Jagannath: Stories

personally, i became bored with this pretty quickly. yes ... there is the appropriate amount of the weird and of ghoulishness, all executed in a perfectly formal (energy-less) storytelling style-by-rote ... BUT ... i felt i was observing the telling of a story, rather than the story gripping me, pulling me, taking me along for a ride. i felt no tension, no fear, no wonder, no philosophical challenge. nothing. Karin Tidbeck tries hard, but she really has little new to say, and more importantly, doesn't seem to know how to touch another's mind and/or heart. as for the context of the Nordic fairly tales - it was this that drew me to the book, coming from a Scottish heritage - my question to myself was "are these really the best she can riff off?" Well ... i personally found the fairy tale riffs insipid too. makes me want to go read Tam O' Shanter again :) ... but in fact i am going to move on (back) to Tove Jansson - for some wonderful writing, wonderful characters, wonderful storytelling ... AND ... a sense of adventure and heartfulness ... it's been a few decades since i read her ... be brave and give Jagannath a miss.

This woman. This writer. Oh, my god.If you want to read samples of her work, you can go to her website and she has links to some of her short stories that have appeared in other publications. One story and you will be hooked.Dark, sinewy, silky prose, with the right amount of absurdity and humor. It's science fiction for those of us who like a huge dose of reality with our unreality. She weaves them together so well, you get carried along almost against your will. The pages beg you to turn them, the words spill out and on and on and you have to finish the story to get it to make sense, and even sometimes then you are left holding the book, looking off into the distance, linking up ideas in you head.This is brain candy. The art of short story telling is perfected in this book and in her other stories. I absolutely cannot wait for more. Karin TIdbeck is a gift to us all.Yeah, I'm aware I'm fangirling like crazy. It's just that good writing can sometimes be hard to find, so when I stumble on genius, I can't help but gush.

Yes this collection of stories can be called odd but they are also wonderful in their humanness and entertainment value. This is the first work I have read by Swedish writer Karin Tidbeck but it will certainly not be the last. I literally devoured the book and then went back and re-read the stories more slowly in order to closely examine and understand the text. There are lovely stories of a man who falls in love with an airship; a man who builds himself a suit which makes him fly like a bumblebee; a girl who writes letters to her dead father; a young girl who puts on an old wedding dress and her sister disappears into the mountains; babies made in tin cans; a species of human like beings who live in a place where time does not exist (one of my favorites); and the story of 3 aunts whose sole job it was to eat and get large as possible.Although these stories sounds odd and peculiar they are packed full of human emotions, such as longing, heartbreak, dread and love. These are touching and beautiful stories that will stay with you long after you have read them. I love fantasy literature but I have never read another author who writes quite like Tidbeck. The closest I can think of in similar writing style would be Kelly Link, another author I adore. Therefore, if you like stories a little outside the mainstream with a wonderful writing style then this is the book for you.Now I'm off to find more Tidbeck stories written in English to enjoy and linger over. Good reading to you!

"Jagannath"--the first English collection from Swedish author Karin Tidbeck--is the most startlingly original and hauntingly beautiful book I've read in the last few years. It's tempting to describe Ms. Tidbeck's ideas and language in (no doubt clichéd) Nordic terms: long winter twilight and crisp clear lines, a no-nonsense modernism and a fey forest folklore. But these stories come from some realm far more strange and haunted.It's difficult--and probably useless--to assign these stories to any particular genre or style. There are elements of Borges's academic literary fantasies and of García Márquez'a folkloric Magic Realism, of a darkly twisted Lewis Carroll and a wryly modest Kafka. And over all there is a timelessness, originality, and clarity of language that will appeal to readers of fantastic and literary fiction alike. It's the sort of book you will reread (I've been through it twice already) and lend to (or buy for) friends.The book is getting rave reviews from sites like NPR and Publisher's Weekly and from authors like Ursula K. Le Guin, China Miéville, and Elizabeth Hand. I'm betting it will be in the running for a slew of awards in the coming year.

