Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the story:


"The Lady and the Fox" by Kelly Link

This story was Originally published in My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories.

This story is part of the The Best SF&F of the Year, vol 9 (2014) group anthology discussion.

★★★
Synopsis:

A crucial component of any relationship is the capacity to surprise the one you love.

Every Christmas, a strange boy appears for one night in the snowy garden of the Honeywells - no one notices him but for a girl who falls in love with him and sets out to resolve this mystery.

Review: Multi award winner Kelly Link demonstrates her clear and concise skill with this coming-of-age Christmas romance. I like her sometimes elliptical prose which changes the rhythm as the girl grows older.

I had some trouble getting started on the story, I think because of the unfortunate choice of "Honeywell" as the name of the family. I read, "Honeywell," and rather than a family name, I think of an electronics company (they make thermostats and industrial process control.) So when I read the introduction, with its "Honeywell Christmas tree", I figured it was some sort of artificial tree with elaborate electronic properties, and when I read further:

"The room is full of Honeywells talking about the things that Honeywells always talk about, which is to say everything, horses and houses and God and grouting, tanning salons and – of course – theater. Always theater. Honeywells like to talk. When Honeywells have no lines to speak, they improvise. Rare to see a Honeywell in isolation."

I'm trying to figure out what a Honeywell is. A robot, or an android perhaps? Maybe an alien? No, Honeywells are just people. Rich people. I attribute this digression to reading way too much science fiction and fantasy. My brain looks for neologisms for the fantastical first, rather than the mundane. Suffice it to say, I probably would've grokked the opening more quickly I the family been Smiths or Joneses.

(Later it took me forever to figure out the Sunbeam Tiger was a car. Must be a British thing.)

Another story about a young girl. This one is named Miranda. She's an orphan, but not in terrible distress, since she's being raised by an aunt. Her mother is in jail in Thailand of all places, though we never find out why. (Do I understand correctly her mother was a Honeywell servant/employee of some kind?) Little girl attends the annual Honeywell Christmas party, and meets the Mysterious Stranger. The story recurs each year as the girl grows from 10 to 17. The Mysterious Stranger, who gives his name as Fenny, only appears some Christmases and doesn't seem to get any older. Despite an accumulative visiting time of only a few hours spread over her teenage years, Miranda seems to have fallen in love with the Mysterious Stranger. She resolves to find a way to meet him sometime other than snowy Christmas Eves in the Honeywell backyard.

Link uses an embroidered patch on Fenny's old fashioned coat for metaphor. When first described as embroidered fox, I was thinking one of those Polo logos. But the fox in this insignia has a leg caught in a trap and is bleeding. After their second meeting, Fenny removes the patch and leaves it for Miranda. She, in turn, re-embroiderers the patch to show an untrapped fox, and returns it to him the next time they meet.

Miranda shows more obstinacy trying to bust Fenny out of this trap then she does trying to visit her mother in prison. (That's a side-story whose purpose in this story is unclear to me.)

Anyway, as the story went on, I gradually became more involved in it, and by the end I was liking it.

★★★

I haven't paid a lot of attention to Kelly Link, and was surprised to see her name on the most influential sf&f authors list from Neil Clarke's survey. Probably because she does a lot of slipstream, horror, and non-genre stories.

I enjoyed this story despite it being fairly predictable (and despite the fact that I sometime find the Rip van Winkle/Fairyland abduction stories a bit frustrating b/c the antagonists are characterized as arbitrary by nature and when the plot actually happens in fairyland, the conclusion is often a fantasy equivalent of "then she woke up"). I think the language here really captured an intriguing atmosphere. I also found Miranda an appealing protagonist. It's a romantic tale but not overly sentimental.

Honeywell does make me think a bit of fans! I found myself having to re-read the opening paragraph a few times to establish that the children were sitting under a tree indoors. The Honeywells are perhaps not the typical rich family; they also seem to be a celebrity dynasty, with more than its (view spoiler)[ with the ending perhaps suggesting that a little fairy blood in the family has contributed to (hide spoiler)]. I'm assuming (or perhaps we're told) that Miranda's mother is jailed; a job in the theatre/arts world (as Elspeth's dresser, which probably contributes to Miranda's interest in fashion) does seem to lend itself to drugrunning a bit more than the usual housekeeper/maid would.

I believe this is the first story I've read of Link's. I had heard of her, but mostly in "literary fiction" contexts, so I had thought her work might be light on the actual sff. This seemed like a pretty solidly genre piece to me, though.

Hillary wrote: "I think the language here really captured an intriguing atmosphere...."

I did like the language (not usually something I notice). Several phrases caught my fancy: "Empty wine bottles tilt like cannons; a butcher knife sheathed in a demolished Christmas cake."

G33z3r wrote: "Hillary wrote: "I think the language here really captured an intriguing atmosphere...."

I did like the language (not usually something I notice). Several phrases caught my fancy: "Empty wine bottl..."

Tastes differ (said the ape and bit into his soap) :) Because those were exactly the parts that I liked.