Scott Graham

A fine collection of short stories by Susanna Clarke as an addendum of sorts to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell; all stories contained therein involve the use of magic and faeries and Sidhe in the same world she explored in the aforementioned novel. The stories help to add color and detail to England at large, rather than the dining rooms and parlors of its nobility and gentry or the counterparts in Faerie. A very much appreciated revisit of magical England without having to embark on a rereading of the expansive JS & MN.

The latest collection of easays by David Sedaris is a tasty flight of wines of a lesser vintage. Although expertly and perhaps flawlessly narrated by the author, the tales ran between droll and chuckle inducing, most leaning toward the former. My particular favorite was the poignant “Good Grief”, where the author recounts the dualistic grief of finding out about the death of a former best friend, and experiencing the loss of one once so close while re-experiencing the memory of the death of a close relationship of youth. The humor in the memory of the hijinks of the two friends is perhaps overahadowed by the schadenfreude Sedaris lets leak through in his description of the deceased as ultimately haviing lived a lesser life, and looking much older. Even though the author has been accused of gilding the lily in some of his essays, one can’t help but feel the humanity in the truth of that sentiment; as Gore Vidal has been supposed to have said, “It is not enough to succeed. Others muat fail.” That may perhaps be no more true than when you had a close friendship with the object of that comparison — a friendship that died ignominiously a long time ago. The other tales are all interesting, but this reader can’t help but feel that Mr Sedaris has already mined the best nuggets of golden memories from his life, and he is now offering us the silver ones.

The Grace Of Kings was interesting, but not enjoyable. This story with a Far East Asian sensibility relates the tale of the end of one dynasty at the hands of a fractured rebellion that evolves into a second dictatorship (hegemony) at war with another faction of the original rebellion could also be seen as the War of the Roses in England, or the infighting between the players of the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution. It was work keeping track of the world of characters and place names. It was akin to watching a tennis match at Wimbledon where the advantage for the characters in the story was the ball. And it kept getting swatted back and forth. Early major players have nothing to do with the bulk of the story. Gods appear with a wink and a nudge and parallel the battles between the factions in the story but at the level of sibling rivalry. Liu’s writing was difficult to follow at times, primarily due to the difficulty in maintaining a strong frame of reference. To me, he seems to write better short stories than this one experience with his novels. I will continue on with the other two novels in the trilogy, and pray that I don’t reach a point of diminshing returns (à la the Red Rising Trilogy).

Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series continues the story of gay hockey players and their partners, Troy Barrett and Harris Drover, respectively on Role Model. Troy has been recently traded to Ottawa as the hockey version of a Siberian exile due to a recent public accusation toward a teammate. He personifies cognitive dissonance as a toxically masculine player hiding his homosexuality until he runs into his emotional counterpoint in Harris, the Ottawa team’s openly gay social media PR person. For me, the best part of the series (apart from the expected happy ending) is how many of the previous novel’s characters are woven in like a tapestry (well, maybe more like a needlepoint), with Ilya Rosenov returning as an all seeing and knowing presence, dropping wisdom and support where needed, but always standing apart just a little, even when he’s the center of attention, with his trademarked sang-froid.