That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote

by K.J. Bishop

Duellists in a decadent urban dream. Lost creatures in a bizarre post-apocalypse. Fables lingering into almost-modern worlds. From hallucinatory surrealism to human dramas at the fuzzy edges of reality, these stories and poems by the author of The Etched City are by turns exuberant, poignant, darkly funny and delightfully deranged, all showcasing the inventive magic of an acclaimed literary fantasist.

Includes Aurealis Award winner The Heart of a Mouse and two stories in the world of The Etched City, one previously unpublished.

"Bishop is one of my favorite writers. She is an unmatched stylist and an alarming dreamer. Like her first novel, That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote is an astonishment, a portfolio of wonders." —Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, New Weird, Speculative Fiction, Weird Fiction, Science Fiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 2012

About the author

Writer & artist. See website for art. Influences include everything I've ever read, watched, listened to, or eaten.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Salvador Dali once said that "The only difference between myself and a madman is that I'm not mad". This might equally be applied to "That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote" - as there is no title story, the presumption is that K.J.Bishop is referring to herself for future generations, but there is less a sign of madness here than there is of genius.

There is a cumulative effect of what I can only describe as 'surrealist baroque' as we move through these stories, which are beautifully written and often deliberately jolt with anachronisms/futurisms undermining where it might first appear that these stories are set. In "Saving The Gleeful Horse" for example, a misfit sees life in inanimate objects and seeks advice from a wise woman, however mention of swap cards and the pinata itself makes the tale more modern than it might initially appear. This holds much appeal to me, a swaying between possible realities, and these disconcerting - rarely explained - settings firmly set the stories in surrealism rather than pure fantasy. Surrealism itself is bandied around so frequently that the term is almost meaningless, but here I feel these stories owe much to early surrealistic writing and that this intention is to the fore, whereas the connection to the fantastic is often nebulous and secondary.

I could run through all of these stories and pick favourites, but that's probably too excessive a task. Suffice to say that these are elegiac and mystical stories, borrowing but never cloning occasional genre standards, quirky and often humorous, but leaving the reader with a dislocation of possible other worlds which run parallel to ours but are just out of sight. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time there.

[Alex Sarll]

Almost a decade ago, a Michael Moorcock review put me on to KJ Bishop's first novel, The Etched City. I often remember books more by moods and vignettes than what actually happened, but that went double for this eerie tale of duellists in long coats haunting a city on the edge of the wastelands - mainly I'd get flashbacks of the strange plant growing inexplicably from a navel, or the gun-runners' scented nocturnal journey up a tropical river. And since then...nothing. Well, one story about pinatas and serial killing, closing the Vandermeers' gargantuan anthology The Weird, but that was all, until one of my occasional forlorn Amazon searches returned news of this. Ebook only (at the time, though I've since heard mutterings of a print version), but like Jeff Noon's return, this was an ebook I was happy to buy. There are cousins to The Etched City in this collection (two of them named as seeds in the afterword); there are also poems, writing exercises, even one story which could pass for suburban realism, depending on how you read it. There's one piece where Bishop explains what she's been up to all these years (which may or may not be entirely true, though I can certainly believe it). The dominant mode, though, is surreal, experimental before experimentalism became a boring toolkit all its own. The homage to Maldoror, the curtains' dream, most of all 'Alsiso', in which an invented word shifts significance kaleidoscopically as it passes down the decades - this is the real, heady brew. Here's hoping her third book is with us rather quicker.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 really. I quite enjoyed her novel The Etched City. This collection, maybe somewhat less so. Not bad, but some of the stories I felt myself forcing my way through rather than enjoying properly, and much of it has slipped from memory almost as quickly as it was added to the archives, as it were. Some definite hits and misses along the way, overall definitely lands more in positive than negative or neutral territory though

[Psychophant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bishop takes her Fantasy seriously. But her fantasy is old fashioned, of the vivid imagination, oniric stories, surrealist plots, rather than the ordered, rule bound genre most of Fantasy is now.

