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I Don't Know the Author or the Title but it's Red and it has 3 Zombie Stories
"When you work at a bookshop, hopeful customers sometimes come up to the counter and say, 'I don't know the author or the title, but it's red (green, blue, etc) and it has xxxxx in it.' (I've said it myself at least once or twice.) Anyway, for a couple of years, my husband Gavin and I have had a running joke about using this as the title of a collection. These three stories have appeared before, in other collections, but we were hoping that an all-zombie mini-book would make a good sampler for new readers. We designed the book and printed it in less than twenty-four hours. How amazing: to see your book made before your eyes! We're now thinking about other projects for Paige M. Gutenborg." —Kelly Link
Paperback
First published July 1, 2011
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About the author
Kelly Link
210 books2,661 followersKelly Link is an American author best known for her short stories, which span a wide variety of genres - most notably magic realism, fantasy and horror. She is a graduate of Columbia University.
Her stories have been collected in four books - Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, and most recently, Get in Trouble.
She has won several awards for her short stories, including the World Fantasy Award in 1999 for "The Specialist's Hat", and the Nebula Award both in 2001 and 2005 for "Louise's Ghost" and "Magic for Beginners".
Link also works as an editor, and is the founder of independant publishing company, Small Beer Press, along with her husband, Gavin Grant.
Her stories have been collected in four books - Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, and most recently, Get in Trouble.
She has won several awards for her short stories, including the World Fantasy Award in 1999 for "The Specialist's Hat", and the Nebula Award both in 2001 and 2005 for "Louise's Ghost" and "Magic for Beginners".
Link also works as an editor, and is the founder of independant publishing company, Small Beer Press, along with her husband, Gavin Grant.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 21, 2012
I suspect I've read all three of these stories but, as someone who has worked in bookstores and libraries, can I just say that I love, love, love this title?
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November 15, 2021My Review
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December 27, 2020My Review
June 1, 2014
If you are looking for typical zombie mayhem these are not the stories for you. Instead, they are great examples of what good short fiction should be: provocative, challenging bits of literature that stick in your brain for days after you have finished them. All three of the stories are open to multiple interpretations, and one of the stories was darn near impenetrable to me, but all three were united by Link’s terrific ability to use description and metaphor to communicate wonderful images.
Zombie story #1: The Wrong Grave This story is the most accessible, with a protagonist that is (somewhat) relatable, a lot of quite humorous dialog and the closest thing to a “real” zombie in the whole collection. It struck me as a warning to authors who try to go repeat successes of the past rather than moving forward and writing new things. Some favorite quotes from this story:
“Bethany had a great laugh, which went up and up like a clarinetist on an escalator.”
“Miles . . . discovered that his situation was not without precedent. The poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti also buried poetry with his dead lover. Much like Miles, Rossetti had regretted this gesture, had eventually decided to dig up his lover and get back his poems. I’m telling you this so that you never make the same mistake.”
Zombie story #2: Some Zombie Contingency Plans So much going on in this story, but just like the iceburgs that come up frequently in the dialog, it’s all under the surface. There are commentaries on modern art, identity and finding yourself. The painting that is the focal point of the story also gives the reader a clue as to the author’s intent. The painting is described as “some obscured and unknowable thing” that no one in the story, including the museum curators who originally owned it, can quite remember or comprehend. I think this is how Link views her short stories, as things that are open to interpretation, with the true intent of the author indecipherable. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this story:
“Art and prison were the kind of things that you had opinions about, even if you didn’t know anything about them.”
“[the soap] smelled instead like those air fresheners which hang from the rearview mirrors in taxis or stolen cars. Like looking behind you smells like strawberries.”
Zombie Story #3: The Hortlak (means ghost in Turkish) I have to admit, I didn’t like this story much until I read this review by blogger Matt Hilliard http://matthilliard.wordpress.com/201... which ‘splains pretty much the whole thing. It’s a brilliant review and I thank him for posting it where others can benefit from his analysis. I particularly like his meta-fictional analysis of the story as a warning to those who think they can ever truly understand the meaning of a work of art. This is definitely a story that benefits from a re-read, now I see a lot more undercurrents than I did the first time around. Parts of it are actually a bit surreal, like “Waiting for Godot.” It’s not only the way the zombies say things that don’t make sense, but also the way the characters talk to each other, and there are Turkish translations thrown in like a Greek Chorus.
“Wooden hat,” one zombie said to Eric, “Glass leg. Drove around all day in my wife. Did you ever hear me on the radio?”
“We could always go somewhere and not talk, if you want to practice. Or I could talk to you, and you could pretend you don’t understand what I’m saying.”
