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"Unlocking the Air" and Other Stories
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| List Price: | £8.49 |
| Price: | £8.36 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery on orders over £5. Details |
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Average customer review:
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #551751 in Books
- Published on: 1997-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
Editorial Reviews
Synopsis
Eighteen short stories reveal the strangeness that can be found in ordinary life.
Customer Reviews
Not one of Le Guin's best books
I've been a big Le Guin fan for many years, counting her Earthsea and Hainish novels among my favorite books of all time. However, with the exception of Four Ways to Forgiveness I've avoided her short story collections. The reason is simple - I generally find it difficult to really enjoy stories that are only 3-15 pages long. There is just not enough substance for me to get into the characters, and obviously not enough time for a plot to develop. It just feels too much like reading fragments.
Unlocking the Air contains 18 stories that according to Le Guin herself fall into the following genres - plain realism, magical realism or surrealism. I was a bit skeptical when I picked the book up, since I've always thought that Le Guin's strength is her ability to develop intriguing alien cultures and deal with their problems. How does her writing work in reality?
Not as well as I had hoped. To my surprise I thoroughly enjoyed one of the shortest stories (The Creatures on My Mind), and one of the "plain real" ones (Standing Ground), but overall I found many of the stories interesting, but in a dry, detached way. They just didn't grip me as I'm used to when reading Le Guin's novels.
Luckily, her writing works much better when there is some magical or abnormal element present. Daddy's Big Girl is an excellent, moving story, while Ether, OR got me hooked because of the relations between the inhabitants and its general otherworldliness. I also enjoyed the more traditional fantasies Olders and The Poacher.
Overall Unlocking the Air and Other Stories was something of a disappointment for me. Despite some glimmers of Le Guin's brilliance I found the majority of the stories very well written, but lacking that extra something to make them truly great.
