Frankenstein's Daughter, by Maureen F. McHugh

Frankenstein's Daughter is part of McHugh's Mothers and Other Monsters collection.  I was sure I'd read this before, and I have, but not reviewed--so here we are.  The story is told from several points of view--first, a teenage boy with a developmentally disabled sister, then the mother.  The sister is Cara, an early clone who did not turn out so well--many health problems.  The focus is on the judgment the family faces, real and imagined, for having brought this child into the world.

There's plenty of family dynamics on display, and this is the interesting stuff. The parents are divorced, the father having a new girlfriend.  All relationships are strained, from all perspectives except Cara's. 

I won't give away the ending, but it makes you want more. But not in a good way.  It's a slice of life, and well told, but feels a bit incomplete, I think.  Read for literate family story content.  2 stars from me.

Presence, by Maureen McHugh

Presence is another story in Maureen McHugh's Mothers and Other Monsters collection, and I liked this one quite a bit.  It's a very close and informed view of what it is like to deal with someone with Alzheimer's disease.  The growth in this condition would be considered far more tragic if several other impending tragedies like global warming and such were not drowning it out.  In this story it is possible to cure the disease, but at great monetary and personal cost--the recovered person is not really in any particular sense the same one.  This happens in other conditions  as well--see Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for how this transpires in personality disorders.  Our identity is indeed fragile.  3 stars.

Random Readings

I read a couple of stories on the way to other things, so am going to go ahead and react to them here.  John Kessel's The Baum Plan for Financial Independence is the title story in the collection.  It is a nicely set story, with some reasonable characterization, but I can't say it is really all that special, just a pot of gold story.  Wicked is a very short filler piece in Maureen McHugh's Mothers and Other Monsters collection.  I never quite know how to react to these in writing.  Reminds me of the ending of The Neighbors with John Belushi.

Ancestory Money, by Maureen McHugh

Ancestor Money, part of Maureen McHugh's Mothers and Other Monsters collection, is its lead story.  And it's the one by McHugh that I've enjoyed the most so far.  It got a World Fantasy Award nomination in 2004.  There is a strain of thought in Christian afterlife that says it's pretty much like an ideal version of life on earth--a nice little house with a yard and time to enjoy it.  Meant to appeal to lower-middle-class folks, I got it on a flyer once.  This is where our protagonist is, and has been there happily for seventy years, though there is no real presence of God.  Then she gets word that a granddaughter has sacrificed money for her in a Buddhist temple, and she can go claim it.  It's a very well-told and thoughtful tale, and I am glad I read it.  With three stars you should go ahead and read it too.

The Cost To Be Wise, by Maureen McHugh

The Cost To Be Wise is the third story in McHugh's Mothers and Other Monsters collection to be nominated for an award, this one getting Hugo and Nebula nominations in 1996-97.  The story is told through the protagonist--Janna appears to be part of a social experiment, a group of people not related through clan kinship on a world mostly made up of clans.  People from Earth came out to try to make this community function differently from the others.  Alas, they forgot the defense part--the colony gets torn up by nasty drunks from the neighboring clan.  A visitor from Earth sees the whole thing. 

One definitely gets a sense of the emotions McHugh is trying to convey--the sadness and fear--but, well, I don't know, it's just lacking for me.  No point.  Violence doesn't always have a point, and in this story it doesn't, but it seems to me that stories should have points. Why tell it, otherwise?  A question I cannot answer here.  Two stars.

The Lincoln Train, by Maureen McHugh

The Lincoln Train, part of Maureen McHugh's Mothers and Other Monsters collection, got the Hugo for short stories in 1996, and was nominated for the Nebula.  For being a moving story I guess, because the speculation is kind of one-dimensional.  Lincoln is wounded instead of killed when his assassination is attempted, and this changes the policy toward southerners.  But the story is really one of what it is like to be an unwanted refugee, which is by countless accounts horrible.  There is a nice twist in how the protagonist gets help, but for me it's just not developed enough.  Decent, but just two stars from me.

Nekropolis, by Maureen McHugh

Nekropolis was nominated for a Nebula in 1994. The setting is a future Middle East, where there has been some sort of second coming of Mohammed that produced a Second Koran, one that specifically allows for a form of slavery called "jessing", like a captured hawk. This is central to the story, as is an artificial being called Akhmim.  The protagonist is Diyet, a rather colorless jessed serving girl.  What we get is the story of her life in this setting, which is altogether pretty ordinary and told that way.  On purpose.  It seems to me that McHugh was trying for the genuine voice of someone in this situation, not too bright or pretty, trying to sort out her feelings.  I don't know, it didn't quite work for me, it just came off dull.  The settings aren't particularly outlandish or even well-explained.  The full meaning of living in crypts (the Nekropolis) was not really explored.  She was just from there.  Just 2 stars for this one.