After being absolutely delighted with The Magic Toyshop, which has probably been my favourite book this year, I picked up Fireworks, a collection of short stories by Angela Carter. At the very outset, I should say this: I'm not the biggest fan of short stories. Sure, there are exceptions, but, more often than not, I don't like them. Character build-ups aren't great, the plots are predictable, and the last grasp plot twists sometimes make me cringe.
I wasn't sure what to expect with this collection, but I decided to give it a fair shot. After all, no point having preconceived notions, right?
Fireworks is a collection of nine bizarre short stories, all of which belong to the 'magical realism' genre. There are surreal stories about reflections, and mirrors, a freakish story about puppets (reminiscent of The Magic Toyshop), a scary story about children in a forest, where the plants are carnivorous. The stories touch upon topics, like incest, rape, loneliness and estrangement. The writing, as expected, is beautiful:
She sprang towards the exquisite, odoriferous tree which, at the moment, suffused in failing yet hallucinatory light the tone and intensity of liquefied amber, seemed to her brother a perfect equivalent of his sister's amazing beauty, a beauty he had never seen before that filled him, now, with ecstasy. The dark pool reflected her darkly, like an antique mirror. She raised her hand to part the leaves in search of a ripe fruit but the greenish skin seemed to warm and glow under her fingers so the first one she touched came as easily off the stem as if it had been brought to perfection by her touch.
However, I found myself reading a lot of the stories, and thinking, "what's the point of this, if any?" I can't really pinpoint what was missing, but, I just didn't enjoy this book. I am going to attribute it to the fact that short stories aren't my cup of tea. However, if you like short stories, gothic magical surrealism, and parallelisms drawn with things you identify (e.g. The Original Sin), am sure you'll like it.
Rating: 3