Title: Wilde Stories 2010
Editor: Steve Berman
Publisher: Lethe Press
Genre: Gay modern literature, spec fiction
Length: 230 pages
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
A guest review by Jenre
Summary Review
An eclectic mix of spec fiction stories which will appeal to those who love Modern Literature, but which I found overly worthy and rather depressing.
THE BLURB
A newcomer to San Francisco falls in love too fast despite the warnings of a cadre of ghosts haunting his uncle; a businessman comes to regret his ennui when faced with the machinations of an outsider artist; on a train traveling through a dangerous Russian winter, a passenger encounters a wolf on two legs; a mining colony where love has become dangerous but no less passionate; a young man, mourning the loss of his ballet career, may yet get his chance to fly—these are some of the stories in this anthology, stories chosen from magazines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best gay male speculative fiction of the past year.
Inside these pages are both authors acclaimed (award-winners Laird Barron, Elizabeth Hand, Tanith Lee and Joel Lane) and fresh voices (Tom Cardamone, Georgina Li) offering the best tales of fantastical and weird happenings befalling gay men.
THE REVIEW
This book is one which I’ve found rather difficult to rate and review. On one hand, I recognise that the stories are well written in a variety of styles which would fit under the umbrella of Modern Literature. On the other hand, like most Modern Lit, these stories were often dreary, depressing, bizarre, dull and nearly all ended badly or in a vague fashion which made me wonder what the point of the story had been. Reading this anthology reminded me why I stopped reading Modern Lit because, after the first couple of stories, I began each story wondering whether I should emotionally invest in the characters or whether I should hold back in case the author decides to kill off the protagonist or have him befall some dreadful fate by the end of the story. When I was in my 20s I loved stories liked this, full of drama and angst, with odd tricksy writing techniques and plots where nothing is straightforward and you never knew quite what is going on. Now I’m older, I read stories like this and they make me depressed and long for a decent plot, as well as realise what a very pretentious person I must have been in my 20s.
So, as you can imagine from reading the above, I didn’t really enjoy reading this anthology very much, despite having a general liking for Spec fiction, especially within the romance genre. It was a slog, I have to admit. However, I could also appreciate that each of the stories were classic examples of good Modern Lit, and that any of the readers of this blog who enjoys Modern Literature will like this anthology a great deal – hence my wavering over the grade. In the end I’ve gone for three stars because of the line in Wave’s rating system “of interest to readers of the genre” as those who like Modern Lit will be interested in this anthology, also there were some stories out of the anthology that I did like, and that did end well (sort of).
The first of these, and my favourite, was the very last story in the anthology, The far Shore by Elizabeth Hand. It tells of ballet dancer Philip who was injured and now teaches ballet instead. As the story begins he’s been told that he’s lost his job and so heads out to house-sit for a friend at a remote location during the winter. One day, whilst out walking, Philip stumbles over what he thinks is the dead body of a young man. On closer inspection, Philip discovers that the man is alive and takes him home to recover. It isn’t long before Philip discovers that there’s something special about the young man. What I liked most about the story was the mix of fairy-tale, ballet analogy and romance which, when you added the spooky setting of the remote location and the coldness of winter creeping in, complemented each other perfectly. It has its moments of horror and revulsion, but they were balanced out by a story of love and making the right choice.
The second story I liked was also the shortest story in the anthology, Like they Always Been Free by Georgina Li, which told of two men from very different social situations, and species, who are imprisoned on a mining planet, and how their love transcends social boundaries. I found it quite beautiful in the simplicity of its language and I especially liked that it was written in the lilting dialect of the protagonist, Klinger. The last image of their clasped hands was just delightful and made up for the end of some of the other stories where I was left with the last thoughts and images of a dying hero.
Honourable mentions need to go to Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine by Rhys Hughes, which managed to use a vast number of sexual innuendos, toilet humour and puns in its humourous story of a futuristic policeman who attempts to solve the ‘vampire problem’; and to a more sombre tale, I Needs must Part, the Policeman Said by Richard Bowes, where a man in hospital is given the choice of a job in the afterlife by a couple of very unusual angels, and whose story had an uneasy dreamlike quality. There were a also couple of other stories, Some of them Fell by Joel Lane and Death in Amsterdam by Jameson Currier which I really enjoyed, right up until the end of the story.
As I said earlier, my dislike of parts of this anthology was not to do with the writing, which was consistently excellent, but with the subject matter and the way some of the stories were structured to deliberately play with the emotions of the reader, or to be confusing. Some of you will read this review and think me a literary pleb because I like a happy and/or resolved ending. In that case this anthology should be perfect for you and I wish you well with it. As for me and, I suspect, many readers of this blog, I prefer my stories with a little more happiness, at least at the end. Which, I suppose, is why I read mostly romance.
