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Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories
Widely praised and widely read, Elizabeth Hand is regarded as one of America's leading literary fantasists. This new collection (an expansion of the limited-release Bibliomancy, which won the World Fantasy Award in 2005) showcases a wildly inventive author at the height of her powers. Included in this collection are "The Least Trumps," in which a lonely women reaches out to the world through symbols, tattooing, and the Tarot, and "Pavane for a Prince of the Air," where neo-pagan rituals bring a recently departed soul to something very different than eternal rest. Written in the author's characteristic poetic prose and rich with the details of traumatic lives that are luminously transformed, Saffron and Brimstone is a worthy addition to an outstanding career.
* Elizabeth Hand's work has been selected as a Washington Post Notable Book and a New York Times Notable Book, and she has been awarded a Nebula Award and two World Fantasy Awards.
* Elizabeth Hand's work has been selected as a Washington Post Notable Book and a New York Times Notable Book, and she has been awarded a Nebula Award and two World Fantasy Awards.
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 2006
41 people are currently reading
2587 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Hand
186 books1,313 followersA New York Times notable and multiple award– winning author, Elizabeth Hand has written seven novels, including the cult classic Waking the Moon, and short-story collections. She is a longtime contributor to numerous publications, including the Washington Post Book World and the Village Voice Literary Supplement. She and her two children divide their time between the coast of Maine and North London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
June 4, 2014
***** Cleopatra Brimstone.
A budding entomologist suffers a traumatic attack, and goes all Ms. 45 on some probably-undeserving men. Loved it. The supernatural/horror elements are unstinting, but the psychological/metaphorical aspects of the story are as delicate as butterfly wings, and carry the ring of truth.
**** Pavane for a Prince of the Air
Previously read in 'Embrace the Mutation.' I was slightly less enthused on a second read, but I'll stick with 4 stars. "Unlike most of these stories, not horror at all, but a story of grief. A friend of the narrator (author? It feels very, very autobiographical), an old hippie, passes away, and the narrator participates in his widow’s neo-pagan death ritual."
***** The Least Trumps
A tattoo artist lives a solitary life in her mother's old cottage, on a remote Maine island. She battles agoraphobic panic attacks and still suffers from a bad breakup with her girlfriend. But when she buys a mysterious pack of tarot cards, that may have belonged to her favorite childhood author, something seems to change. Loved this story. It's full of perhaps-unnecessary details (like real life) and inexplicable circumstances, redolent with a vivid love of art and literature. It's also awfully, though strangely romantic.
***** Wonderwall
This is one of the very, very few stories I've read which accurately captures the experience of being young, rebellious, genuinely messed up, and simultaneously intelligent and potentially successful. I felt like it was almost... not about me, but about people I might've known. It's also about an art-school dropout and about... not missed opportunities, but perhaps about opportunities that never were.
The Lost Domain: Four Story Variations
*** Kronia
Kronia was a Greek New Years' festival, where role-reversal and wild partying were accepted. Hmm. I'm not sure I get the connection to this piece, which is about different possibilities, the many 'roads not taken' and their outcomes, focusing on a man and a woman who meet (or don't) in childhood, or later, or not at all...
*** Calypso in Berlin
Previously read in 'OBSESSION: Tales of Irresistible Desire.'
An ancient nymph, now living in the modern world, is a human man's mistress. But her attitude toward relationships is still more like what one might find in Greek mythology than what our modern morality calls for...
**** Echo
A quietly post-apocalyptic tale which compares and contrasts the myth of Echo and Narcissus with a story of a lonely woman living on a solitary island, missing her lover and hoping against hope that he might return to her.
**** The Saffron Gatherers
After a long but non-committal relationship, a man and a woman are thinking that they might actually make the compromises needed to perhaps live in the same city... maybe even together. But the woman isn't yet willing to drop everything, or cancel her upcoming research trip, investigating an ancient archaeological site struck by disaster. Nice details about art and artists, a vivid, lovely Caligornia setting... and a powerful and unexpected conclusion.
This excellent collection is now being released in eBook format by Open Road Media. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me know about it!
A budding entomologist suffers a traumatic attack, and goes all Ms. 45 on some probably-undeserving men. Loved it. The supernatural/horror elements are unstinting, but the psychological/metaphorical aspects of the story are as delicate as butterfly wings, and carry the ring of truth.
**** Pavane for a Prince of the Air
Previously read in 'Embrace the Mutation.' I was slightly less enthused on a second read, but I'll stick with 4 stars. "Unlike most of these stories, not horror at all, but a story of grief. A friend of the narrator (author? It feels very, very autobiographical), an old hippie, passes away, and the narrator participates in his widow’s neo-pagan death ritual."
***** The Least Trumps
A tattoo artist lives a solitary life in her mother's old cottage, on a remote Maine island. She battles agoraphobic panic attacks and still suffers from a bad breakup with her girlfriend. But when she buys a mysterious pack of tarot cards, that may have belonged to her favorite childhood author, something seems to change. Loved this story. It's full of perhaps-unnecessary details (like real life) and inexplicable circumstances, redolent with a vivid love of art and literature. It's also awfully, though strangely romantic.
***** Wonderwall
This is one of the very, very few stories I've read which accurately captures the experience of being young, rebellious, genuinely messed up, and simultaneously intelligent and potentially successful. I felt like it was almost... not about me, but about people I might've known. It's also about an art-school dropout and about... not missed opportunities, but perhaps about opportunities that never were.
The Lost Domain: Four Story Variations
*** Kronia
Kronia was a Greek New Years' festival, where role-reversal and wild partying were accepted. Hmm. I'm not sure I get the connection to this piece, which is about different possibilities, the many 'roads not taken' and their outcomes, focusing on a man and a woman who meet (or don't) in childhood, or later, or not at all...
*** Calypso in Berlin
Previously read in 'OBSESSION: Tales of Irresistible Desire.'
An ancient nymph, now living in the modern world, is a human man's mistress. But her attitude toward relationships is still more like what one might find in Greek mythology than what our modern morality calls for...
**** Echo
A quietly post-apocalyptic tale which compares and contrasts the myth of Echo and Narcissus with a story of a lonely woman living on a solitary island, missing her lover and hoping against hope that he might return to her.
**** The Saffron Gatherers
After a long but non-committal relationship, a man and a woman are thinking that they might actually make the compromises needed to perhaps live in the same city... maybe even together. But the woman isn't yet willing to drop everything, or cancel her upcoming research trip, investigating an ancient archaeological site struck by disaster. Nice details about art and artists, a vivid, lovely Caligornia setting... and a powerful and unexpected conclusion.
This excellent collection is now being released in eBook format by Open Road Media. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me know about it!
November 15, 2011
I first read the lead-off story in this collection, "Cleopatra Brimstone," in the anthology Poe's Children (edited by Peter Straub). This story of a young entomologist who moves to London in the aftermath of rape was the best thing in Straub's anthology and turns out to be the best thing in Saffron and Brimstone too. That's not at all to say the rest of this collection is lacking.
The very best fictional narrative has the feel of true personal history, enough to inspire the reader to check the writer's bio and figure out whether or not certain events from the story really happened. That's how most of these stories felt to me, like places I have seen, and like true life events a storyteller has conveyed to me half-reluctantly and with some sadness. Every story overflows with lush imagery and vivid details. The stories may not be connected by character or events, but a kind of quiet melancholy hangs over them.
It's always interesting to see a writer shift focus in terms of genre and subject matter. Here, as in her novel Generation Loss, Hand generally tones down the fantastical elements more common in her earlier work. The stories feel exotic, even when nothing impossible or otherworldly is happening. Perhaps her greatest strength is the ability to convey a lifelike sense of place, and of events which might have truly happened. Though in my own reading I tend to enjoy the otherworldly and fantastic, I'm hesitant to say I wish Elizabeth Hand would write more in that direction. Whatever the degree of fantasticality in these stories, Hand's use of language is so elegant and her characters and situations so engaging, I'll gladly read whatever she chooses to write regardless of genre considerations. Here, as in Generation Loss, she does something that feels very real.
