av jophan » tor 06 nov 2008, 17:07
Jag knycker helt enkelt beskrivningar annorstädes ifrån:
The Facts of Life
Sju ovanliga systrar lever i skuggan av andra världskriget. Under bombningarna av Coventry upplever den yngsta ett magiskt uppvaknande som många år senare leder fram till att hon föder en son. Efter kriget skiljs systrarna åt, men det magiska barnet för dem samman igen. Hans uppväxt blir på många sätt en prövning för alla i familjen.
The Limits of Enchantment
Joyce has re-created the heady days of the 60s, in all its mini-skirted, grass-smoking glory. Fern has lived a protected life with her mother, learning about herbs and helping the local population with natural remedies and tinctures. When Mammy falls ill and is taken into hospital, Fern has to face the realities of living on her own for the first time in twenty-one years. With no reliable income and affected by the prejudices of the close community around her, Fern finds herself up against the local gentry who have alternative plans for her cottage, and in trouble with the local police for her associations with her drug-dealing neighbours. In desperation, she turns to the spiritual beliefs she grew up with but it turns out to be a dangerous path to follow...
The Stormwatcher
The story here is a vacation outing of a family (man, woman, two girl children), and three of their friends (another mixed couple and a single female). The problems occur because that which brings them together--their connections to each other, their focus on the children--is also what begins to drive them apart. The father who had once employed his male friend and bagged him because he felt threatened by his friend's success merges with the knowledge that his friend has of the father's past affair with the single woman. The mother becomes a hen over her children, one of which has been having decidedly strange "spells" of strangeness (actions and words that seem to emerge full cloth rather than through mimicry).
Varför de är bra? De leker med verklighetens gränser. De utspelar sig alla i vår verklighet, men man vet inte som läsare hur den verkligheten ser ut. Finns de spöken som dyker upp bara i huvudpersonernas huvuden eller inte? Är det magi eller slump som orsakar skeenden som man inte riktigt får grepp om? De är slipstream, magisk realism. Och innehåller engagerande personporträtt.
Johan Anglemark