Another really helpful, analytical review, Jen. Thanks! I’ll admit that I’ve found the cover art offputting enough to make me hesitate to pick this one up, and your review has given me enough info to know that you and I are in accordance in what features we hope to find in fiction and neither one of us enjoy Modern Lit enough to find them here. 🙂
Hi Val
I can’t actually work out what is happening on the front cover. Is the model half submerged in concrete? Bizarre and strangely fitting for this anthology.
Thanks for the nice comment, Val. I found this anthology very difficult to review as I didn’t want to be overly negative but also wanted to say why it didn’t work for me.
*makes arcane sign to warn off Modern Lit*
Ha, ha, Chris! Should we break out the garlic? Does that work on vampires and Modern Lit? 😉
Lol, Chris. I completely understand :).
Aww, no love for modern & postmodern fiction? What a shame. Needless to say, I adore it and consider myself a pomo-homo.
Whenever Wave features a Lethe title on this blog I’m always very anxious.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but for 95% of our books, you’re not the target audience. Not even in the 2nd tier of the audience the authors and editors aspire to reach and connect with. I would say that we publish very little traditional m/m romance – and the spec fic elements of most m/m I found are trappings and backdrops so we can have fellatio and flowers in space or with a dragon. This is why I so rarely find a story I think is worthwhile for the WILDE STORIES series in the work of m/m authors.
So, I appreciate that Jenre mentioned how the writing was excellent. I concur. As far as the dire and depressing endings, well 1/3 of spec fic is horror and those stories don’t always end well for the characters.
Hi Steve
Thanks for stopping by, and I agree with you, most of the readers of this blog are not your target audience for books such as these. Although I did very much like the Sean Meriwether anthology that you produced, which is one reason why I agreed to read and review this anthology, the other being that I like spec fiction in general.
What you say about the horror genre is interesting because I was a big fan of horror books during my mis-spent youth. Yet nearly all the books I’ve read by the popular horror writers did end well, at least for the main protagonist. I’m not saying the protagonist escaped unscathed, but at least there was a relatively positive and satisfying ending to the story, even if that ending was death to the bad guy/monster. I think a lot of my objection was to do with how well some of the writers had made me care about the hero – I suppose a sign of how well written some of the stories were – only to leave me feeling sad/upset when the hero was killed or left in a dire situation – and in fact the story which most affected me this way wasn’t a horror at all, more a paranormal mystery. I hate being manipulated like that, which is why many of the stories just didn’t work for me.
Also, killing off the hero at the end of a story is, in my opinion, a sloppy way of concluding a story, akin to ‘and it was all a dream’. Not that I expect you would agree with me on that one :).
Jenre,
I can think of plenty of horror novels and stories that kill of main characters. How about “The Lottery”? Or King’s Tommyknockers? And in Liz Hand’s story the main character dies… it’s based off of a famous Finnish myth.
Yes, you are supposed to care about the characters. The fact that you were upset at their fate is a catharsis.
Hi Steve
I have read The Tommyknockers, but I must admit it was over 20 years ago and I’m a little vague on the details. The fact that I can’t remember it but can remember books like The Stand, which does end well, probably suggests I was less than impressed with the end of that one too :).
Surely a cathartic moment needs some sort of following on, some levelling out so that the emotions are more resignation and release than upset. One of the great cathartic moments, when Oedipus Rex gouges out his eyes with the broaches from his dead wife/mother is followed by his exile and the Chorus who tells us that life is always going to involve suffering, leaving us wiser and more accepting of what we have witnessed. How much poorer would the end of Hamlet be without Horatio and Fortinbras to console on the nature of foolish ambition and revenge? A dead man in an alley tells us nothing but that he has made a tragic mis-step.
Oh dear, I seem to have slipped into teacher mode. Don’t mind me, I could go on for hours about the nature of tragedy in literature. It’s no wonder I seek happy endings in my leisure reading :).
I think it’s a mistake to dismiss the readers of this site for not being ‘the target audience’ – this may primarily be a m/m review site, but time and time again in polls and recommendation posts the commenters have shown that they read beyond the genre and read stories that don’t offer ‘fellatio and flowers in space’ and those which have depressing or cathartic endings. And by being defensive about it, more people may be put off buying a product they may have considered rather than it not having a happy ending.
Great review Jen. This is an interesting anthology. I’m a huge Lethe Press fan and usually devour everything they offer. Even if the story doesn’t resonate with me personally, it’s usually well written and compelling.
I struggled with this anthology out of the gate. I found it wordy and not engaging. I agree the writing is excellent and fits the molds of Modern Lit, which I enjoy in small doses. I found myself skipping stories after a few pages and reluctant to get involved because they simply didn’t grab me.
