Fragile Things
By Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins, 355 pages, $34
Reviewed by Ariel Gordon
THERE are thousands of writers with books to their names but very few auteurs, whose singular visions of the world shine through whatever medium they work in.
One of the problems with being an auteur is that eventually someone wants to put together the equivalent of a boxed set, where the organizing principle is authorship and not theme.
Since he got his start in comics nearly 25 years ago, American fantasy and science-fiction master Neil Gaiman has written in any number of disciplines, in any number of genres and subgenres, including comics, fiction and film.
Gaiman's latest book, consisting of 31 pieces of short fiction and poetry, is, like a boxed set, meant for serious collectors only.
Most of the stories in Fragile Things were commissioned by friends and colleagues for anthologies of fantasy stories of one stripe or another.
Others had more exotic origins, like "Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky," which was written for the tour book of singer-songwriter Tori Amos's Scarlet's Walk (2002).
Though most are satisfying examples of genre fiction, none amount to the sustained wonder that is the 10-volume Sandman series of comics (1987-1996) or his fourth novel, American Gods (2001).
By turns slyly humourous and deadly serious, both of these projects take on utterly contemporary themes - like finding meaning and purpose in our megacities - but positively bristle with elements from myths and folk tales.
Their length also allows for Gaiman's trademark tug of war between straightforward narrative and the kind of plot that only makes sense in a dream to work to full effect.
Some of the more interesting stories in Fragile Things, including "Bitter Grounds" and "Harlequin Valentine" (riffs on zombies and commedia dell'arte, respectively), read like the opening chapters to novels you wish Gaiman would write next.
Others, including "Other People" and the novella "The Monarch of the Glen" are basically 'deleted scenes' from previously published novels.
A third category includes stories set in another auteur's world, ranging from the filmmaking Wachowski brothers' Matrix trilogy ("Goliath") and C.S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles ("The Problem of Susan") to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series ("A Study in Emerald").
Though it is amusing - and instructive - to watch Gaiman train his talent on the blood and guts of other writers' stories, the stories are not, ultimately, satisfying as works of art.
All of that said, the introduction to the collection, which meticulously documents the provenance of each story as well as meditates on the role of the storyteller in the creation of myth and folk stories, is almost worth the price of admission by itself.
Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg writer.
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