Highly recommended for those readers who enjoy lush prose and human-focused stories with an otherworldly feel even if they take place in our own world. Readers with a preference for more overt genre elements, as well as those wishing for a greater focus on plot rather than character, may enjoy this less than I did. As for me, this book on top of Generation Loss are enough for me to elevate Elizabeth Hand to among the top handful of authors whose work I'll explore with most eagerness. From here, it's on to Waking the Moon or Winterlong.
The very best fictional narrative has the feel of true personal history, enough to inspire the reader to check the writer's bio and figure out whether or not certain events from the story really happened. That's how most of these stories felt to me, like places I have seen, and like true life events a storyteller has conveyed to me half-reluctantly and with some sadness. Every story overflows with lush imagery and vivid details. The stories may not be connected by character or events, but a kind of quiet melancholy hangs over them.
It's always interesting to see a writer shift focus in terms of genre and subject matter. Here, as in her novel Generation Loss, Hand generally tones down the fantastical elements more common in her earlier work. The stories feel exotic, even when nothing impossible or otherworldly is happening. Perhaps her greatest strength is the ability to convey a lifelike sense of place, and of events which might have truly happened. Though in my own reading I tend to enjoy the otherworldly and fantastic, I'm hesitant to say I wish Elizabeth Hand would write more in that direction. Whatever the degree of fantasticality in these stories, Hand's use of language is so elegant and her characters and situations so engaging, I'll gladly read whatever she chooses to write regardless of genre considerations. Here, as in Generation Loss, she does something that feels very real.
Highly recommended for those readers who enjoy lush prose and human-focused stories with an otherworldly feel even if they take place in our own world. Readers with a preference for more overt genre elements, as well as those wishing for a greater focus on plot rather than character, may enjoy this less than I did. As for me, this book on top of Generation Loss are enough for me to elevate Elizabeth Hand to among the top handful of authors whose work I'll explore with most eagerness. From here, it's on to Waking the Moon or Winterlong.
September 2, 2016
I'm not sure how I felt about all these stories as stories, but I just love the way Elizabeth Hand writes. Her voice seems so restrained, but you can always sense all the passion hidden underneath. Still, this wasn't really the kind of collection I expected to find under the subtitle "Strange Stories." I've read quite a few books with that subtitle, which always seems to be added as a warning by the publisher. ("We told you these stories would be strange!") Usually "strange stories" fit into the genres of horror or magic realism. Some of these stories seemed like the first, some seemed like the second, and some seemed like neither. (These latter ones are the stories that I suspect come directly from the author's own life history. Sometimes this made me a little uncomfortable.)
My favorite story by far was "The Least Trumps." This was the most magic realist of the stories, and unlike any others in the collection, it actually has a hopeful, even joyous, ending. My runner-up was "Cleopatra Brimstone," a somewhat sardonic tale of an entomology student who travels to London and encounters some most unusual insects there.
If you want to read beautiful writing and aren't afraid of a little bit of literary suffering, then this might be the collection for you. But if you're the kind of person who likes short stories wrapped up neatly with a bow, you should probably move along.
My favorite story by far was "The Least Trumps." This was the most magic realist of the stories, and unlike any others in the collection, it actually has a hopeful, even joyous, ending. My runner-up was "Cleopatra Brimstone," a somewhat sardonic tale of an entomology student who travels to London and encounters some most unusual insects there.
If you want to read beautiful writing and aren't afraid of a little bit of literary suffering, then this might be the collection for you. But if you're the kind of person who likes short stories wrapped up neatly with a bow, you should probably move along.
November 19, 2019
I usually wouldn't write a review of something I didn't finish or even put it on my read shelf but I tried to keep reading this until the end hoping that the next story would be better but that never happened. The ending of the third story was so bad that I only read the beginnings of the last few and decided that they weren't worth finishing. First story was problematic, second was just alright, third was great until it unraveled into being incredibly strange and not in a good way. The entire time I was reading I kept feeling like I was missing something because parts seemed to come out of nowhere, but I would go back and read again and realized it really did just come out of nowhere. There were a lot of long winded unnecessary descriptions of things that made it hard to follow at times, especially in the first story. None of the main characters felt fully formed, which was especially problematic in the first story. The main character finally felt fleshed out in the third story, which was ruined by the fact that the ending was so bad it made me want to stop reading. I will say that I loved the beginning of the third story and had high hopes, thinking it was going to finally be a great one, it had beautiful descriptions and began to have magical qualities but it quickly turned into the worst short story I've ever read. If you're look for a book that deals with resolving trauma like the description claims this is absolutely not it.
[SPOILERS BELOW]
I wanted the first story to be good, it had to do with moths and I thought it would be a great narrative about someone recovering from the trauma of sexual assault. It was the exact opposite. The main character had no personality or qualities other than the fact that she was sexually assaulted. It was becoming a revenge story except that was derailed by the fact that she was villianized and it just ended with her being sexually assaulted again. What was I supposed to gain from this story other than the understanding that sexual assault victims who desire and enact revenge deserve their pain? This was a great opportunity for revenge horror, instead it was stupid.
I thought the third story was going to be about a queer woman recovering from a breakup, with magical elements. Something we need more of. Except it completely wasn't. The magical elements and plot line I was interested in were abandoned and the plot turns into her fucking her ex girlfriends brother who was supposed to be dead but randomly shows up out of nowhere and decides he loves her despite any plot elements leading up to this and no adequate explanation as to why he is there. Yeah the title says strange stories, but this ending is strange in a bad way and the magical elements are resolved in the most obvious and boring way possible. I'm not about a recovery story being get over an ex by fucking her brother several years later. Fuck that. This is the worst book I've read all year.
[SPOILERS BELOW]
I wanted the first story to be good, it had to do with moths and I thought it would be a great narrative about someone recovering from the trauma of sexual assault. It was the exact opposite. The main character had no personality or qualities other than the fact that she was sexually assaulted. It was becoming a revenge story except that was derailed by the fact that she was villianized and it just ended with her being sexually assaulted again. What was I supposed to gain from this story other than the understanding that sexual assault victims who desire and enact revenge deserve their pain? This was a great opportunity for revenge horror, instead it was stupid.
I thought the third story was going to be about a queer woman recovering from a breakup, with magical elements. Something we need more of. Except it completely wasn't. The magical elements and plot line I was interested in were abandoned and the plot turns into her fucking her ex girlfriends brother who was supposed to be dead but randomly shows up out of nowhere and decides he loves her despite any plot elements leading up to this and no adequate explanation as to why he is there. Yeah the title says strange stories, but this ending is strange in a bad way and the magical elements are resolved in the most obvious and boring way possible. I'm not about a recovery story being get over an ex by fucking her brother several years later. Fuck that. This is the worst book I've read all year.
March 13, 2012
A fine collection from Liz Hand. Sharp, precise, evocative writing. Surprises abound, both subtle and grotesque. Her prose craftsmanship is a wonder to behold. That said, a few of the stories fell flat for me, but overall a worthy collection to read and admire.
June 18, 2014
Saffron and Brimstone, Strange Stories, is a book filled with different types of short stories. I'm going to review the first four separately, because they are so versatile.
It starts with Cleopatra Brimstone which is a story about a beautiful girl named Jane. She's very smart and cares more about her brain than her looks. Insects have always drawn her which is why she wants to study them. When she is a student something goes very wrong though which changes her life forever.
Jane has a gift and that is what makes this story so special. She is far from ordinary and when she wants something she makes sure she gets it. The difference between the Jane in America and the Jane in London is huge. A bit strange becomes very weird all of a sudden. I loved to see that transformation. The story ended too soon, I didn't want to stop reading because I liked it so much, but what happened was spectacular and unexpected.