The focus in these stories feels more about a vehicle for the writing than the subject matter, which sadly didn’t work for me. I can’t judge the entire collection as I didn’t finish it so while this blog may not be Lethe Press’ target audience, I always consider myself to be that audience. Sadly this anthology didn’t grab me, but I’m sure that’s just me as well :).
Hi Kassa
I’m sorry that this anthology didn’t work for you either, and for slightly different reasons. I did find that I liked the stories better towards the end of the anthology so maybe you could start with the last one and work backwards :).
Jen
Fabulous job on the review as always.
From all accounts this book is quite depressing (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but I would have hoped that at least half of the stories would have been entertaining. There are some Lethe Press anthologies that I love e.g. Alleys and Doorways except for the f/f. There’s another one that John should be reviewing this week called The Decade of Blind Dates, and while the subject sounds depressing (imagine going on blind dates for 10 years) I’m hoping it will be a lot more fun than this one. I would probably love Where The Sun Doesn’t shine. 🙂
Thanks Wave :).
I did really like the Sean Merriwether anthology from Lethe and felt that it had a good balance of stories both with and without happy endings.
Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine was quite a hoot. At first I was rolling my eyes a little at all the obvious puns but by the time I got half way through the story I was sniggering like a schoolboy :).
First off, all successful businesses have marketing plans and a publisher needs to know who his target audience is. Secondly, the goal for Lethe has always been to provide good books for gay readers. That is my personal philosophy.
I was a little surprised that Jenre did not ever mention the introduction or my discussion of choosing stories based on their content rather than their author’s gender. I publicly defended the right for anyone to be nominated for a Lambda Award. And being treated this way, well makes me wonder if I not only shouting into the wind but the wind throwing spittle at me.
That said, I do aim for a reader’s gender. I’m a gay author, I run a gay press. Replace this with I’m a black author and I run a black press and aim for black readers… it makes sense.
If a non-gay reader likes the book, fine. It’s neither my aim nor my goal. Attacking that as narrow-minded sounds almost like a boycott threat.
I must admit, despite Wave and Kassa’s kindness for the past months, I’ve become really quite dismayed by the posters. If some gay authors have developed a nasty view of m/m field it is because of some of these comments.
Hi Guys
>>First off, all successful businesses have marketing plans and a publisher needs to know who his target audience is. Secondly, the goal for Lethe has always been to provide good books for gay readers. That is my personal philosophy. << Being without a computer for a few days places me at a disadvantage in responding to some of the comments due to a lack of access. However, to address your comment Steve, as someone whose business is marketing and strategic business planning I agree that if you don't target your customers you would probably end up without a business within a very short time. This site has many gay readers and they welcome the diversity in terms of the books reviewed here, which is one reason I request books from Lethe as well as more "mainstream" M/M romance publishers for review. We don't discriminate on this site against anyone. When I set up the site I was deliberate in choosing what books we would review. I wanted to target M/M and gay fiction because I have many dear friends who are gay and they, as well as female M/M readers, deserve a place where the focus is on stories about gay men. Every business has a target demographic that it hopes to attract and this site is no different, even though it is not a business. My target demographic is gay men as well as women who read M/M romances and gay fiction (which includes speculative fiction because I love spec. fiction). Your strategic vision for Lethe is obviously one that you take a lot of pride in, and no one should tell you that it's wrong. I applaud any business that has a definite vision and purpose and focuses all its efforts in achieving that goal. In terms of books you publish, like any publisher some will get 5 stars and others will come in below that. Authors and publishers have complained when reviewers do not score their books high enough in their view, but each reviewer is an individual and his/her ratings will reflect personal likes and dislikes but will always be fair. Jenre is one of the fairest reviewers on this site (she bends over backward to say nice things about books that she reviews even those she doesn't rate highly, unlike me) :)and many times she requests your books to review because she likes spec fiction. This particular book, for the reasons outlined in the review, was not a favourite. That happens. You have always been good to readers on this site and I hope that our cordial and friendly relations will continue because I think you're a terrific person as well as pretty hot. 🙂 However, because your books are targeted to a different demographic (not romance), obviously M/M romance readers may not like some of them, but I would suggest to you that many of the gay men who are regulars on the site do read them. We all have preferences and our likes and dislikes are different but that does not mean that someone else's view is not valid. I respect everyone's opinions on this site because they are entitled to them and I welcome opposing views to my own - it doesn't take a genius to figure that out - just check my Friday posts when I get beat up every week, but that doesn't mean that I will stop expressing my views. Now I have run out of time because as I said in the beginning of this very long comment, my computer is getting its insides reamed.)