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Es War Einmal Eine Frau, Die Ihren Mann Nicht Sonderlich Liebte. Russische Schauergeschichten (2009)

by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

383330717X (ISBN13: 9783833307171)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Berliner Taschenbuch-Verlag

review 1: I love this book, even though I've never been too much into the use of tale and fable conceits in contemporary fiction. Petrushevskaya has me turned me around. I can't tell if she's changed my mind on the tale form, or if she's doing something sneakier under a guise of folkloric simplicity. If I had to pin it down, I'd say she's really figured out the intersection of spookily unnerving contemporary fiction, folklore, and the ghost stories we still remember and re-tell, long after we stop believing in ghosts. Petrushevskaya's stories will stick with you. They have the brevity, strength and clarity of another of my favorite writers, Etgar Keret. I could also see her pulling from Poe and Kafka, and of course Borges, although these comparisons really diminish the best possible... more description of her range and ability, and muddy the approach to the very specific voice of her fiction. Suffice to say, if you enjoy one or more of the aforementioned writers, you'll probably enjoy this collection.
review 2: This was interesting to read so soon after reading "Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology," since this collection's stories would have been right at home in that volume. "Slipstream," to anyone not familiar with the term, isn't the most readily defined of genres, but it generally describes stories that may combine elements of genres, or not fit any genre, and/or are simply "strange." Vague, I know. But that would pretty well describe the stories in "There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby." Some of the tales in the volume are a lot like ghost stories, others seem like realistic fiction until the strangeness begins to creep in, and others contain elements of the paranormal and fantastic. In any case, I enjoyed this, and though many of the stories did have a similar "feel" to them, they didn't seem repetitive. Surreality mixed with pure reality, affording some insights no less true for their odd surroundings. less

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