Pavane for a Prince of the Air is a sad, but wonderful story about a man named Cal who's married to Tina. He's a wonderful person living an alternative lifestyle. The narrator is a writer named Carrie. Tina and Cal are her best friends. When Cal hears he has a brain tumor she does everything to help them and to let them mourn in their own way.
This story is really sad. It's hard to read about the devastating effect cancer can have. I loved the friendship element. Tina and Cal have unusual beliefs, but they really work. The choices they make about life and death are the reason why this is such a good story.
In the Least Trumps a tattoo artist named Ivy buys a scarf that has been wrapped around something she can't see in advance. When after she's paid she opens it she finds a deck of old tarot cards. The Least Trumps are very special. So special Ivy wants to use one of the images for a tatoo. The cards bring back old memories and maybe something more.
This is my favorite story of the book. I liked Ivy and her pain was so obvious and understandable. She's a woman who needs to be loved, but unfortunately she isn't very lucky when it comes to relationships. She suffers from panic attacks and the way they were described made them so real I could almost feel them. I loved the descriptions of the body art and the island Ivy's living on. This story feels very lonely, but magical.
Wonderwall is a story about self destruction. The main character lives in a dump, she uses drugs, she smokes and she drinks. She drops out of college and makes just enough money to get by. The story is also about a friend named David and the way his life turns out.
Wonderwall is chaotic. It's a fast paced story which is realistic and has a lot of dark and destructive content. It is so well executed that it made me feel like I was in an ongoing roller coaster ride.
After four longer stories there are four shorter ones as well which are called The Lost Domain, Four Story Variations. These are too short to review separately. Calypso in Berlin was my favorite one of the four. Calypso is very old, but she's always adapting. She still needs victims though and this is a story about one of her muses. It didn't end very well for him. Calypso is presented as someone quite innocent though and her actions feel logical and justified I liked this story because it is such a creative tale that's playing with your mind.
I've been a fan of Elizabeth Hand ever since I've discovered her books when I was a student. She has such a beautiful style and her special way of narrating makes you really feel the story. It's like you're watching it on a screen in your mind. This collection of short stories is very special and I think it's a real treasure!
It starts with Cleopatra Brimstone which is a story about a beautiful girl named Jane. She's very smart and cares more about her brain than her looks. Insects have always drawn her which is why she wants to study them. When she is a student something goes very wrong though which changes her life forever.
Jane has a gift and that is what makes this story so special. She is far from ordinary and when she wants something she makes sure she gets it. The difference between the Jane in America and the Jane in London is huge. A bit strange becomes very weird all of a sudden. I loved to see that transformation. The story ended too soon, I didn't want to stop reading because I liked it so much, but what happened was spectacular and unexpected.
Pavane for a Prince of the Air is a sad, but wonderful story about a man named Cal who's married to Tina. He's a wonderful person living an alternative lifestyle. The narrator is a writer named Carrie. Tina and Cal are her best friends. When Cal hears he has a brain tumor she does everything to help them and to let them mourn in their own way.
This story is really sad. It's hard to read about the devastating effect cancer can have. I loved the friendship element. Tina and Cal have unusual beliefs, but they really work. The choices they make about life and death are the reason why this is such a good story.
In the Least Trumps a tattoo artist named Ivy buys a scarf that has been wrapped around something she can't see in advance. When after she's paid she opens it she finds a deck of old tarot cards. The Least Trumps are very special. So special Ivy wants to use one of the images for a tatoo. The cards bring back old memories and maybe something more.
This is my favorite story of the book. I liked Ivy and her pain was so obvious and understandable. She's a woman who needs to be loved, but unfortunately she isn't very lucky when it comes to relationships. She suffers from panic attacks and the way they were described made them so real I could almost feel them. I loved the descriptions of the body art and the island Ivy's living on. This story feels very lonely, but magical.
Wonderwall is a story about self destruction. The main character lives in a dump, she uses drugs, she smokes and she drinks. She drops out of college and makes just enough money to get by. The story is also about a friend named David and the way his life turns out.
Wonderwall is chaotic. It's a fast paced story which is realistic and has a lot of dark and destructive content. It is so well executed that it made me feel like I was in an ongoing roller coaster ride.
After four longer stories there are four shorter ones as well which are called The Lost Domain, Four Story Variations. These are too short to review separately. Calypso in Berlin was my favorite one of the four. Calypso is very old, but she's always adapting. She still needs victims though and this is a story about one of her muses. It didn't end very well for him. Calypso is presented as someone quite innocent though and her actions feel logical and justified I liked this story because it is such a creative tale that's playing with your mind.
I've been a fan of Elizabeth Hand ever since I've discovered her books when I was a student. She has such a beautiful style and her special way of narrating makes you really feel the story. It's like you're watching it on a screen in your mind. This collection of short stories is very special and I think it's a real treasure!
June 14, 2018
This is a book that I have struggled over my rating with, for whilst I really engaged with the first two stories in the book, the third and forth lost me somewhat and I found the final compilation of four shorts into one piece to be overly metaphorically pretentious for my liking.
'Cleopatra Brimstone' is perhaps my favourite short in this collection and it certainly fits the definition of 'strange'. There's a horror-esque edge to it that gives it an unsettling yet captivating feel and I found myself utterly gripped from beginning to end. It's creepy and yet it's also deeply psychological which makes it a strangely realistic tale, regardless of the events within it.
'Pavane for a Prince of the Air' was my next favourite piece, although the tone of this changes markedly. This moves away from the horror-esque fantasy thriller of the first short and is instead a slow paced, touching story of the process of watching a close friend wither and die and the grief that comes from that. This could potentially be autobiographical and is a really moving piece that touched me deeply.
'The Least Trumps' is where I started to lose interest somewhat, although this was still an interesting little read. It just seemed rather placid and underpaced, without a vast amount going on it it. The depictions of the relationship break up and the impact of panic attacks is well expressed, but generally I felt more could have been made out of those Least Trump cards. More could have happened point blank I suppose!
'Wonderwall' failed to capture my imagination until virtually the last page where there was quite a touching scene. Again, in reality, not a lot happens. It's kind of the story of an art school drop out and screwing up as a young adult and the opportunities that somehow pass you by without you ever realising them. It's a story of friendships and the delicate threads that bind and how easily they can be severed. It's well written, but just didn't capture me.
Finally, 'The Lost Domain: Four Story Variations' completely lost me. It goes completely metaphorical on you and I just lost the plot entirely. I have to admit to failing to understand how the four tales fitted together as well, although the author specifically states that they were intended to be read as a set. They all had different themes, different characters, different genres and I just can't see the thread that ties them all together at all.
I enjoyed Hand's way with words however and she certainly as a good hand for prose that draws you into both the fantastical and the mundane, so I'm interested in reading a full length work by her. So this isn't a negative review by any stretch and I'm still interested in the author... I just found my attention and interest waning in the later shorts, whilst I really engaged with the early ones.
'Cleopatra Brimstone' is perhaps my favourite short in this collection and it certainly fits the definition of 'strange'. There's a horror-esque edge to it that gives it an unsettling yet captivating feel and I found myself utterly gripped from beginning to end. It's creepy and yet it's also deeply psychological which makes it a strangely realistic tale, regardless of the events within it.
'Pavane for a Prince of the Air' was my next favourite piece, although the tone of this changes markedly. This moves away from the horror-esque fantasy thriller of the first short and is instead a slow paced, touching story of the process of watching a close friend wither and die and the grief that comes from that. This could potentially be autobiographical and is a really moving piece that touched me deeply.
'The Least Trumps' is where I started to lose interest somewhat, although this was still an interesting little read. It just seemed rather placid and underpaced, without a vast amount going on it it. The depictions of the relationship break up and the impact of panic attacks is well expressed, but generally I felt more could have been made out of those Least Trump cards. More could have happened point blank I suppose!
