Fantastic Women

July 4, 2011
The term "fantastic" describes stories in which things that couldn't or wouldn't occur in the normal world, do. While the stories in this collection, all originally published in the literary journal Tin House, meet that criterion, many of them feel more twee than fantastic or simply weird for weird's sake. Here, the often unnamed female protagonists experience unexplained, unexplainable events that leave them uncomfortable but oddly less miserable than you'd expect. The circumstances varyâturning into a deer is not the same as being strung up in complicated ways by nameless barbecuing perpetrators is not the same as finding yourself in a very large stewpotâyet the stories end up feeling curiously similar. It's not bad writing; it's strategic, an apparent desire to tap into fable, where characters are archetypes, anything can happen, and nothing is questioned, but with the exception of Lydia Millet's "Snow White, Rose Red," it feels flat. In contrast, the stories that work, Karen Russell's "The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach," Julia Elliott's "The Wilds," Gina Ochsner's "Song of the Selkie," and Stacey Richter's "The Doll Awakens" create compellingly weird and weirdly compelling narratives by forcing believable, specific characters to grapple with the unexplainable.

Starred review from June 15, 2011

In this engaging anthology compiled by Tin House editor Spillman, with an introduction by novelist Joy Williams (The Quick and the Dead), standout stories by such literary stars as Aimee Bender, Judy Budnitz, Lydia Davis, Miranda July, Karen Russell, and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum rub shoulders with impressive work by lesser-known writers, such as Julia Slavin's funny/sad, satirical tour de force "Drive-Through House" and Samantha Hunt's "Beast," in which a young wife in an adulterous relationship is transformed by night into a deer. Some stories, such as Gina Ochsner's "Song of the Selkie," offer elegant variations on old folk themes, while still others, such as Lucy Corbin's "The Entire Predicament" and Gina Zucker's "Big People," tease the boundaries between domestic felicity and the theater of the absurd. VERDICT These stories will delight a range of readers--even those who have declared themselves allergic to the genres of fantasy, sf, and magic realism--and will challenge devotees of domestic realism to take a walk on the wild side. Readers who enjoy the boundary-straddling work of Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, and Flannery O'Connor, among many others, will find this especially appealing.--Sue Russell, Bryn Mawr, PA

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