Book Review: Fragile Things

Ten Word Sum­mary: Short, won­der­ful, imag­i­na­tive and highly enter­tain­ing for the most part.

There are a few books nowa­days — unfor­tu­nately — that are capa­ble of throw­ing you into an inex­plic­a­bly odd world where you can find your­self com­fort­able and rest­less at the same time. Hav­ing a book with not one story, but sto­ries that do just that, is a piece of mar­vel in itself.

Neil Gaiman’s Frag­ile Things is a won­der — and Neil has no issue at all in putting that word as part of the extended title. This col­lec­tion of short sto­ries sends you into mag­i­cal world after mag­i­cal world. When it suc­ceeds, it cap­ti­vates you, immerses you into a touch­ing story (often thought-​provoking) and gen­uine atmos­phere. I have, at times, felt I was sit­ting along with the months of the year as they shared their sto­ries over the bon­fire. I have been tor­mented by a demon in Hell for the sins I have com­mit­ted, for being weak.. I have clubbed with aliens, ate cat meat, been a psy­chotic mess, been in love and out of it.

Granted, not all sto­ries are going to appeal to every­one — cer­tainly I could not help myself to fin­ish a cou­ple of sto­ries, and the greater lot of the first quar­ter of the sto­ries were sub­par… but as I flipped the pages, the sto­ries got pro­gres­sively bet­ter and more bizarre. And there’s 27 of them.

Bot­tom Line: If you have lit­tle time to spare, or short term mem­ory, this is your best place to be re-​introduced to lit­er­a­ture.