I really enjoyed her first novel, The Etched City, and three of the stories in this compilation are set in the same setting, and two even share characters. Yet it is the other stories that really widen the mind and tickle the imagination. Not all are great, and not all suit my own fancies, but they are all good, and a few just were great for me.

The author combines the rich prose of Dunsany with the fascination with language itself that is almost Borgesian, mixed with a certain morbid poetry that seems straight out of Baudelaire. As such the short stories are not necessarily easy or pleasant, but they shine.

Some are too short, one may be too long but I will not say names, as you have to find your own preferences in her style. Those small difficulties keep the book from getting five stars, but I really enjoyed this book.

[A.D. Jansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little uneven, but well worth reading. K.J. Bishop has a vast imagination and is a formidable prose stylist. I will definitely be seeking out her novel The Etched City (I think I am somewhat unusual in having read this collection first).

There was only one story here that I really didn't like, and that was "The Heart of a Mouse," a bizarre and unpleasant post-apocalyptic tale which, I think, exposes a few of her weaknesses as a writer. She is much more compelling when writing in the third person, for example, than when she writes in the first. In third person she is free to play around with the baroque contortions of language that she does so well; her first person narrators tend to be less interesting than the worlds they inhabit. "The Heart of a Mouse" is also, perhaps, just a little too weird; it piles outlandish details on top of each other until something (either the story itself, or my interest in it) collapses. The story reminded of Kelly Link, another very good writer who occasionally overindulges in weirdness for its own sake.

Some of the entries ("Two Dreams," "Mother's Curtains," "Domestic Interior," "Madame Lenora's Rings") are more whimsical flourishes than fully-fledged stories; they are sweet and insubstantial, like puffs of hookah smoke. Some of the longer pieces ("We the Enclosed," "Last Drink Bird Head") are distinctly experimental and don't quite achieve perfection, as perfection is not the point. But a few of the stories here are more or less flawless examples of the form and sit comfortably alongside the finest I have ever read. "The Love of Beauty" is a take on Beauty and the Beast that rivals the best of Angela Carter without being an imitation. "Alsiso" is as good as anything Borges wrote. "She Mirrors" and "The Art of Dying," while apparently taking place in the same world as her novel, are nonetheless excellent standalone pieces. And finally there is "Saving the Gleeful Horse," the unique genius of which defies description. It is pure, undiluted imagination; it is a story that spawns a thousand worlds in the mind as you read it. As far as I'm concerned, K.J. Bishop deserves a place in the literary canon for that story alone.

[Karl Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little hit and miss at times. I admit the poetry sections were completely lost on me and there was one story I just skipped right over, but I loved everything else. The collection was a heady mix of fables, high fantasy, surrealism, and magical realism - truly a wonderful experience. KJ Bishop has become a new favorite author of mine and I'm looking forward to The Etched City.

[Zan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A middling grade, but still a book I'd recommend, especially for people who already read and enjoyed Bishop's The Etched City - the issue here is that the inherent variability of quality of short stories is pretty severe here, and while all engage in Bishop's particular grade of madness and surrealism, we range the gamut from 'I'd read a whole book of this', 'Masterpiece of weird short fiction,' and 'not all that particularly strange, but a compelling story' to 'this is abstract poetry', 'i'm not entirely sure this was a finished piece,' and of course the 'god these are beautiful sentences but fuck me if I know what a single thing means.'

A lot of this leans heavily on surrealist stream of consciousness, and though Bishop *always* has a brilliant way of presenting something, a turn of phrase or incredible analogy, I have to be honest, a respectable amount of this went fully over my head. Somewhat I don't know if there's something to have gotten in most cases, it's that particular level of weird that just...is weird for the sake of it. It makes you think, and that's enough.

Just be warned. But do try it. Or really, try The Etched City. And if you're in love with it as much as I am, then absolutely give this a shot.

[M A U R O · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing recollection of beautiful, surreal, mysterious, mind expanding and haunting stories.
I must admit that I did not enjoy all of them. However, the ones I did, I truly adored and have touched me in a way that deeply inspire me and I'm sure I will never forget.
Some stories, particularly the one pertaining Maldoror, are tough to read and hard to follow but even if I struggled thought it I appreciate that K. J. Bishop can free herself and write in such a left field way.
This is not a compendium of stories for the wide public. However, if you enjoyed The Etched City (the writer's previous novel) it is a must read.