'Wonderwall' failed to capture my imagination until virtually the last page where there was quite a touching scene. Again, in reality, not a lot happens. It's kind of the story of an art school drop out and screwing up as a young adult and the opportunities that somehow pass you by without you ever realising them. It's a story of friendships and the delicate threads that bind and how easily they can be severed. It's well written, but just didn't capture me.
Finally, 'The Lost Domain: Four Story Variations' completely lost me. It goes completely metaphorical on you and I just lost the plot entirely. I have to admit to failing to understand how the four tales fitted together as well, although the author specifically states that they were intended to be read as a set. They all had different themes, different characters, different genres and I just can't see the thread that ties them all together at all.
I enjoyed Hand's way with words however and she certainly as a good hand for prose that draws you into both the fantastical and the mundane, so I'm interested in reading a full length work by her. So this isn't a negative review by any stretch and I'm still interested in the author... I just found my attention and interest waning in the later shorts, whilst I really engaged with the early ones.
March 8, 2024
This collection is subtitled 'Strange Stories', and they are that. In a biography at the end, Liz writes that she was inspired by early writings of myth and retold myth, such as Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber'. She wanted to “revisit old myths and create new myths, with a heightened prose style.”
This collection shows her range in pursuing this goal. The stories are set in contemporary times, and clearly include some autobiographical details of her youth as a punk rock fan, running with the more literary alt crowd, sort of a wannabe Patti Smith. Rather than turn to music, she focused on fiction to develop her muse.
There are certain recurring themes in her prose: butterflies, tattoos, pagan-style mysticism. She sets up a concrete contemporary world, then injects some strangeness into it that is not usually understood by her protagonists, who get swept away by it.
At its best her writing immerses the reader in a strange, mystical world that sits alongside our own. Her prose style contributes to this sensibility. If it works for you, it's very engaging. If not, it may seem off-putting and fae.
This collection shows her range in pursuing this goal. The stories are set in contemporary times, and clearly include some autobiographical details of her youth as a punk rock fan, running with the more literary alt crowd, sort of a wannabe Patti Smith. Rather than turn to music, she focused on fiction to develop her muse.
There are certain recurring themes in her prose: butterflies, tattoos, pagan-style mysticism. She sets up a concrete contemporary world, then injects some strangeness into it that is not usually understood by her protagonists, who get swept away by it.
At its best her writing immerses the reader in a strange, mystical world that sits alongside our own. Her prose style contributes to this sensibility. If it works for you, it's very engaging. If not, it may seem off-putting and fae.
September 14, 2020
Elizabeth Hand is a good writer. Possibly a great writer. She has range, she has poetry, and when one of her stories works for me, it really works. And when it doesn't, I just think I'm dumb instead of blaming her.
This collection has both kinds of stories. "The Least Trumps" gave me a frisson of excitement and wonder by the end. "Calypso in Berlin" had me scratching my head. "Cleopatra Brimstone" unsettled me greatly. "Wonderwall" had me looking up other reviews to make sense of it.
And then I found another kind of story: "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" ... this story had me breaking down. I don't know why I read it. My dad died this past summer, and this was too soon for me to read. I couldn't even rate this story. Sorry.
This collection has both kinds of stories. "The Least Trumps" gave me a frisson of excitement and wonder by the end. "Calypso in Berlin" had me scratching my head. "Cleopatra Brimstone" unsettled me greatly. "Wonderwall" had me looking up other reviews to make sense of it.
And then I found another kind of story: "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" ... this story had me breaking down. I don't know why I read it. My dad died this past summer, and this was too soon for me to read. I couldn't even rate this story. Sorry.
September 10, 2020
This book holds eight stories, most with strong elements if fantasy, by the American author Elizabeth Hand. There are four relatively long stories and four shorter ones. The first story in the book, "Cleopatra Brimstone," is perhaps the most puzzling and morally ambiguous. I want to discuss surprising developments in the story, so I am going to put part of this in a "spoiler" setting:
This is a powerful story which I think is fine if the reader doesn't think much about it and much less good with further thought.
There is no explicit fantasy until the ending of "Pavane for a Prince of the Air," and even that ending is not stated to be definitely fantasy. Carrie, the narrator, tells of her friends Tina and Cal. Cal, only fifty-two, is discovered to have lung cancer that has metastasized to his brain. He is dying, with no realistic hope of recovery. The process of Cal's dying makes up most of the story.
All the many people in the story are kind and compassionate, all willing to go to great lengths to help Tina and Cal. Cal is portrayed as an extraordinary man, beloved by all. He is somewhat reminiscent of the Norse god Baldur, so splendid that all the world weeps at his death. This is, I think, not entirely credible, but it is nonetheless very moving. The sequence in which Carrie and Tina go through the surprisingly large amount of detritus left after Cal's cremation is truly heart-rending. I suspect that all of us wish that we would be so deeply mourned; most of us, I believe, are not.
"Wonderwall" has even less fantasy. Like "Cleopatra Brimstone," it is a kind of horror story, but of a very different type. Some of the horrors are of people giving up youth and hope and promise as they - we - age. And part of the horror is the specter of AIDS.
"Wonderwall" is narrated by a woman telling of events that had occurred almost thirty years earlier, when she and her friends were in college. She and her close friend David:
felt betrayed. I wanted - hungered for, thirsted for, craved like drink or drugs - High Art... We'd come to [Saint John] the Divine expecting Paris in the 1920s, Swinging London, Summer of Love in the Haight.
We were misinformed.
So they took refuge in drink and drugs, in poetry and French movies. David came out as gay. The narrator sank ever deeper into an abyss of despair.
And, eventually, after years, the narrator begins:
to see things differently. Slowly I began to see that there were other ways to bring down a wall: that you could dismantle it, brick by brick, stone by stone, over years and years and years. The wall would always be there - at least for me it is - but sometimes I can see where I've made a mark in it, a chink where I can put my eye and look through to the other side. Only for a moment; but I know better now than to expect more than that.
There is much more flooding emotion in "Pavane for a Prince of the Air." "Wonderwall," however, is perhaps even sadder.
The last of the four longer stories is "The Least Trumps." I think that it is the best of the four. This narrator, Ivy, is a female tattoo artist in her mid-forties who lives alone on an island just off the coast in Maine. She had been raised on the island by her mother and her mother's female partner, both of whom now live in an assisted living facility on the mainland. Her mother had written a series of famous children's books, the Wise Ant books. Ivy loves those books as well as another series, "the five volumes of Walter Burden Fox's unfinished Five Windows One Door sequence."
On a visit to the mainland, Ivy goes to a church rummage sale and purchases what feels like an oversized pack of cards wrapped tightly in a paisley scarf. When she unwraps the package later, she finds a set of tarot cards, with a note saying, "The least trumps." All but two of the cards are blank; those two showed "two tiny, brilliantly inked tableaux like medieval tapestries, or paintings by Brueghel glimpsed through a rosace window."
Ivy then recalls that "the least trumps" was a phrase used in the Five Windows One Door books that she so loved. The handwriting on the note appears to match that of the late author of those books, who had been an acquaintance of Ivy's mother.
Throughout this story, there are references to the contents of those books. There are also many references to the great love of Ivy's life, Julia, who had abruptly broken off their relationship years before.
When Ivy returns to the island, she copies a picture from one of the tarot cards and tattoos the image on her own thigh. Then she is visited by Julia's much younger brother, whom Ivy had believed had died long before. From that point on, the story becomes increasingly magical.
I question some of this material, particularly in the relationship with Ivy and Julia's brother. I doubt that things would develop in the manner portrayed. But this is, after all, a story of enchantment.
The four shorter stories are grouped under the heading "The Lost Domain." Hand's Afterword says that:
each story would represent a different genre as well. The stories were published separately, but all were written with the intent that they be read as part of one sequence, which derives its title from Alain-Fournier's 1928 novel Le Grand Meaulnes, usually translated as The Wanderer.
(I have never read that book, but when I was a teenager, I loved the 1967 film based on it.)