Eric: “But is it our plan? Or are we just following someone else’s plan?” Batu: “Why does that matter to you?” Eric: “I thought we were on a mission . . . to help mankind. Womankind, too. Like the Starship Enterprise."
“Hangi yol daha kisa? Which is the shorter route? Hangi yol daha kolay? Which is the easier route?”
Faves here include:
“Charley looked like someone from a Greek play, Electra, or Cassandra. She looked like someone had just set her favorite city on fire.”
“The All-Night Convenience was a fully stocked, self-sufficient organism, like the Starship Enterprise, or the Kon-Tiki.”
The more I think about this story, the more I like it. I can’t say I understand it, but understanding is not required.
Zombie story #1: The Wrong Grave This story is the most accessible, with a protagonist that is (somewhat) relatable, a lot of quite humorous dialog and the closest thing to a “real” zombie in the whole collection. It struck me as a warning to authors who try to go repeat successes of the past rather than moving forward and writing new things. Some favorite quotes from this story:
“Bethany had a great laugh, which went up and up like a clarinetist on an escalator.”
“Miles . . . discovered that his situation was not without precedent. The poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti also buried poetry with his dead lover. Much like Miles, Rossetti had regretted this gesture, had eventually decided to dig up his lover and get back his poems. I’m telling you this so that you never make the same mistake.”
Zombie story #2: Some Zombie Contingency Plans So much going on in this story, but just like the iceburgs that come up frequently in the dialog, it’s all under the surface. There are commentaries on modern art, identity and finding yourself. The painting that is the focal point of the story also gives the reader a clue as to the author’s intent. The painting is described as “some obscured and unknowable thing” that no one in the story, including the museum curators who originally owned it, can quite remember or comprehend. I think this is how Link views her short stories, as things that are open to interpretation, with the true intent of the author indecipherable. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this story:
“Art and prison were the kind of things that you had opinions about, even if you didn’t know anything about them.”
“[the soap] smelled instead like those air fresheners which hang from the rearview mirrors in taxis or stolen cars. Like looking behind you smells like strawberries.”
Zombie Story #3: The Hortlak (means ghost in Turkish) I have to admit, I didn’t like this story much until I read this review by blogger Matt Hilliard http://matthilliard.wordpress.com/201... which ‘splains pretty much the whole thing. It’s a brilliant review and I thank him for posting it where others can benefit from his analysis. I particularly like his meta-fictional analysis of the story as a warning to those who think they can ever truly understand the meaning of a work of art. This is definitely a story that benefits from a re-read, now I see a lot more undercurrents than I did the first time around. Parts of it are actually a bit surreal, like “Waiting for Godot.” It’s not only the way the zombies say things that don’t make sense, but also the way the characters talk to each other, and there are Turkish translations thrown in like a Greek Chorus.
“Wooden hat,” one zombie said to Eric, “Glass leg. Drove around all day in my wife. Did you ever hear me on the radio?”
“We could always go somewhere and not talk, if you want to practice. Or I could talk to you, and you could pretend you don’t understand what I’m saying.”
Eric: “But is it our plan? Or are we just following someone else’s plan?” Batu: “Why does that matter to you?” Eric: “I thought we were on a mission . . . to help mankind. Womankind, too. Like the Starship Enterprise."
“Hangi yol daha kisa? Which is the shorter route? Hangi yol daha kolay? Which is the easier route?”
Faves here include:
“Charley looked like someone from a Greek play, Electra, or Cassandra. She looked like someone had just set her favorite city on fire.”
“The All-Night Convenience was a fully stocked, self-sufficient organism, like the Starship Enterprise, or the Kon-Tiki.”
The more I think about this story, the more I like it. I can’t say I understand it, but understanding is not required.
December 27, 2011
I love Kelly Link and I love the three stories in this book, printed exclusively on Paige M. Gutenborg, the Harvard Book Store's book printing robot! (Disclaimer: I work there sometimes, and I still think Paige is super cool.) Kelly's stories remind me of one of those weird dreams where everything you saw, heard, thought that day winds up in it, along with your favorite TV show and zombies, the kind you wake up from and you're sad it was all a dream.
October 1, 2015
I've read these 3 stories in other collections. They're unique and quite varied and all three are excellent. The 3 stories (according to someone else's review) are:
The Wrong Grave
Some Zombie Contingency Plans
The Hortlak
The Wrong Grave
Some Zombie Contingency Plans
The Hortlak
August 12, 2011
Even though I've read these 3, I always reread Kelly, one of the few authors I can. What a little gem!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews