Magically Disturbed

For years I’ve had issues with short story collections. The whipping from one plot to another so quickly makes my brain feel like it’s on a very shaky roller coaster. But it’s the genre my mentor most likes to teach, so I’ve found myself reading a lot of it lately. Thanks to his patience, I have a newfound understanding of the short story, and decided to start off the year by revisiting the first short story collection I ever finished, Neil Gaiman’s “Smoke and Mirrors.” When I read this four years ago, the stories disturbed me so much I had to stop reading them before bed. This is in no way a bad thing.  I loved them, and I read them voraciously when the sun was out and my roommate was home. The surprises and turns of Gaiman’s twisted imagination is exactly what I needed to get from one plot to another. Which leads to my abject delight at Gaiman’s ability to so perfectly encapsulate a short story. I didn’t get shaky-roller-coaster-feel from his stories even though this collection (one of his oldest), varies from free-form prose poetry to the redone fairy tale to the simply new and brilliant. The stories aren’t linked, there’s only one repeat character, but at the end of each piece, I was so satisfied with it, I was ready to move on to the next.

As a collection, the underlying thread is illusion and the uncanny. In each piece, we’re teetering on the line between reality and the world beyond. Could it have happened? Is it just in the mind? The story twists away from its natural end, only to come out in a completely different place. It’s one of things Gaiman does best as a writer in his later works, is to take the thing you think it’s going to be and turn it on its head while pushing it sideways. A few of these stories aren’t even fantasy or deal with fantastical elements; they use the real world and our reactions to it, which in many ways are far more twisted than anything a fantasy writer could think up.

It was also fun to see how some of these early works would later inspire the larger novels we all know and love. The introduction of this book was also worth the read as there was not only a surprise short-story in it, but also a synopsis of where each of the pieces in the collection originated from to give them some context. I highly recommend reading the story first, and then going back to look at the context.

Favorites from the collection include:

“Chivalry”: This ranks as my all-time favorite Gaiman short story. I won’t even bother giving a synopsis; just read it. It’s free on the internet, go find it. It’s adorable in a sad way, and worth fifteen minutes of your time.

“Murder Mysteries”:  I actually went rooting through the collection on the second read trying to find it. It’s about angels, and the before-times, and a fresh look at what happened to Lucifer. Gaiman has a great talent for telling a story within a story in such a way that never feels like too much dialogue, and gives great payoff in the end.

“When We Went to See the End of the World by Dawnie Morningside, age 11 1/4”: Like “Ocean at the End of the Lane,” Gaiman’s child-voice is spot-on believable and keeps you from being prepared for the inevitable end.

“Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar”: This one’s just fun; you know what’s coming as you go, but it’s still a fun ride when you get to the end.

My only issue with this series is there’s A LOT of penis. Almost every story has a penis somewhere, doing penis things. Not that there’s anything wrong with heavy penis content, but after the eighth story I felt a bit like playing a very obvious game of “Where’s Waldo” with peni. So if peni aren’t your thing, maybe move along. Otherwise I highly recommend this collection.

4 stars. (-1 for too many peni)