This seems to be a slightly unpopular opinion, I'm discovering - but I adore Karen Russell's work. I had some issues with [b:Swamplandia!|11252905|Swamplandia!|Karen Russell|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327933638s/11252905.jpg|13438215] but that book has stuck with me far longer than it had any right to, perhaps because it forced me to feel so strangely. But Ms. Russell's first book of short stories is incredible. None of them quite resolve and instead ring out like tones echoing through a church long after the organ has ceased to sound. They are all, even the most mundane ones, quite fantastical - for they evoke a sort of melancholy that is not necessarily sad, there's some happy in there too, but mostly they just feel like magic. Real, actual magic. Right there on the page. I'm a true believer, folks. This is the real deal.I expound further and more eloquently on the topic at RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-FJ