This is a stunning collection of short stories from Swedish superstar author Karin Tidbeck, so Amazon asking me to describe the books plot is not very helpful. This collection is my favorite discovery among many recent books. Several of the tales are flavored with folklore and myth and these she puts to good use. Broadly these could be described as "speculative fiction" with some leaning to sci-fi, others to fantasy and some naturalistic or atmospheric. All are at a very high level of literary attainment. All in all, they are the bees' knees!

I enjoyed these strange, otherworldy tales. It's difficult to choose a favourite because they are all so different, but I think the Alice in Wonderland ones were the creepiest (Augusta Prime and Aunts), the one with the strange summerland people the sweetest (Brita's Holiday Village) and I loved Reindeer Moutain (Cilla was twelve years old the summer Sara put on her great-grandmother’s wedding dress and disappeared up the mountain.)But my favourite by far was the titular Jagannath. (Another child was born in the great Mother, excreted from the tube protruding from the Nursery ceiling.) That one was a blazing note to end the collection on.

Having heard good things about Karin Tidbeck from friends, I was impatient to see Jagannath hit the shelves. She lives up to her hype. The book itself is a collection of short stories, and if you enjoy the strange, or the odd, or the slightly disturbing, or a mixture of all three, this book is a chocolate box of delights. There's wild fantasy and weird sci-fi, all with a darkly clever edge which leaves you wanting more, wondering what happens to each character next. The author grabs your attention, and doesn't let go. In fact, I read from cover to cover in one sitting initially, then went back for another read through, only to find myself swept from front cover to back in one sitting again, a rarity in a book I'm not familiar with.In conclusion, this is well worth a read, and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future!

I read this collection from Start to finish in a couple of days. I lived it. Can't wait to read more by Latin and delve into weird fiction generally. I must dig out the decades old weird tales lying around in the loft!

Bit disappointing. Not my kind of story. Fell a bit flat for me.

These are threatening and mindboggling little worlds that you delve into. Very different from one another, yet suddenly with a connection. In different ways, many of the stories are claustrophobic, others colourful and distant as a sweet yet painful dream.

Hay textos que sólo pueden ser entendidos en retrospectiva. La introducción de Elizabeth Hand para Jagannath es uno de ellos:“Es extraño, casi inaudito, encontrar autores con un talento tan extraordinario que parecen haber salido a la arena literaria completamente formados, como Atenea de la cabeza de Zeus. Pero vivimos tiempos extraordinarios, y en Karin Tidbeck parece que hemos encontrado a la artista que merece nuestro época”.Lejos de ser la boutade que aparenta, tras leer esta colección de relatos suscribo las palabras de Hand punto por punto.Trece cuentos se incluyen en esta colección. La mayoría son excelentes; algunos son perfectos. Algunos han sido publicados con anterioridad en inglés. Quizá por haberlo hecho en revistas “menores” han pasado desapercibidos, pero sería una estafa que al menos dos de ellos no lleguen a ser finalistas al premio Hugo.No hablo a la ligera: “Who is Arvid Pekon?” es un cuento digno del propio Kafka, “August Prima” habría dado envidia a Carroll y “Aunts” crea una mitología propia en menos de 2.000 palabras; “Pyret”, “Jagannath” y “Beatrice” son inolvidables; todos son extraños.Las historias de Jagannath no son golosinas azucaradas, sino narraciones inquietantes, originales, abiertas. Escenarios desgarrados y mundos anómalos, incómodos. No busques aquí esparcimiento, sino desasosiego.Los traductores saborearán con especial deleite (o livor) la exquisita prosa inglesa con la que la propia autora ha vertido los textos desde su sueco natal. En un interesantísimo epílogo, Karin Tidbeck reflexiona sobre este proceso de autotraducción inversa y sobre las dificultades que una autora de fantasía encuentra para publicar en su propio país. A este respecto, en España estamos a la altura de Suecia.Estas 142 páginas de ficción weird — nombre de moda para lo que no encaja — han sido alabadas por Ursula K. Le Guin y China Miéville, entre otros.Leelas con calma: tardarás muchos años en encontrar algo igual.