The four tales are not really very similar, but each involves a heterosexual romantic relationship. The first is titled "Kronia," although I am not sure why. Kronia, I find, was a Greek harvest festival in which slaves and masters briefly traded roles. The story is narrated by a woman telling a man of how her life had repeatedly brushed against his. Some of the incidents are so minor and so fleeting that there is very little chance that they actually occurred. And then the story tells of some alternative possible meetings. It ends with the sweetest and most touching variation of their meeting.
"Calypso in Berlin" is narrated by the long-lived nymph Calypso, with whom Odysseus stayed for seven years on his way home from Troy to Ithaca. The story is set in modern times and tells of her romance with Philip, a married man who also has no intention of staying with her. Calypso, now a rather well-known painter, makes some changes, altering Philip quite drastically. Her paintings become even more celebrated.
"Echo" was the name of another nymph in Greek mythology. She fell hopelessly in love with the handsome Narcissus (in this story called Narkissos).
The story is being told by an aging woman, living with her dog on an island off the coast of Maine. The narration, which seems to be only her thoughts, is addressed to "you," a friend, a former lover. The woman has been working on a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which includes the tale of Echo and Narcissus. She has not seen another person for a long time.
This is a fine example of the venerable science fiction trope, the post-apocalypse story. We are never told the exact nature of the apocalypse but it seems to involve war. Some of the things that are gone include the Space Needle, the Golden Gate Bridge, "Sydney, Singapore, Jerusalem. "
This is another story of a woman and her lover who have never been able to make a life together and now never can. They can no longer even communicate. A sweet, sad tale.
The final story, "The Saffron Gatherers," is one of the best in the book. A man and woman, he a journalist, she an archeologist and author of science fiction, living thousands of miles apart, finally decide to spend their lives together. But fate spectacularly intervenes.
I think that this story is just about perfect. The last paragraph, which would not be as powerful out of context, is brilliant and moving.
These stories have won or been nominated for a number of awards:
"Cleopatra Brimstone"
Won International Horror Guild Award
Nominated for World Fantasy Award
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"Pavane for a Prince of the Air"
Won International Horror Guild Award (in a tie)
"Wonderwall"
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"The Least Trumps"
Nominated for World Fantasy Award
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"Kronia"
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"Echo"
Won Nebula Award
"The Saffron Gatherers"
Chosen for three "Best of the Year" anthologies
Almost every review on Goodreads of Saffron and Brimstone mentions the beauty of Elizabeth Hand's prose. It is extraordinary. This is a fine book.
This is a powerful story which I think is fine if the reader doesn't think much about it and much less good with further thought.
There is no explicit fantasy until the ending of "Pavane for a Prince of the Air," and even that ending is not stated to be definitely fantasy. Carrie, the narrator, tells of her friends Tina and Cal. Cal, only fifty-two, is discovered to have lung cancer that has metastasized to his brain. He is dying, with no realistic hope of recovery. The process of Cal's dying makes up most of the story.
All the many people in the story are kind and compassionate, all willing to go to great lengths to help Tina and Cal. Cal is portrayed as an extraordinary man, beloved by all. He is somewhat reminiscent of the Norse god Baldur, so splendid that all the world weeps at his death. This is, I think, not entirely credible, but it is nonetheless very moving. The sequence in which Carrie and Tina go through the surprisingly large amount of detritus left after Cal's cremation is truly heart-rending. I suspect that all of us wish that we would be so deeply mourned; most of us, I believe, are not.
"Wonderwall" has even less fantasy. Like "Cleopatra Brimstone," it is a kind of horror story, but of a very different type. Some of the horrors are of people giving up youth and hope and promise as they - we - age. And part of the horror is the specter of AIDS.
"Wonderwall" is narrated by a woman telling of events that had occurred almost thirty years earlier, when she and her friends were in college. She and her close friend David:
felt betrayed. I wanted - hungered for, thirsted for, craved like drink or drugs - High Art... We'd come to [Saint John] the Divine expecting Paris in the 1920s, Swinging London, Summer of Love in the Haight.
We were misinformed.
So they took refuge in drink and drugs, in poetry and French movies. David came out as gay. The narrator sank ever deeper into an abyss of despair.
And, eventually, after years, the narrator begins:
to see things differently. Slowly I began to see that there were other ways to bring down a wall: that you could dismantle it, brick by brick, stone by stone, over years and years and years. The wall would always be there - at least for me it is - but sometimes I can see where I've made a mark in it, a chink where I can put my eye and look through to the other side. Only for a moment; but I know better now than to expect more than that.
There is much more flooding emotion in "Pavane for a Prince of the Air." "Wonderwall," however, is perhaps even sadder.
The last of the four longer stories is "The Least Trumps." I think that it is the best of the four. This narrator, Ivy, is a female tattoo artist in her mid-forties who lives alone on an island just off the coast in Maine. She had been raised on the island by her mother and her mother's female partner, both of whom now live in an assisted living facility on the mainland. Her mother had written a series of famous children's books, the Wise Ant books. Ivy loves those books as well as another series, "the five volumes of Walter Burden Fox's unfinished Five Windows One Door sequence."
On a visit to the mainland, Ivy goes to a church rummage sale and purchases what feels like an oversized pack of cards wrapped tightly in a paisley scarf. When she unwraps the package later, she finds a set of tarot cards, with a note saying, "The least trumps." All but two of the cards are blank; those two showed "two tiny, brilliantly inked tableaux like medieval tapestries, or paintings by Brueghel glimpsed through a rosace window."
Ivy then recalls that "the least trumps" was a phrase used in the Five Windows One Door books that she so loved. The handwriting on the note appears to match that of the late author of those books, who had been an acquaintance of Ivy's mother.
Throughout this story, there are references to the contents of those books. There are also many references to the great love of Ivy's life, Julia, who had abruptly broken off their relationship years before.
When Ivy returns to the island, she copies a picture from one of the tarot cards and tattoos the image on her own thigh. Then she is visited by Julia's much younger brother, whom Ivy had believed had died long before. From that point on, the story becomes increasingly magical.
I question some of this material, particularly in the relationship with Ivy and Julia's brother. I doubt that things would develop in the manner portrayed. But this is, after all, a story of enchantment.
The four shorter stories are grouped under the heading "The Lost Domain." Hand's Afterword says that:
each story would represent a different genre as well. The stories were published separately, but all were written with the intent that they be read as part of one sequence, which derives its title from Alain-Fournier's 1928 novel Le Grand Meaulnes, usually translated as The Wanderer.
(I have never read that book, but when I was a teenager, I loved the 1967 film based on it.)
The four tales are not really very similar, but each involves a heterosexual romantic relationship. The first is titled "Kronia," although I am not sure why. Kronia, I find, was a Greek harvest festival in which slaves and masters briefly traded roles. The story is narrated by a woman telling a man of how her life had repeatedly brushed against his. Some of the incidents are so minor and so fleeting that there is very little chance that they actually occurred. And then the story tells of some alternative possible meetings. It ends with the sweetest and most touching variation of their meeting.
"Calypso in Berlin" is narrated by the long-lived nymph Calypso, with whom Odysseus stayed for seven years on his way home from Troy to Ithaca. The story is set in modern times and tells of her romance with Philip, a married man who also has no intention of staying with her. Calypso, now a rather well-known painter, makes some changes, altering Philip quite drastically. Her paintings become even more celebrated.
"Echo" was the name of another nymph in Greek mythology. She fell hopelessly in love with the handsome Narcissus (in this story called Narkissos).
The story is being told by an aging woman, living with her dog on an island off the coast of Maine. The narration, which seems to be only her thoughts, is addressed to "you," a friend, a former lover. The woman has been working on a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which includes the tale of Echo and Narcissus. She has not seen another person for a long time.
This is a fine example of the venerable science fiction trope, the post-apocalypse story. We are never told the exact nature of the apocalypse but it seems to involve war. Some of the things that are gone include the Space Needle, the Golden Gate Bridge, "Sydney, Singapore, Jerusalem. "
This is another story of a woman and her lover who have never been able to make a life together and now never can. They can no longer even communicate. A sweet, sad tale.
