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A Cup Of Normal (2010)

by Devon Monk(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0982073097 (ISBN13: 9780982073094)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Fairwood Press

review 1: A decent collection of short stories. Other than a few cases where the writing is, in the author's own words, "florid", the language is clear and communicates well. The stories in the first half are better than those in the last half, with the exception of the last two stories which are quite good. Some of the stories have a common short story problem where the setting of the story is not explained enough for the story to make sense (in terms of understanding why this story's worth writing or why we should care). Even in a short story, the reader needs to have context.The author's love of knitting leads to its inclusion in a few short stories, which reduces the appeal for those who don't particularly enjoy that activity.
review 2: This is an anthology of 22... more short stories all written by the same author. Four of these are previously unpublished. I had only read two before, and it seems as though most of them came from magazines.From a granny who knits spare time into her needlework, to a gorgon forced into hermitage by her curse, to a lineman trying to salvage his marriage with his childless wife, all of these characters are memorable and unique. I mean, just look at the cover. It has Medusa, a robot, winged people, Tiki heads, a woman holding hands with a skeleton, a little boy with a rifle leading his ducks, and a little girl with a wrench and a can of bug spray. That's all in there. Or just read the title: A Cup of Normal. As in, *knock knock* "Hi neighbor, can I borrow a cup of normal?"One complaint, that I think is common to the format, is that in a short story you don't have time to fully develop the world or the characters. In a way this collection is like looking out a train window - you get a glimpse of many different towns whipping past and what you see intrigues you, but you don't have time to get out and visit them. Some of these stories worked well within that limitation; others felt more rushed. For this review I picked the four shorts I found most memorable."Stitchery" is about a patchwork girl, her two-headed psychic boyfriend, and an old lady who catches up other people's wasted time and knits it into her handwork. The story was too busy; I didn't get an explanation about the patchwork stitchery used to make Tilly, I didn't understand why Ned had two heads and was psychic, and other worldbuilding elements such as the carnivorous lizard and the "beast" (a unicorn, I think) would have been fascinating with more detail. The main conflict is between Ned and Tilly and I didn't have enough sense of that relationship to appreciate it. The best part was of course the time knitting. It was explained with the perfect amount of detail, showing what it does without stopping to explain how it works."When the Train Calls Lonely" was inspired by World War II stories of women who met the trains with soldiers going off to war and offered them a last home-cooked meal. Elisabeth is an adopted child, found wandering alone with no memories of her prior family. After her maybe-fiance Johnny leaves for war, she starts seeing ghosts. They come in on the same trains that took them out and leave messages with her, last words for their loved ones. Elisabeth's isolation is one of the themes here: she's adopted, Johnny's gone, she sees ghosts and she starts doing men's chores in the soldiers' absence. All of that contributes to her feelings of loneliness and aloneness. The poignant ending left me with a lot to think about."Menders" freaked me out the most. The first line is about how the narrator boils babies and a few sentences later she reveals it is her own babies that she kills. Favor's species has some insectoid characteristics and their babies are born wrapped in a cocoon. Like silk worms, they must be boiled alive to extract the thread in one piece. The short is actually about the evils of slavery, as Favor's people must murder their own children or face the wrath of their owners. Favor tries to break free of her bonds, to think the unthinkable and look for a better life. She could easily have been a monster, murdering her own babies, but it's shown that she was raised in this life and knows no other way to think. I found her a sympathetic character by the end. Still, that line about boiling babies is going to haunt me."Falling with Wings" was the highlight of this anthology. It takes place on a garbage planet where babies fall from the sky and children are raised by other children. At adolescence they grow wings and ascend past the clouds into the rumored sky world, never to be seen again except in the evidence of the dropped babies. This was one short where I thought not explaining all the rules actually made the piece stronger. What the sky world is doesn't matter, how this junkyard world was made doesn't matter. The focus is on the children and the miniature society they've created. The older children, "aunts and uncles", hunt rats, scavenge through the garbage for usable items and tend to the little "nieces and nephews". Dawn's relationships with the other characters, especially Setham and Reez, show her coming-of-age and search for identity in this dystopian society.I've heard rumors there may be a second anthology of Devon Monk's short stories under way. She also writes the Allie Beckstrom series with book 5, Magic at the Gate, releasing November 2.Overall, I give this anthology a C+. less

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