If you enjoy weird tales, with an exquisite narration and deep metaphysical tints mixed with the surreal and the hard-to-understand but easy-to-feel passages you will probably find in this book a hand crafted compilation of tales that will scratch that itch and may urge you to read the Magnun Opus that is The Etched City. I'm sorry that I can't separate the novel with this compendium, but The Etched City is my favorite book ever.

[User · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars Rounded Up

I always feel that short story collections for me are always so volatile for me, and especially for weird books like this, I'm worried that it just won't work for me.

Luckily, I can say that while this wasn't perfect, it worked for me more so than it didn't.

I think my main critiques are the order chosen in how these stories where put together, although weird which is the point I'm not sure if there was a point, and that just because something is "weird" I still want the "weirdness" to make sense.

All that's to say my favorite stories in this collection were: "The Love of Beauty", "We the Enclosed", & "Between the Covers" because while still weird, felt like completed stories within their weirdness.

[Elise Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

mind-boggling and phantasmagorical... freakin' weird as hell too... no idea where these stories started in her head, but they brough me back to her 'The Etched City' pretty quickly... loved the one about 'what to do after writing that first novel'... :)

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite uneven compared to other short story collections I've read. Some of the stories are brilliant, especially those set in the world of the The Etched City and those inspired by magical realism or surrealism. Others are simply dull or too experimental to be enjoyable to read.

[Elliot J Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of stories written by the author of The Etched City. And as with that book these stories have Bishops wonderful way of writing and constructing prose and her excellent imagination. Gwynn, of Ashamoil fame, also features and I was glad to see him back.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, trippy short stories that make you think and feel.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. It's extremely rare for me to give up on a book.

https://g-readinglist.blogspot.com/20...

[robyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

An endlessly inventive writer, and her Etched City is a good book, but the sheer variety of these shorts made this a difficult read.

[xenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

never thought i'd feel so much for a dirtbag ratdad

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, to me, story collections are generally hit or miss creatures. You usually get three or four great stories by three or four great writers, some good stories by some very capable writers, then you get dregs. Story collections by a single writer tend to fare better, provided that said writer is good or great in the first place. Great story collections by great writers are definitely rare enough, but they do exist. That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote by K.J. Bishop is one such collection.

If you haven't read K.J. Bishop's novel, The Etched City, and you fancy yourself a fan of Speculative Fiction, well, then you haven't really read the best of Speculative Fiction. I mention The Etched City because, by itself it's an important book, but also, three of the best stories in That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote are set in the world of The Etched City, The Art of Dying, The Love of Beauty, and She Mirrors. If you haven't read The Etched City, I actually recommend skipping those three stories, just set them aside, until you've read the novel that they would eventually become. Bishop wrote two of the short stories before her novel, but I think the short stories are better appreciated after reading the masterwork of which they're a part.

While the three above stories are particularly important to me, because The Etched City is so important to me, they're definitely not the only magic that That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote has to offer, not by a longshot. There's the dark fairytale of Saving the Gleeful Horse, a story in which childrens' games have deadly consequences in unexpected ways, There's We the Enclosed, a story of searching for something lost that reads like a fever dream. The Heart of a Mouse is a post-apocolyptic nightmare, a story of people suddenly transformed into animals struggling to maintain their human minds, it's kind of The Road meets The Tale of Despereaux meets The Rapture gone terribly wrong. Mother's Curtains is a light-hearted look into the world of the absurd, a story of bedroom curtains that feel unloved, curtains that long to live as the masts of a pirate-ship.

It's hard to really pick a favorite, the entire collection is that strong. Each story has a way of sliding into one's mind, always to be remembered in one way or another. One story that struck me in a very personal way was Between the Covers, a story of a writer who lost her connection with her craft after taking on the Devil as her benefactor. Writers have a certain relationship with their words, their stories, Between the Covers depicts that relationship in a uniquely visual way. Honestly, I'd pay full cover value for that story alone. Tales of writers come to ruin always terrify and fascinate me.

