Magical Realism | Raging Biblio-holism

Bone Gap

June 13, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Finn O’Sullivan saw Roza, Bone Gap’s mysterious new arrival, kidnapped right before his eyes. But when he can’t give a description of the kidnapper, the town begins to let the story drift away, assuming she’d really just left. Still, Finn and his brother Sean can’t forget the girl and keep searching for her – and Roza, held captive by a strange man of apparent magic, can’t think of anything but escape… The Review: I don’t read much YA, even now. […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: Bone Gap, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Laura Ruby, Magical Realism, Mythology, Printz Award, Reviews, Young Adult

Boy, Snow, Bird

May 9, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Boy Novak escapes her brutal father in post-WWII New York and heads north, to the Massachusetts countryside. There, in a small town some way out of Boston, she begins a new life and falls in a kind of love with widower Arturo Whitman and his daughter Snow. But a surprise revelation upon the birth of Arturo & Boy’s daughter changes everything she thought she knew about the town, about her husband, and about herself… The Review: A magic […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Boy Snow Bird, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Folklore, Helen Oyeyemi, Historical Fiction, History, Literature, Magical Realism, Race, Reviews

The Seamstress and the Wind

April 14, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: When César Aira was a boy, a seamstress lived in his town and had a son about his age. When she believes that the son has disappeared, she jumps in a cab and tears off into the Argentinian countryside with a hilarious and fantastical set of pursuers that include her husband, an angry bride-to-be, the wind, and maybe even the author himself… The Review: After falling under Aira’s spell with An Episode in the Life of a Landscape […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Argentina, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, César Aira, Fantastical, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Magical Realism, Metafiction, New Directions, Reviews, Rosalie Knecht, Surrealism, The Seamstress and the Wind, TNBBC, Translation, Writing

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

March 2, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Bewitching tales of doors, keys, locks, and the pursuit of understanding other people. A mysterious library and a mysterious garden of roses are more linked than is first apparent, a school for puppetry is more than just learning hand movements, a company develops a way to relive moments with lost loved ones, and more – all crafted by Oyeyemi’s keen magical eye. The Review: Short stories, I find, are often a great way to get a taste of […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Short Stories • Tags: Advance Review, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Folklore, Helen Oyeyemi, Literature, Magic, Magical Realism, Reviews, Short Stories, What is Not Yours is Not Yours

Beatlebone

November 4, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s 1978 and John Lennon has fled the peaceful torpor of his New York life to find the island he bought years earlier, off the western coast of Ireland. But getting to the island is a little more difficult than he planned and so, accompanied by a deeply Irish driver, he finds himself on a dark, comic, existential wander through space, time, and Clew Bay. The Review: There is no one else quite like Kevin Barry in […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, Beatlebone, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Ireland, John Lennon, Kevin Barry, Literature, Magic, Magical Realism, Reviews

What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

July 1, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, mokele-mbembe – these creatures (rumored or real) are nothing quite so strange or mysterious as the women who also inhabit these stories, in this first collection from an already-inimitable writer. The Review: Sometimes, it can be kind of fun to encounter a young writer out-of-order. Laura van den Berg’s The Isle of Youth is where I began, and with that collection she won me as a reader for life. Her debut novel, Find Me, was […]

Categories: Fiction, Short Stories • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantastical Realism, Fiction, Laura van den Berg, Magical Realism, Reviews, Short Stories, what the world will look like when all the water leaves us

2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas

January 2, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s Christmas Eve Eve in Philadelphia and three Philadelphians in particular are about to have the 24 hours of their lives. Madeleine Altimari, a brassy nine year old with a dead mother and distant father, just wants to sing; Sarina Greene (Madeleine’s teacher) is just back in Philly after her divorce; and Jack Lorca has just been told that he needs to pay 30k in finds to keep his club open. And at 2 A.M., all three […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantastical Realism, Fiction, Jazz, Literature, Magical Realism, Marie-Helene Bertino, Philadelphia, Reviews

1Q84

June 1, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: On her way to an assassination, a young woman called Aomame takes a shortcut down an escape staircase from the expressway and finds herself in a slightly-different world – one with two moons. Meanwhile, a young man named Tengo rewrites an entrancing manuscript and ends up caught in a mystery he doesn’t understand. The Review: 1Q84 was, I think, the first time Murakami really penetrated my consciousness as a reader. I’d heard of Kafka on the Shore but he was […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 1Q84, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Haruki Murakami, Japan, Literature, Magical Realism, Murakami 2014, Reviews, The Tournament of Books 2012

Kafka on the Shore

March 13, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: A 15-year-old boy called Kafka Tamura runs away from home, setting off possibly to escape from an Oedipal prophecy. Meanwhile, an addled older man named Nakata begins to notice strange things happening around him – or because of him. After a disturbing accident, he too runs away and as the two draw unknowingly closer to one another, reality begins to blur and the spirit world begins to bleed into this one. The Review: Okay, so now it gets […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Fiction, Haruki Murakami, Japan, Kafka on the Shore, Literature, Magical Realism, Murakami 2014, Music, Reviews

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Magical Realism