Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Just Jennifer

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman


This new collection of short stories is full of fairy tales and fantastical creatures and beings, but each expresses a truth about humanity and ourselves.  Even the introduction is full of gorgeous sentences and is deserving of a title more grandiose than “Introduction”.  It is almost a disservice to the readers and the discoveries they will make on their own through each story by reading Gaiman’s thoughts of each story in the introduction.  Who but Gaiman could quote a David Bowie song in one story (“The Return of the Thin White Duke” from Station to Station) and combine the classic fairy tales of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty in another?  Homage Is paid to Sherlock Holmes, Ogden Nash and Ray Bradbury.  Individually these stories, many of which have been published elsewhere, are at times allegorical, at times reflective, but when thought about as a whole reveal much more than we may be ready to see.  A collection to savor over and over again.  

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