Vampires in the Lemon Grove
Author: Karen Russell
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Date of Publication: February 12, 2013
Pages: 256
Vampires in the Lemon Grove is
an eclectic eight story collection from Karen Russell, author of one previous
critically acclaimed collection (St.
Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves) and one novel, Swamplandia (neither of which have I read). These stories were all previously published
in literary journals such as “Granta” and “Tin House.” All eight stories are tremendously creative
and inventive. Sparkling prose is
present throughout the entire volume.
I’m not a great fan of fantasy or science fiction (these stories aren’t
really either, but there’s probably not a niche for them to be classified
in). However, even if I didn’t
particularly care for one of the stories, there were at least several sentences
in each which were so wonderful that they made reading the story very
worthwhile.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove is
a beautifully told strange tale of an old vampire who has lost his
ability to morph into a bat. He has a human-like relationship with
another vampire until he comes out of "retirement". This is a lyrical
story which I guess stands as an allegory for long term love
relationships.
A noteworthy snippet:
"Often I wonder to what extent a mortal's love grows from the bedrock
of his or her foreknowledge of death, love coiling like a green stem out of
that blankness in a way I'll never quite understand. And lately I've been
having a terrible thought:
Our love
affair will end before the world does."
Reeling for the Empire
is one I didn’t really care
for. It is a futuristic description of Japanese
girls taken from their families and fed a moth which essentially turns the
girls into silkworms. I suppose this is a statement of sorts regarding slavery
or indentured servitude. Also, the main character (one of the enslaved
girls) regrets her decision to volunteer for this service, making this a story
of second guessing life's choices.
Again
there are pearls of prose to be savored:
"Regret is a pilgrimage back to the place where I was free to choose.
It's become my sanctuary..."
"O even the nausea of regret can be converted to use."
The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach,
1979 reminded me just a
little bit of Poe’s The Raven in
that a seagull plays a prominent symbolic role much like Poe’s bird. Russell’s gull is able to bring objects from
the future into a nest which the main character uses to shape his actions. This character at first sees the gull
which follows him as his conscience, then as an omen.
Proving Up tells the story of homesteaders in the late 1800s
sharing a glass window which is a requirement for transfer of ownership of the
land from the government at the time of inspection.
It is one of the longer stories in the
collection and seems to change focus from a story of grim pioneer determination
to one of survival.
Several great
sentences from this story:
"In summer, this room can get as hot as the held breath of the
world."
"My mother is thirty-one years
old, but the land out here paints old age onto her."
The Barn at the End of Our Term
was my favorite of the eight
stories because of its audacious premise and because it made me laugh. It is a very imaginative story where
half of the horses in a barn are re-incarnated former United States
presidents. They range from Rutherford B. Hayes to Dwight
Eisenhower. One day James Garfield escapes. Hayes tries to identify
his wife Lucy ("The first first lady") in all of the other animals at
the farm and he becomes quite enamored with a duck. A quote from this
story:
"The presidents spend a lot of time talking about where the other
citizens of the Union might have ended up. Wilson thinks the suffragettes
probably came back as kicky rabbits."
Dougbert Shackleton's Rules
for Antarctic Tailgating is an extremely odd account of "The Food Chain Games"
and the dos and don'ts of tailgating in the Antarctic. This one made me
think of
The Hunger Games in its
imaginative scope, although the thrust of the story is different.
A few gems from this story:
"Antarctic tailgaters know exactly how hard it is to party."
"If you're a health nut, don't tailgate in the antarctic. You can
always put balsamic vinaigrette on salted meat and sort of pretend it's a
salad."
The New Veterans was another favorite. The main character is a middle-aged
female massage therapist.
She becomes
part of a program which treats young Iraqi war veterans. Her first
patient has a huge tattoo on his back depicting a Humvee attack which
killed a comrade in arms. The massage therapist confronts her own
survivor guilt issues (her mother died young of cancer) as she helps relieve
the soldier's.
"In truth, Beverly can never quite adjust to her age on the
calendar; most days, she still feels like an old child."
The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis is a funky take on bullying
and its effects on the perpetrators as well as the victims. It takes a
supernatural-Stephen King like twist of plot early on from which it never
escapes. Sparkling writing again is on display here:
"The central acres of Friendship Park were filled with pines and spruce
and squirrels that chittered some charming bullshit at you, up on their hind
legs begging for a handout. They lived in the trash cans and had the
wide-eyed, innocent look and trheadbare fur of child junies. Had they
wised up, our squirrels might have mugged us and used our wallets tu buy train
tickts to the national park an hour north of Anthem's depressed
downtown."
"As the son, I got to be on a first-name basis with
allo these adult men, all her boyfriends, but I never knew them well enough to
hate them in a personal way."
All in all, this was a very
entertaining (albeit somewhat fanciful and at times bizarre) collection.
It is well worth reading if only just to
immerse yourself in splendid writing.
I
own a copy of
Swamplandia, so it may
need to be elevated in the “to read” list.
