Get in Trouble
SHE HAS BEEN HAILED BY MICHAEL CHABON as "the most darkly playful voice in American fiction" and by Neil Gaiman as "a national treasure." Now Kelly Link's eagerly awaited new collection--her first for adult readers in a decade--proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have. Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The nine exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In "The Summer People," a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In "I Can See Right Through You," a middle-aged movie star makes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In "The New Boyfriend," a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-sized animated doll. Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, The Wizard of Oz, superheroes, the Pyramids...These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today.
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What Hacker News says
- I read a lot this year, so I'll just point out some highlights:
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - The highlight of the year. I'm now partially through the 3rd book in the series. And amazing portrait of the friendship between 2 girls as they grow up and try to escape the violence and poverty of their small town in Naples.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - My guess is that plenty of people here have read it. Great read about the fall of civilization due to a massive flu outbreak.
Room by Emma Donoghue - Beautiful, heartbreaking, troubling and uplifting.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - A classic, glad to finally read it.
The Room by Jonas Karlsson - Absurdist take on corporate life about a man who finds a room in his office building that shouldn't be there.
Welcome To Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor - For fans of the podcast. I highly recommend both.
Uglies/Pretties/Specials by Scott Westerfeld - YA trilogy about a future in which everybody is made pretty once they reach a certain age. Not great literature, but a fun read. Although the second one is a little blah.
Get In Trouble by Kelly Link - Excellent collection of fantastical yet mundane short stories.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine - Powerful exploration of race in America. I feel like I need to read it a few more times.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - Still one of my favorite authors. Story of a baby whose family is brutally murdered and ends up being raised by spirits in a graveyard.
- Some short story collections:
Longer Form (but all still quick reads):* This is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz * Get in Trouble - Kelly Link * St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves - Karen Russell * The 10th of December - George Saunders * Nocturnes - Kazuo Ishiguro * After the Quake - Haruki Murakami * The Girl in the Flammable Skirt - Aimee Bender* The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro * Death with Interruptions - Jose Saramago * The Whispering Muse - Sjon