The final story, "The Saffron Gatherers," is one of the best in the book. A man and woman, he a journalist, she an archeologist and author of science fiction, living thousands of miles apart, finally decide to spend their lives together. But fate spectacularly intervenes.
I think that this story is just about perfect. The last paragraph, which would not be as powerful out of context, is brilliant and moving.
These stories have won or been nominated for a number of awards:
"Cleopatra Brimstone"
Won International Horror Guild Award
Nominated for World Fantasy Award
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"Pavane for a Prince of the Air"
Won International Horror Guild Award (in a tie)
"Wonderwall"
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"The Least Trumps"
Nominated for World Fantasy Award
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"Kronia"
Chosen for a "Best of the Year" anthology
"Echo"
Won Nebula Award
"The Saffron Gatherers"
Chosen for three "Best of the Year" anthologies
Almost every review on Goodreads of Saffron and Brimstone mentions the beauty of Elizabeth Hand's prose. It is extraordinary. This is a fine book.
July 21, 2009
Saffron and Brimstone was my first exposure to the beautifully evocative prose of Elizabeth Hand, and I cannot wait to get my hands on one of her full-length novels! Her storytelling is unparalleled in anything I have read lately; she is truly a master at her craft and it shows in this collection of short stories. The stories included run the gamut from horror to fantasy, magic realism to experimental fiction. No two are alike, but they all share certain elements of compelling story-telling that characterize Hand's narrative style in this collection: beautifully worded description, lush and discerning metaphor, a way of showing the reader exactly what is needed to draw the conclusions and realizations that a lesser writer would have felt obliged to say outright, a propensity towards vagueness that only seems to sharpen rather than blur the truth of the pieces, and an attention to detail that firmly grounded the fantastic elements of the stories in startling realism. A careful reading reveals that each and every event, character, detail of setting, word and phrase has been carefully selected to evoke a particular response in the reader. In "The Saffron Gatherers," this discernment is seen in the way that Hand uses Grecian-derived diction in seemingly throw-away sentences to build her comparison, word by word, of the modern world verging on global disaster to that of the lost civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. In this and many other ways she uses contrast to excellent effect.
Of the eight stories included in Saffron and Brimstone, my favorite was "The Least Trumps," a story about a middle-aged tattoo artist that comes across an almost used up pack of tarot cards with an ability to change what is. Like many of the other stories, "The Least Trumps" features a female protagonist living in a degree of isolation and stagnation who finds a way to break out of her rut in a rather magical way. Indeed isolation, whether physical, emotional, or both is a theme that threads through almost all of these "strange" stories. Despite this, each story has its own unique feel or ambience, from the mixed folklore, Charles de Lint-esque "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" to the chillingly dark psycho-drama "Cleopatra Brimstone," and the drug-induced blur of narrative in "Wonderwall." The last four ultra short stories comprise a sequence that meditates in several different forms and multi-varied perspectives on a number of issues, including the artist's relationship with his/her muse. These last four are more experimental and seemed a little less developed to me, both in terms of story and craft. As a result the longer beginning stories appealed to me more, though I appreciated the subtle complexity and ambition of the ending sequence. On the whole, highly recommended. I can't wait to try something else by Ms. Hand!
Of the eight stories included in Saffron and Brimstone, my favorite was "The Least Trumps," a story about a middle-aged tattoo artist that comes across an almost used up pack of tarot cards with an ability to change what is. Like many of the other stories, "The Least Trumps" features a female protagonist living in a degree of isolation and stagnation who finds a way to break out of her rut in a rather magical way. Indeed isolation, whether physical, emotional, or both is a theme that threads through almost all of these "strange" stories. Despite this, each story has its own unique feel or ambience, from the mixed folklore, Charles de Lint-esque "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" to the chillingly dark psycho-drama "Cleopatra Brimstone," and the drug-induced blur of narrative in "Wonderwall." The last four ultra short stories comprise a sequence that meditates in several different forms and multi-varied perspectives on a number of issues, including the artist's relationship with his/her muse. These last four are more experimental and seemed a little less developed to me, both in terms of story and craft. As a result the longer beginning stories appealed to me more, though I appreciated the subtle complexity and ambition of the ending sequence. On the whole, highly recommended. I can't wait to try something else by Ms. Hand!
October 17, 2015
Neugierde und Vorstellungskraft sind evolutionäre Erfolgsrezepte, von denen Autoren sozusagen doppelt profitieren. Fantasie macht den Menschen zu dem, was er ist, und in den Stories von Elizabeth Hand (*1957) ist Fantasie für ihre Protagonistinnen regelrecht überlebenswichtig. Allerdings haben Hands Stories nichts mit Fantasy-Geschichten im Stile eines Tolkien zu tun, sondern mit Phantastik, wie sie uns beispielsweise bei Kafka oder Burnside begegnet.
Ab der ersten Seite fällt auf, dass hier eine Autorin schreibt, die ihr Handwerk virtuos beherrscht. Die Erzählungen sind voller Leben, fremd im Vertrauten (oder vertraut im Fremden?), üppig, intensiv, faszinierend und vielschichtig. Sie ziehen in den Bann, in die sinnliche Welt der Texte hinein. Pflanzen, Tiere, Dinge, alles wird genau bezeichnet, eine Poesie der Dinge, die den Leser wie eine Wolke umhüllt.
Im Zentrum der novellenlangen Stories stehen komplexe Frauencharaktere, die des Fantastischen bedürfen, um mit den Verletzungen, die das Leben ihnen beibringt, zurecht zu kommen.
Da ist CLEOPATRA BRIMSTONE, eine junge Frau, Opfer einer Vergewaltigung, die fortan alle Männer, mit denen sie Sex hat, in Insekten verwandelt und für ihre Sammlung aufspießt – die verrückteste entomologische Story sein Kafkas VERWANDLUNG.
In PAVANE FOR A PRINCE OF THE AIR begleitet Carrie das qualvolle Sterben eines Bekannten. So intensiv wird das langsame Sterben des Freundes beschrieben, die Mischung aus Schmerz und alltäglichen Verrichtungen, aus intimen Momenten und Betriebsamkeit, dass man dabei anwesend zu sein glaubt. Ein exotischer Vogel, der nach dem Tod regelmäßig an Carries Fenster erscheint, mag eine Reinkarnation sein, ist aber auf jeden Fall Trost.
In THE LEAST TRUMPS helfen ein Tarot-Spiel und kunstvolle Tätowierungen der zurückgezogen lebenden Erzählerin, zurück in die Realität zu finden; oder ist genau das Gegenteil der Fall? Tote sind vielleicht gar nicht tot und schreiben Bücher und Lebensgeschichten um. Sehr poetisch und märchenhaft mit einem kräftigen Schuss Psychologie, aber auch verwirrend in den zahlreichen Reflexen.
STRANGE STORIES ist ein passender Untertitel für den Erzählband, in dem Vielschichtigkeit Programm und das Vorstellungsvermögen des Lesers gefordert ist, um den Geschichten individuell Sinn zu verleihen. Ich liebe es, wenn der Autor mich nicht bevormundet und belehrt, und Elizabeth Hand lässt mir den Freiraum, meine eigenen Ideen und Vorstellungen in die Texte einzubringen. Was ist hier Fantasie, was geschieht wirklich? Keine Inhaltsangabe wird den Stories gerecht, deren enorme Qualität gerade in der Komplexität liegt.
Fazit: Es gibt keine bessere Medizin gegen graue Herbsttage und Weltschmerz, als sich von diesen Stories verzaubern zu lassen!
