Fireworks by Angela Carter (Review #38)

Fireworks by Angela Carter

Blurb

In the short fiction of Angela Carter, the landmarks of reality disappear and give way to a landscape of riotous and uncensored sensibility. The city of Tokyo turns into a mirrored chamber reflecting the impossible longings of an exiled Englishwoman abandoned by her Japanese lover. An itinerant puppet show becomes a theatre of murderous lust. A walk through the forest ends in a nightmarish encounter with a gun-toting nymph and her hermaphrodite ‘aunt’. Not simply a book of tales, Fireworks is a headlong plunge into an alternate universe, the unique creation of one of the most fertile, dark, irreverent, and baroquely beautiful imaginations in contemporary fiction.

Review

I love the work of Angela Carter and during my teenage years I read quite a few of her books but nothing recently so when I saw this book of short stories I thought it was high time I read some more books by Carter.

I was really surprised by this book because it felt quite different to the books I have read previously by Carter. All the books I have read before are based on legends and fairytales but this contained scenes from real life as well as the fantasy. 

I loved the descriptions of Japan in the stories although the story of the exiled Englishwoman in Japan gradually losing the interest of her young Japanese lover was a bit harrowing. 

I will be honest The Loves of Lady Purple and The Executioner’s Daughter were rather disturbing and not to my liking. No matter how beautifully written they are, I still didn’t enjoy these two stories. 

This Carter book of short stories definitely contained some of Carter’s favourite themes. There was theme of sex, especially the forbidden kind, puppetry and even a magic mirror. However, there was also fireworks, scenes of beautiful Japan and heartbreak. It was really nice to get back into reading Carter again and I will definitely be reading more of her books soon. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons. 

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About the author

Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, nee Stalker) (1940-1992) published under the name Angela Carter. Carter was an English novelist , short story writer, poet and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism and picaresque works.

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