![]() It’s impressive enough that he can do that world-realization in his novels to do that within the relatively limited parameters of short fiction is doubly so. He creates worlds in which we can’t help but immerse ourselves. ![]() His ability to construct such sturdily delicate plots, both solid and subtle, is a joy to experience. Hill’s narrative gifts are tremendous, and he unleashes them here to full effect. The truth is that it would be easy to expound at length upon just about every one of these stories. There aren’t many writers out there who are as thoughtfully scary as Joe Hill. This is nit-picking, though, and it’s made easier because the few imperfections stand out against Hill’s otherwise seamless and finely crafted work. And once in a while, the moral math of Hill’s cosmos can get a little one-to-one, the syllogism plodding forward, the reader’s mind jumping ahead to see the next equation in the proof. At times, Hill tends to explain his own premise (all the more a shame because he’s usually set it up so deftly), offering up one more spoonful of explication than necessary. While all of Hill’s experiments with form are inventive, some work better than others. ![]() in his very best stories, Hill gets to moments of lyricism, of pain or connection or both. Hill’s universe is for the most part very bleak, but it has a moral coherence to it, a sense in which things make a kind of sense, however perverse. Lots of dead bodies, very few dead parts - among Hill’s many talents is his ability to braid together his strands. Often middles, too, his stories pushing you along with the intangible dread of a fable, pulling you forward with the inexorable logic of a mathematical proof. Endings that tear off the story’s edge, leaving it ragged and bloody, leaving you wanting more. Endings that are perfect and yet a page early, arriving before you’re ready. Shocking, terrible, whoa, cover-your-mouth-and-gasp endings. Is already so good at endings of the unhappy variety.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |