One of the most powerful bonds in this world is the one between a reader and his favorite writer. Even continents and countries apart, the readers get to know a writer by his words alone. Each noun, verb and adjective that author chooses to place in his narrative shapes the face and the body of what he will be in the mind of his reader. With a novel, an author can make himself linger enough to be liked and maybe read again in another adventure. With a short story, it is much trickier, like an elevator pitch. The concept and the words have to attract and excite in a matter of a few flip of pages. There are only a few who can work magic in brevity.
One of these magicians is the beloved goth Neil Gaiman. Recently, he brought some all-star friends with him for his short story anthology called Stories, edited with acclaimed horror penman Al Sarrantonio. The book is just that — stories that are so good, they transcend a reader’s love for a specific genre and possibly each writer’s careers. It is indeed a highly ambitious goal as Gaiman tries to hook readers on every page to eagerly ask: “And then what happened…?”
However, with an author list of Roddy Doyle, Jodi Picoult, Chuck Palahniuk, Joyce Carol Oates and other top shelf artists, the stories manage to pull the rabbit out of the hat most of the time. Behind the curtain of prose is the gimmicky trick of using supernatural elements to grip me to read on. It isn’t a bad thing at all and the tales can get you into trouble by forgetting the time. Yet, the challenge to surprise me could have been better if the stories were more diverse than an evil twin, zombies, devils, vampires, and spies. If aiming for something more unexpected than the usual curse or revenge tales, Gaiman should have envisioned stories that transcend the genre.
Overall, you can’t pick an anthology with such a stellar cast. For me, Neil Gaiman succeeded at least in getting me to meet his friends like Jodi Pocult or Joyce Carol Oates. In that respect, he has achieved what Stories was meant to do: transcend writer bias. Connecting me with new friends to explore the stories and worlds that they create that I would never dare cross. Thus, the anthology for all its supernatural sleight of hand can perform an unsuspecting miracle for safe readers like me — that is, to cross genres, venture to new pages and expand my reading list. I hope to see you there after I cross that bridge.
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Stories by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio available at National Book Store.
E-mail me at readnow@supreme.ph.