand that I think she's great.
A few years ago I was into oral traditions and went to a couple of storytelling events. They are exceptionally exciting, better than poetry readings, IMHO. You get both the story, the entertainment factor of someone standing up in front of you, and you get the real power of words and rhythms. And when storytellers try to outdo each other, stand back and hang onto something that won't give way in the ensuing tumult. There was a young guy who had audience participation by having us repeat "Ho" every time he said "Hey." As the story reached its climax (a Native American fairy tale with stone people) he increased the amount of call/response. It was very effective.
So now I'm on to you, Link. I'm enjoying every minute of the ride, too.
2 comments:
Magic for Beginners came up for review at GMR right before I left, so I couldn't request it (it wouldn't have arrived before I left). Wahh.
LBB, I feel your pain. I would get a copy. It really is excellent. Many of the stories in there I've read elsewhere (Fairy Handbag, and The Hortlak). I think I've seen others. I've been trying to grok out how the stories are broken up, and what the over all concepts of them are, and once I realized that she's telling me the story and putting what words she'd say down on paper, that I really started to enjoy them. There's a sing-song quality to some of the phrases that I like. Plus, she'll add in just the oddest word-spice to flavor the story (in The Witch's Revenge, I think that's the title, th ebit about ants carrying time, just wonderful).
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