Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice

Rating:
Summary: Skillfully crafted, but curiously cold
Review: Like Byatt's previous collections, this book is a well-written quick read with gorgeous visual imagery. Its focus is how characters negotiate extremes--of emotion, of circumstance, of temperature and more. But for a book subtitled "Stories of Fire and Ice" there is very little passion; and I felt little emotional engagement. The writing is exquisite, but the emotional life of the characters is not fully realized.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This collection of short stories is probably the best anthology I have read this year. Byatt's writing is sheer poetry and is so lush and beautiful. Byatt can really weave words together and create a tapestry of beauty. I love that these are modern fairy tales and deal with so many different topics.

But beauty aside, the main problem of this anthology was that it did run hot and cold but not in a good way. Some stories I found boring and uninteresting. "Crocodile Tears" is a fine example of a story that couldn't capture my fancy. I was also confused by "Jael" and am still trying to figure out the meaning behind it.

But my favorite story was "Lamia In The Cevennes." I loved the meaning behind this story and it made me smile.

Rating:
Summary: Admirable collection
Review: This is a curious and well done little collection of stories. The first story, "Crockadile Tears" is the best; it provides an interesting portrait of grief, or rather more of an anti-grief--I won't give any more than that away. There are a couple other gems in here, along with a couple competant but less profound works. Byatt is an interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: losing and finding ourselves
Review: 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:
Summary: losing and finding ourselves
Review: 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.