A really neat facet of this collection is that in the closing pages Bishop discusses each story, talking about inspiration, points of symbolism, all those little questions you'd like to ask a writer after you've finished reading their work.

That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote is a brilliantly imaginative collection of stories written by an absolutely brilliant writer. K.J. Bishop is someone that doesn't blink into existence every day, her use of craft is something special. She uses words to create life, to create worlds, to create art. K.J. Bishop does things with words that few writers can accomplish. Ultimately, she writes things that are worth reading, which is really all that matters.

[7thTrooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liksom med The Etched City är det språket och stämningen som är Bishops starkaste kort. Berättelserna sträcker sig från korta på bara nån sida eller två till mer saftiga noveller. De starkaste är utan tvekan den bitterljuva Saving the Gleeful Horse och den surrealistiska We the Enclosed. Den första ger en slags skev spegelbild av vad som kan vara nån slags fantasy, eller bara en mentalt sjuk person som fattar tycke för en pinata, och den andra börjar med en man fångad i ett rum och sjunker sedan allt djupare ned i surrealism.

[Kyle Muntz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a really rocky experience with K.J. Bishop's novel, The Etched City--at first I loved it because it was so ambitious (and the whole thing had brilliant moments), but by the end I felt like it was a failure for very basic technical reasons. That's the same way I feel about this collection. Bishop is working in a really interesting territory between fantasy and surrealism, and the stories are full of interesting ideas; but a lot of the most basic ingredients of her writing just don't work with me. (And, since this is a comment I've never seen made about her work, I wonder why.) The main thing is the characters have this kind of awkward, arch grandiosity that feels like playacting, moving towards fairy tales but in the least productive way, plus a muddy, awkward progression from moment to moment. That bothered me in the novel once I started looking for it, but here it's in the center of every story with much less to compensate for it, aside from the range of the subject matter, which is definitely impressive. There are lots of fascinating things here, but the voice, characters, and sometimes setting always felt contrived; and though Bishop's prose is nice, there was something blocky and unwieldy about the way the narratives flowed. I don't know. Bishop has a good reputation but her work just hasn't lived up to it for me, though I'd still read another novel if she published one.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short story collection from a brilliant author new to me.

Cannot praise this collection of stories highly enough. Despite the wide variety of voices the author uses and subjects she covers, the extremely high quality of the writing never wavers throughout. Highly imaginative, original, funny, thought-provoking at times and never less than completely entertaining. At times there are hints of Angela Carter, Michael Mooorcroft or Neil Gaiman in the genetic make-up of her writing but mostly she is just herself. The stories are enthralling ranging from a couple set in the world of her debut novel (will be hunting that down immediately!) to a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, a writer's pact with the devil, surrealist flights of fancy, poems and a set of living-room curtains who dream of becoming a pirate galleon's sails.

Do yourself a favour: just read this, you won't be disappointed.

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This review is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.

To be safe, I won't be recording my review here until after the AA are over.

[Tyrannosaurus regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, and wonderfully strange, with incredibly deft use of language. I'd read only one of the stories before so I had no idea what a joy I was in for. I seldom choose a favourite, but "Maldoror Abroad" and "Alsiso" are the ones that have really penetrated my brain and set up for the long haul.

[Kimberly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I give up. I paused a couple times because I was slogging through gibberish and this time, I just can't bring myself to restart. A few of the stories kinda almost made enough sense to follow, but I couldn't take it anymore.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

mind-boggling and phantasmagorical... freakin' weird as hell too... no idea where these stories started in her head, but they brough me back to her 'The Etched City' pretty quickly... loved the one about 'what to do after writing that first novel'... :)

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag - some of the short stories are tedious, some are just plain confusing, and some are absolutely marvellous. Overall, the stories reminded me a lot of Borges, in a good way.

[Jason Brezinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of short stories. Decadent and Surrealistic.

[Jenni Halpin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagery and fabulation reminiscent of Angela Carter.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to review this one. There were some amazing stories and some I couldn't finish because I hated them so much!