Paranormal Romances, by Chris Barzak

Stories are stories, and pictures are pictures.  But some pictures tell a story, and some stories paint a picture.  Paranormal Romances is the last.  It's one of the better ways to make something that's complete in short fiction, and we have an example here.

This is the story of Sheila the witch, and her struggles with a subject on which she is an expert.  Spoiler Alert: In order to say anything else about this story I pretty much have to give the picture's subject away, so be warned.

Sheila makes a living at witchcraft, specializing in love spells.  She's good at what she does and not greedy, so she has what she believes to be a satisfying life--evenings alone, dinner once a week with her gay neighbors who are quite nice and love her.  Her mother is getting desperate to fix her up, and that desperation (and resulting lousy date, complete with inappropriate disclosures from her mother) gets her off the schneid to go find some romance of her own. 

So in the end you're pulling for her, which is a good thing.  Read this one if you're a bit down, but too proud to just whistle a happy tune.  3 stars from me.

Map of Seventeen, by Christopher Barzak

When we are small children, we believe that we are the center of the world.  We start to learn about empathy and others as we get older--then get sucked right back into the center of the world during adolescence.  Barzak captures this very well, and in a sympathetic way, in Map of Seventeen.  It's a Nebula Award nominee for 2010, and a reasonable contender, most likely.  The protagonist is a young girl, angry with her older brother, her town, her culture, in different ways.  Her brother brings home a boyfriend, who seems pretty normal but has a big speculative-fiction kind of secret.  Exactly what doesn't matter so much.  She gets perspective on her life from what they are facing.

My favorite part of the story is how she controls others with her very strong will.  She refers to it in a sort of paranormal way, exerting it on others as though their thoughts were visible.  This is SF, so it MIGHT be so--but again, it doesn't matter, what's really interesting and genuine is how she THINKS she has that kind of control.  Center of the world.

It is worth a read, do take the time.  3 stars

The Love We Share Without Knowing, by Christopher Barzak

I recently finished The Love We Share Without Knowing, a 2009 Nebula award nominee. I wish I had better things to say about it.

The "novel" is a series of very loosely connected vignettes about expatriate Americans teaching english in Japan. The Japan of this novel is a brooding, elegiac place, where the weight of collectivism and general decline literally squeezes the life out of people. You are told right at the start that there is no happy ending or redeeming value, which leads one to believe that tragedy is immanent. Not really. Just lots of sadness.

The author is a decent writer, so the tales are crafted well. But they have a very dated flavor--from the main subject (Japan) through the subtext (9-11) and even the slang, the book seems like it sat for a long time on the author's computer before finally emerging.

Overall, slightly stale croutons--decent flavor but dated, and not at all filling. 2 stars, just.