I probably should start
this review by saying that Ursula le Guin is a hero of mine. I came
to her writing embarrassingly late, having managed to miss
Earthsea in my youth. I have to thank my son for introducing me to
her work. He picked a copy of The Wizard of Earthsea that was lying
unread on my bookshelf and, liking the 1970s style cover
illustration, decided to read it to pass the time during his
university vacation. When he reappeared from his room, he said, “Mum,
you should read this. You will love it.” I did read it and I did
love it.
What I love about Le
Guin is that she doesn't shy away from serious issues in her work.
There is a realism about politics and society in her most fantastical writings. The actions and decisions of
her characters have consequences. Her writing cannot and should not be put into
categories. To be sure she gets slotted into science fiction and
fantasy more often than not, but she is above all a wonderful writer
with huge literary merit. To my mind she is simply one of the best
writers around and her books on writing are also some of the best you
can buy.
This book is one of two
collections of her short stories selected by the writer herself. It contains stories set on Earth or sort of set on Earth - the
selection of Orsinian Tales that opens it are set in a fictional
Eastern European country. The second volume explores other worlds.
I have been honoured
that on a number of occasions reviewers have compared my work with that of Ursula Le Guin, especially to her Orsinian stories. I am immensely flattered by
the comparison. It was on reading Le Guin that I realized that it
was possible to create a “real” fantasy world. The collection
opens with an introduction by the writer in which she describes
Orsinia as the way, lying between actuality, which was supposed
to be the sole subject of fiction and the limitless realms of the
imagination. In other words the
way of magic realism. I identified with Orsinia immediately. The
latest Orsinian tale is featured in this book. Written in 1990, it is
about the point at which communism fell in Orsinia. Its title,
“Unlocking the Air”, refers to protesters waving their keys in the
air to indicate it is time for their oppressors to hand over the
keys. As a part-time inhabitant of the Czech Republic, I know the
power of that very real image.
The
collection includes realist tales and magic realist ones (and some which
might even lie in between). I could say that I particularly enjoyed
Ether, Or a tale set in a town that keeps moving locations, the
well-known Buffalo Girls, Unlocking the Air, The Diary of the Rose,
Gwilan's Harp and May's Lion. But to say this is in a way to belittle
this collection, which has been put together with great care and
which is far more than the some of its parts.
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