Ab der ersten Seite fällt auf, dass hier eine Autorin schreibt, die ihr Handwerk virtuos beherrscht. Die Erzählungen sind voller Leben, fremd im Vertrauten (oder vertraut im Fremden?), üppig, intensiv, faszinierend und vielschichtig. Sie ziehen in den Bann, in die sinnliche Welt der Texte hinein. Pflanzen, Tiere, Dinge, alles wird genau bezeichnet, eine Poesie der Dinge, die den Leser wie eine Wolke umhüllt.
Im Zentrum der novellenlangen Stories stehen komplexe Frauencharaktere, die des Fantastischen bedürfen, um mit den Verletzungen, die das Leben ihnen beibringt, zurecht zu kommen.
Da ist CLEOPATRA BRIMSTONE, eine junge Frau, Opfer einer Vergewaltigung, die fortan alle Männer, mit denen sie Sex hat, in Insekten verwandelt und für ihre Sammlung aufspießt – die verrückteste entomologische Story sein Kafkas VERWANDLUNG.
In PAVANE FOR A PRINCE OF THE AIR begleitet Carrie das qualvolle Sterben eines Bekannten. So intensiv wird das langsame Sterben des Freundes beschrieben, die Mischung aus Schmerz und alltäglichen Verrichtungen, aus intimen Momenten und Betriebsamkeit, dass man dabei anwesend zu sein glaubt. Ein exotischer Vogel, der nach dem Tod regelmäßig an Carries Fenster erscheint, mag eine Reinkarnation sein, ist aber auf jeden Fall Trost.
In THE LEAST TRUMPS helfen ein Tarot-Spiel und kunstvolle Tätowierungen der zurückgezogen lebenden Erzählerin, zurück in die Realität zu finden; oder ist genau das Gegenteil der Fall? Tote sind vielleicht gar nicht tot und schreiben Bücher und Lebensgeschichten um. Sehr poetisch und märchenhaft mit einem kräftigen Schuss Psychologie, aber auch verwirrend in den zahlreichen Reflexen.
STRANGE STORIES ist ein passender Untertitel für den Erzählband, in dem Vielschichtigkeit Programm und das Vorstellungsvermögen des Lesers gefordert ist, um den Geschichten individuell Sinn zu verleihen. Ich liebe es, wenn der Autor mich nicht bevormundet und belehrt, und Elizabeth Hand lässt mir den Freiraum, meine eigenen Ideen und Vorstellungen in die Texte einzubringen. Was ist hier Fantasie, was geschieht wirklich? Keine Inhaltsangabe wird den Stories gerecht, deren enorme Qualität gerade in der Komplexität liegt.
Fazit: Es gibt keine bessere Medizin gegen graue Herbsttage und Weltschmerz, als sich von diesen Stories verzaubern zu lassen!
March 10, 2016
I don't remember why I added this book to my to-read shelf, but I apparently did at some point. Impulse add?
Upon finally completing the first story, I remembered why short stories are not for me. Most of the time I feel they're just too predictable, don't have enough space to provide the kind of depth I care for, almost always seem to lack a certain something.
- So don't read them then.
- OK, I won't.
Consider this book abandoned. I've only read the Cleopatra Brimstone story and you know what? Meh. The best part for me was being reminded what people dressed like right after the '90s. Which was totally not the author's point.
Upon finally completing the first story, I remembered why short stories are not for me. Most of the time I feel they're just too predictable, don't have enough space to provide the kind of depth I care for, almost always seem to lack a certain something.
- So don't read them then.
- OK, I won't.
Consider this book abandoned. I've only read the Cleopatra Brimstone story and you know what? Meh. The best part for me was being reminded what people dressed like right after the '90s. Which was totally not the author's point.
April 17, 2008
Picked this one up at random in the library. "Pavane for a Prince of the Air" was a slow-moving, heart-breaking story of a well-loved man dying, and it made me cry. The other stories were strange and interesting, but sometimes frustratingly disjointed when I just wanted a solid narrative. Some of the female characters in this collection of short stories are frighteningly driven to accomplish their private desires.
October 5, 2017
The first story, "Cleopatra Brimstone," is definitely the strangest and for me, the best of the collection. All of the stories have common threads: love and loved ones lost, regret, death, sex, insects, the wild rocky coasts and deep forests of Maine. "Wonderwall" was my least favorite of the stories, but perhaps that was my reaction to the grit and grime and fluids that Hand so effectively evoked. Highly recommended.
July 7, 2007
This is a series of stories that epitomizes the writing style of Elizabeth Hand. She varies in genre from fantastical, science fiction, and horror to more literary fiction, but is always beautiful to read.
December 2, 2007
another book i picked up to read on a plane. one of these stories struck me the wrong way and another exactly the right way. i'd be interested to read more of her work.
October 17, 2017
Some stories are incredible jewels, some are just wonderfully strange.
February 2, 2022
As with all collections, I liked some of these better than others. Hand is quite good at short fiction, especially long short stories/novelettes. The first, a strange tale about a traumatized lepidopterist in London was my favourite. I also enjoyed Hand's sequence about Greek muses in contemporary settings. But I'm giving this three stars because the rest left me a bit cold and weren't particularly memorable.
If you've liked other Hand works, especially her weirder stuff, I'd recommend picking this up and skipping through anything you don't like, because the whole collection is pleasingly varied.
If you've liked other Hand works, especially her weirder stuff, I'd recommend picking this up and skipping through anything you don't like, because the whole collection is pleasingly varied.
January 17, 2024
not terribly interesting. the characters were thin and watery, at times i felt like the author was using descriptions of the characters' clothing as a stand-in for giving them any type of personality. i liked Kronia a lot actually, The Saffron Gatherers was palatable. I did not enjoy the rest of it, I am sorry to say.
June 11, 2018
Masterful!
November 2, 2021
3.5 stars
June 17, 2017
2.5 The only Hand so far that I found disappointing. These weren't wholesome short stories, but mere snippets that appeared scraped together from earlier crashed and burned attempts at novels. Several were random at best, and none of them managed to pack a punch. Still, 3 stars for Hand's beautiful prose.
October 22, 2015
Another contender for favorite book of 2015... in the Top 10, for sure.
I love what Elizabeth Hand does here in these stories.
She roots every story in a reality that I'm pretty sure is Reality. I become fascinated by the characters and consumed by their story and her glorious description. And in a couple of the stories in this collection, things happen that bend enough to be outside of Reality, allowing for the possibility of something fantastical to emerge potentially anywhere.
I LOVE this heightened feeling of "this story could go ANYWHERE" and as a reader, I'm being asked to go with it, to open my mind to the possibility of anything happening.
It's a refreshing feeling that piques my own imagination. I find myself bringing that edge of possibility into my world beyond the pages of the book.
I mean, Cleopatra Brimstone!? That opened the book as the first story and just laid it out there... strap in cuz this train could go anywhere!
So different but also triumphant is a story like Pavane for a Prince of the Air that is so filled with genuine emotion as a chronicle of the end of a friend's life. I was moved and enjoyed the window into a truly unique spirituality.
You just never know what you're going to get in this story collection. Some stories feeling full circle, some ending on a curious note. All inspiring the reader to engage his or her own imagination.
I LOVE what she reveals in the Afterward, about an epistolary relationship she has, where they discuss "the nature of writing itself, the mysteries of the creative process and, especially, the relationships between writers and their muses, that shifting border where the real life and the imagined one fleetingly touch and, sometimes, overlap." What a brilliant encapsulation of what I loved about her work and these stories!!
I will definitely be seeking out more Elizabeth Hand!!!!!
I love what Elizabeth Hand does here in these stories.
She roots every story in a reality that I'm pretty sure is Reality. I become fascinated by the characters and consumed by their story and her glorious description. And in a couple of the stories in this collection, things happen that bend enough to be outside of Reality, allowing for the possibility of something fantastical to emerge potentially anywhere.
I LOVE this heightened feeling of "this story could go ANYWHERE" and as a reader, I'm being asked to go with it, to open my mind to the possibility of anything happening.
It's a refreshing feeling that piques my own imagination. I find myself bringing that edge of possibility into my world beyond the pages of the book.
