โ Scribed by Le Guin, Ursula K.
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Hugo and Nebula awards cling to her writings like iron filings to a magnet. Even so, Le Guin has written numerous stories with no hint of scientific speculation or fantasy?like the majority of the 18 tales in this collection, many of which first appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, Playboy and elsewhere during the past 14 years. Set partially in an abortion clinic and steeped in realism, "Standing Ground" is a truthful and difficult story, first published in Ms., about the plight of a teenage girl and her pregnant, retarded mother. On the other end of the spectrum is "Poacher," an inversion of the Sleeping Beauty myth wherein the use of mind and spirit is itself the ultimate reward. Also particularly strong is "Half Past Four," a virtuoso literary exercise that evokes a wide range of emotions as Le Guin rearranges the situations and sensibilities of a small group of characters, focusing primarily on three adults and their relationships to a retarded infant. The collection flows like water: it's sometimes rough and agitated; sometimes playful, as in "Limberlost," in which an author returns to the campground of her youth, now the site of a rustic literary conference; and sometimes reflective, as in the title story, a parable/fairy tale about love and political change in a place where "[t]hey stood on the stones in the lightly falling snow and listened to the silvery, trembling sound of thousands of keys being shaken, unlocking the air, once upon a time." Admirers of fine literature, fantastic or not, will cherish this rich offering.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Famous for her 1960s^-70s science fiction and fantasy novels, Le Guin has more recently published poetry, children's books, and short stories. This is a collection of the last, most of them quite short. Read all at once, they pall, for their manners are too alike. They are magically realistic: "Ether, OR," for instance, is set in a town that moves around, though its buildings seem not to. They are introspective and often about introspection: "The Professor's Houses" focuses on the miniature house on which a man lavishes his attention rather than fixing the family domicile. They are self-consciously writerly: the title story follows an uprising in an Eastern European country in sections each of which begins with a statement of its literary type or stock subject ("This is history," "This is a committee meeting," etc.). They are very well written: every sentence, paragraph, and section is well-balanced and melodious--which saves them when they start seeming precious. Not at all precious, however, is the riveting "Standing Ground," set in and outside of an abortion clinic. Ray Olson
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