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Carregando... Transportedde Tim Jones
Nenhum(a) Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. 5   avaland | Jul 28, 2008 | 
 The originality, gentle humour and sheer variety in this collection makes it clear why former Southlander Tim Jones was long-listed for the 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award alongside established New Zealand writers Elizabeth Smither and Witi Ihimaera and Sue Orr. The easy blending of genres and assured writing means stories like The New Neighbour, with its satirical take on an insular kiwi community's reaction to new immigrants, has appeal beyond its science fiction origins. There is an amused and kindly glow to the telling, making the commentary all the more pointed. There are satire and surrealism; dystopias and parables; 19th century pastiches and contemporary vernacular – sometimes juxtaposed, as in "The Visit of M. Foucault to His Brother Wayne". And all spangled with literary references and other, sometimes arcane, allusions …. Other targets for Jones's skewering wit are politics, corporations, advertising, xenophobia, pretentious lit crit and (my favourite) the invasion of the local arts scene by bureaucracy and commercial jargon. In "Said Sheree", poets are ranked in tiers "for funding purposes" and are reassessed and reclassified every autumn. Both "Win a Day with Mikhail Gorbachev" and "Best Practice" give us caricatures of the worst excesses of corporate values in the best traditions of brilliant cartoonists …. So, dazzling and highly entertaining ...
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a half-day holiday decree A well-known poet pursues his elusive muse; a Kiwi makes himself indispensable in Oz; a revolutionary fast-food franchise revs up Russia's economy; a racing-car driver is airborne; temperate Otago exports its kiwifruit worldwide; a Frenchman called Foucault puts in the hard yards at an antipodean dairy farm - all while water laps at our feet, our homes, our lives . . . With Tim Jones' stories you should expect the unexpected. This remarkably refreshing collection uses a lively mix of genres, taking readers on flights of fancy, transports of delight, and even occasional trips of nostalgia. Some of the stories are unique ways of looking at the everyday and ordinary, others take us out of this world. They are funny, moving, insightful and, above all, delightfully different. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
Autor LibraryThingTim Jones é um Autor LibraryThing, um autor que lista a sua biblioteca pessoal na LibraryThing. Current DiscussionsNenhum(a)Capas populares  
 Google Books — Carregando...GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)823.2Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Pre-Elizabethan 1400-1558AvaliaçãoMédia: (4.33)
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"Transported" is a collection of more than two dozen short stories by New Zealand author Tim Jones. I don't think there is one overarching theme as might be suggested by the title, but I come away from the whole collection with thoughts of human beings' relationships with each other and their relationship with the earth they live on.
The collection is more varied than most, ranging from thoughtful stories of human relationships, to clever and witty flirtations with the famous like Borges, Lenin and Gorbachev; to mythology, suspense, and science fiction. For me it was like trying to drive on a country back road when one has been driving in suburbs for too long; it takes a little getting used to the unexpected turns in the road, the bumps and ruts, the fallen trees and the narrow stretches. This is not a bad thing, for indeed, country roads offer their own pleasures.
Some of my favorite stories are: "Alarm" and "Robinson in Love", two stories about men in almost-relationships; "Cold Storage" a suspense story about a con-artist's last con (and maybe not!); "Morning on Volkov", an eerie science fiction tale about researchers monitoring the proto-life on an alien planet; and "Measureless to Man", a story about Coleridge and his muse (so to speak). There are bits of other stories which still linger and more than a few vivid images of the land called New Zealand. This is a fine collection of short fiction for the adventurous reader who enjoys getting off the neat, paved streets once in a while. (