I mean, Cleopatra Brimstone!? That opened the book as the first story and just laid it out there... strap in cuz this train could go anywhere!
So different but also triumphant is a story like Pavane for a Prince of the Air that is so filled with genuine emotion as a chronicle of the end of a friend's life. I was moved and enjoyed the window into a truly unique spirituality.
You just never know what you're going to get in this story collection. Some stories feeling full circle, some ending on a curious note. All inspiring the reader to engage his or her own imagination.
I LOVE what she reveals in the Afterward, about an epistolary relationship she has, where they discuss "the nature of writing itself, the mysteries of the creative process and, especially, the relationships between writers and their muses, that shifting border where the real life and the imagined one fleetingly touch and, sometimes, overlap." What a brilliant encapsulation of what I loved about her work and these stories!!
I will definitely be seeking out more Elizabeth Hand!!!!!
October 19, 2014
We’ve been living through a renaissance of science fiction and fantasy short fiction in the past decade. New authors are entering the field through the monthly magazines both online and in print. Small presses are also producing excellent work: Small Beer Press, Night Shade Books, and Golden Gryphon among them.
I’d not previously heard of M Press, but if it is a new entry into the small press arena, I’m happy to welcome it, especially if it continues to publish books as strange and brilliant as Elizabeth Hand’s Saffron and Brimstone. This collection of mostly longer pieces is as evocative as its cover photograph of a butterfly in extreme close-up. Most of the stories make one’s skin creep, even as one revels in Hand’s language and characters. All of them, in one way or another, are about transformation, about becoming. They are about ... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
I’d not previously heard of M Press, but if it is a new entry into the small press arena, I’m happy to welcome it, especially if it continues to publish books as strange and brilliant as Elizabeth Hand’s Saffron and Brimstone. This collection of mostly longer pieces is as evocative as its cover photograph of a butterfly in extreme close-up. Most of the stories make one’s skin creep, even as one revels in Hand’s language and characters. All of them, in one way or another, are about transformation, about becoming. They are about ... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
February 24, 2011
A marvelous collection of affecting and finely-wrought stories by Elizabeth Hand, the author of many fine novels, Saffron and Brimstone has a loose thematic continuity of fractured selves struggling with the meaning and viability of relationships. The protagonists of these stories are strong but flawed--and sometimes damaged--women who are frequently isolated, from society or from love or even from themselves. Many of the tales have only the hint of the fantastic, and none offer pat resolutions. My favorite is probably "The Least Trumps," although there a certain satisfying wholeness--and darkness--to "Calypso in Berlin."
October 7, 2013
Beautiful prose, lovely strange stories, evocative of myth. I was sad to finish it. Elizabeth Hand is an amazing writer.
February 2, 2018
5/5 stars. Collection of wonderfully lyrical tales (4 short stories, and a 4-part mini-series) that left me breathless, exhilarated, and yearning for something I still can't put into words.
Your mileage really will vary. If you can relate to any of what she writes, you'll fall fathoms-deep into these stories and never come back up for air. And for the word-lovers, this is prose at its finest: precise, elegant, mercilessly tender.
With collections and anthologies, I try to pick one story to highlight, a sort of "if you only read one, read this" kind of deal. I can't do that here, because each story speaks to me in different ways, all of which are profoundly personal. What follows is the barest outline of each plot, but ... you need to read it for yourself.
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#1 Cleopatra Brimstone: Butterflies and London clubs, and the way pain can become pleasure. The esoteric, tragic reinvention of self.
#2 Pavane for a Prince of the Air: Grief and gratitude. The rituals we use to move on from deep, abiding loss.
#3 The Least Trumps: Tarot, tattoos, paralysing fear of change. How we rewrite the past, the present, and the future.
#4 Wonderwall: Drugs and the Divine, old anchors drifting, and the long, slow process of growing up.
#5-8 The Lost Domain (Kronia, Calypso in Berlin, Echo, The Saffron Gatherers): Nymphs that blossom in the modern age as time-travellers, painters, hermits, writers. The language of love and loss: connection, creation, communication, commitment.
Your mileage really will vary. If you can relate to any of what she writes, you'll fall fathoms-deep into these stories and never come back up for air. And for the word-lovers, this is prose at its finest: precise, elegant, mercilessly tender.
With collections and anthologies, I try to pick one story to highlight, a sort of "if you only read one, read this" kind of deal. I can't do that here, because each story speaks to me in different ways, all of which are profoundly personal. What follows is the barest outline of each plot, but ... you need to read it for yourself.
---------------
#1 Cleopatra Brimstone: Butterflies and London clubs, and the way pain can become pleasure. The esoteric, tragic reinvention of self.
#2 Pavane for a Prince of the Air: Grief and gratitude. The rituals we use to move on from deep, abiding loss.
#3 The Least Trumps: Tarot, tattoos, paralysing fear of change. How we rewrite the past, the present, and the future.
#4 Wonderwall: Drugs and the Divine, old anchors drifting, and the long, slow process of growing up.
#5-8 The Lost Domain (Kronia, Calypso in Berlin, Echo, The Saffron Gatherers): Nymphs that blossom in the modern age as time-travellers, painters, hermits, writers. The language of love and loss: connection, creation, communication, commitment.
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September 14, 2024This collection of stories was really captivating but I'm not sure how to talk about it. I read it slowly, in a dream-like state.
My favourite book of all time, one I've read over and over throughout my life, is Fire And Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. The feelings I get from Fire And Hemlock are evoked in this collection of stories as well, and I don't think that's by chance. I wonder if Elizabeth Hand was inspired by Fire And Hemlock, considering the similarities in titles. The themes are the same, women with expansive imaginations and creative preoccupations finding their lives touched by a kind of autumnal magic. The retelling of myths.
I used to stay up all night as a teenager, burning incense and listening to records from the 70s. Then I would walk down to the seashore and wait for the sun to rise. The sense of possibility I had then comes back to me when I read some of these stories.
My favourite book of all time, one I've read over and over throughout my life, is Fire And Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. The feelings I get from Fire And Hemlock are evoked in this collection of stories as well, and I don't think that's by chance. I wonder if Elizabeth Hand was inspired by Fire And Hemlock, considering the similarities in titles. The themes are the same, women with expansive imaginations and creative preoccupations finding their lives touched by a kind of autumnal magic. The retelling of myths.
I used to stay up all night as a teenager, burning incense and listening to records from the 70s. Then I would walk down to the seashore and wait for the sun to rise. The sense of possibility I had then comes back to me when I read some of these stories.
March 3, 2024
I think there are three truths to this work:
1. Hand writes beautiful prose.
2. Hand is a gifted storyteller who creates vivid worlds and characters that delight the mind and senses.
3. The stories in general don't work.
Cleopatra Brimstone is a lovely bit of horror that makes zero sense. Good horror *needs* to have some explanation, it doesn't have to be logical but it can't be haphazard. This is.
Pavane for a Prince of the Air is the star of the collection. A beautiful elegy to life and loss.
The Least Trumps fails when reality is circumvented and we don't see where it goes.
Wonderwall is an exception in that I didn't find the created world worth investigating.
And the last four are a collection, riffs on Greek nymphs. Calypso in Berlin is the winner.
Overall I don't recommend.
1. Hand writes beautiful prose.
2. Hand is a gifted storyteller who creates vivid worlds and characters that delight the mind and senses.
3. The stories in general don't work.
Cleopatra Brimstone is a lovely bit of horror that makes zero sense. Good horror *needs* to have some explanation, it doesn't have to be logical but it can't be haphazard. This is.
Pavane for a Prince of the Air is the star of the collection. A beautiful elegy to life and loss.
The Least Trumps fails when reality is circumvented and we don't see where it goes.
Wonderwall is an exception in that I didn't find the created world worth investigating.
And the last four are a collection, riffs on Greek nymphs. Calypso in Berlin is the winner.
Overall I don't recommend.
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