literary magical realism

 

The next Books & Beyond (BAB) social group will meet on Tuesday, March 25th at 6:30pm and the topic up for discussion is art.  Novels, nonfiction, biography, and film are all encouraged!  If you’d rather attend online, click here to register for a Zoom link.

This week, BAB met to discuss a literary style, magical realism!

Betrayed by Rita Hayworth by Manuel Puig (not available in the JCLC, request from Interlibrary Loan)

When it appeared in 1968, Manuel Puig’s debut—a portrait of the artist as a child in small-town Argentina—was hailed as revolutionary. Borrowing from the language of "true romance" and movie magazines, the techniques of American modernism, and Hollywood montage, Puig created an exuberant queer aesthetic while also celebrating the secret lives of women.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Stories by Haruki Murakami

Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit Murakami’s ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and entertaining.

The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin

Cinderella wants her Prince Charming dead in this sophisticated fairy-tale for the twenty-first century.

Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

A magical realist coming-of-age story, Gold Diggers skewers the model minority myth to tell a hilarious and moving story about immigrant identity, community, and the underside of ambition.

La Dalma del Elba (The Lady of Dawn) by Alejandro Casona (Download a California State University thesis translation from the original Spanish in PDF)

A Spanish play written by playwright Alejandro Casona, first performed in 1944. The play takes place in a small unnamed Spanish town (believed to be the author's) on the fourth anniversary of the day Angelica, the eldest daughter of the local Narces family, died by drowning in a river, just days after getting married. Since they never found the body, no proper burial could be performed and her death still haunts her loved ones. Then, a mysterious woman, known only as The Pilgrim, comes along. Since it is believed that hosting religious pilgrims brings blessings, they allow her to stay. Then the old man remembers who she is: Death herself, whom he met when several men died in a mining accident several years before. He pleads with her not to claim another member of the family, but she explains she has no choice in the matter. However, since she overslept, she now cannot claim her target- Martin, Angelica's widower. She leaves, but warns that she will return in 'seven moons'- on the Day of Saint John, a local holiday.

Ask Baba Yaga by Taisia Kitaiskala (not available in the JCLC, request from Interlibrary Loan)

With a strange, otherworldly style, poetic clarity, and striking honesty, Ask Baba Yaga contains beautifully skewed wisdom to be consulted in times of need.

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch

In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.

The Swarm by Frank Schatzing

Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic eyeless crabs poison Long Island’s water supply. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean’s revenge. In this riveting novel, full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, a team of scientists discovers a strange, intelligent life force called the Yrr that takes form in marine animals in order to wreak havoc on man for his abuses. The Day After Tomorrow meets The Abyss in his gripping, scientifically realist, utterly imaginative thriller. With the compellingly creepy and vivid skill of this author to evoke story, character, and place, Frank Schatzing’s book are certain to find a home with fans of Michael Crichton.

Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe

Sisterhood is difficult for Su and Emerald. Su leads a sheltered, moneyed life as the picture-perfect wife of a conservative politician in Singapore. Emerald is a nihilistic sugar baby in New York, living from whim to whim and using her charms to make ends meet. But they share a secret: once, they were snakes, basking under a full moon in Tang dynasty China. Razor-sharp, hilarious, and raw in emotion, Sister Snake explores chosen family, queerness, passing, and the struggle against conformity. Reimagining the Chinese folktale “The Legend of the White Snake,” this is a novel about being seen for who you are—and, ultimately, how to live free.

Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg

First published in 1992, Smilla's Sense of Snow instantly became an international sensation. When caustic Smilla Jaspersen discovers that her neighbor--a neglected six-year-old boy, and possibly her only friend--has died in a tragic accident, a peculiar intuition tells her it was murder. Unpredictable to the last page, Smilla's Sense of Snow is one of the most beautifully written and original crime stories of our time, a new classic.

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in the first novel to be translated into English by the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash