John Kessel's fantastic remakes
John Kessel's short-story collection "The Baum Plan for Financial Independence" from Small Beer Press is reviewed in today's L.A. Times. The title story begins:
When I picked her up at the Stop 'n Shop on Route 28, Dot was wearing a short black skirt and red sneakers just like the ones she had taken from the bargain rack the night we broke into the Sears in Hendersonville five years earlier. I couldn't help but notice the curve of her hip as she slid into the front seat of my old T-Bird. She leaned over and gave me a kiss, bright red lipstick and breath smelling of cigarettes. "Just like old times," she said.
Red shoes and a girl named Dorothy mean that yes, you're not in Kansas anymore. But Kessel isn't just retelling L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz" -- he's working with its ideas of escape and an idealized world, with gritty language and an element of fantasy. The complete story is online here.
Language is something Kessel pays attention to in these stories, as "Pride and Prometheus" has the tone of a Jane Austen classic. A recording of Kessel reading "Pride and Prometheus" -- with a very proper classical music intro -- is available in two parts on his website.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
photo by kekka via Flickr
