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Title: Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice by A. S. Byatt ISBN: 0-375-70575-9 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 11 July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.76 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Stories of extremes
Comment: Byatt's collection of sumptuous stories reminded me of Banana Yoshimoto, Emma Donoghue, and Jeanette Winterson. These tales seem like modern faerie tales without the classic imagery. Or rather, with the classic imagery shifted. In "Cold", an ice princess discovers true love in a desert land. In my favorite in the collection, "Christ in the House of Martha and Mary", a cook finds the meaning of art in life. These tales of extremes of emotions, temperatures, lives are full of joy and life, and make many a reader celebrate. This will certainly not be the last book by Byatt I'll read.
Rating: 4
Summary: losing and finding ourselves
Comment: Thomas Merton once wrote: "Art enables us to find ourselves and to lose ourselves at the same time. The mind that responds to the intellectual or spiritual values that lie hidden in a poem, a painting, or a piece of music, discovers a spiritual vitality. This vitality lifts the mind above itself, and makes it present on a level of being that it did not know it could ever achieve."
There is a great spiritual vitality in A.S. Byatt's "Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice." From the first story of this collection to the last...these stories forcibly pull the reader out of the ordinary and into the wonder of life. This little book packs a wallop. Each of the stories are little masterpieces.
The first story, "Crocodile tears is a journey of self-discovery through the reawakening of a woman's curiosity. In the second story the reader looks into the life of an artist obsessed with his art. My favorite piece is the fairy tale "cold." "Baglady" is one heck of a scary story. "Jael'' is a glimpse into the soul of a woman unwilling to admit that she is haunted by her past. The final tale is a masterpiece that demonstrates how the way we see the world affects the way we live in it.
In the King James version of the Bible (which Byatt seems to have a love/hate relationship with) Paul says: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). These stories, as with all of Byatt's work, contain stunning visual imagery. One cannot read these tales and still view the everyday world through the same eyes.
If you find yourself with a chance to do some "summer reading" anytime soon, let me encourage you to start here with this book. I recommend it highly.
Rating: 2
Summary: Elemental
Comment: A.S. Byatt's lush prose and dreamy storyline were among the best parts of her hit novel "Possession." Unfortunately, her short stories don't quite live up to that standard. They are woven together with words and a delicate sense for what is beautiful, but seem as cold as the ice princess's skin.
"Crocodile Tears," the strongest story in the collection, is a haunting, ambiguous little tale about a woman fleeing from where her husband died. So she goes to France and immerses herself in art, in beauty, and encounters a stranger with his own story to tell. Less compelling is "A Lamia in the Cevennes" (a painter encounters a magical snake), "Cold" (an ice princess has relationship problems with her hot-blooded desert husband), "Bag Lady" (a weird story about being at the mall), "Jael" (artists and the Biblical story), and "Christ in the House of Martha and Mary" (a cute little story about a cook).
Generally short stories are written that way because they are too brief or insubstantial to stand as novels. "Elementals" is sunk in a velvety carpet of artistry, beauty and lush language. But it lacks a soul. Few of the characters, except for the lead of "Crocodile Tears," have any depth or development. The rest seem like paper dolls.
Byatt's writing is intoxicating; she takes the best of both prose and poetry (she can write both) and mixes them together. And in "Elementals," she stretches her wings into different kinds of stories -- parables, stream-of-consciousness, human drama and fairy tales. Unfortunately, the handling of these stories is clumsy, especially in the tritely plotted "Cold" and instantly forgettable "A Lamia in the Cevennes."
Though "Elementals" is described as "stories of fire and ice," ice dominates this cool, pretty little collection of stories. In the end, "Elementals" is elegantly-written but hollow.
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Title: The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories by A. S. Byatt ISBN: 0679762221 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Matisse Stories by A. S. Byatt ISBN: 067976223X Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Game by A. S. Byatt ISBN: 0679742565 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Shadow of the Sun by A. S. Byatt ISBN: 0156814161 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 16 April, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Virgin in the Garden by A. S. Byatt ISBN: 0679738290 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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