Orange World--A Book Report

 Hey guys! I know it's been a while. I posted some snippets earlier in the year, but forgot to send out an email to you all about it--so I thought it was time for a little spontaneous outreach. You can go check out the little things I wrote. As you probably know, I've been working in publishing for the last two years, and for the previous 15, have been reading like a madwoman. I thought it might be time for me to post some of my short reports on books, and there's really no better way to start than with Karen Russell.

Russell’s distinct writing style is one of sharp, thrilling turns into the unknown. Each story is set in a world almost like our own, and many of her stories mix shadowy fears with dreamscapes. Her voice is similarly distinct and offers familiarity to all of her characters, who are equally well rounded and strange. Orange World will give short story enthusiasts many new worlds to ponder and will satiate Russell fans. Karen Russell’s new collection, Orange World, is a compilation of 8 short stories. Each story contains a different world, that hinges on magical realism and different types of love/intimate connection.

In The Prospectors, two friends, Clara and Aubergine (Jean for short), who have run away from their homes and previous responsibilities, are attempting to steal money from rich patrons at a gala, and instead find themselves trapped at a party for ghosts when they take the wrong ski lift. They fight to remember who and where they are in the face of the alluring ghosts, and after a run-in with the devil, who is trying to capture their picture, they escape.

In The Bad Graft, two eloping lovers, Angie and Andy are traveling the country, and deem themselves “ever unfixed”. They visit Joshua Tree on their honeymoon, and when Angie is pricked by a tree’s spines, the tree slowly takes over her life and her mind. Angie cannot leave Joshua Tree, and stops her adventure to cater to the tree’s consciousness which grows stronger and stronger. The tree possesses Angie and tells her to kill Andy, but as she grips the knife in her hand, Andy reminds her of how they met, keeping the tree momentarily at bay.

In The Bog Girl, Cillian Eddowis, a young teenager living on an island off the coast of Ireland, and working in the bog harvesting peat, finds Bog Girl, a dead body completely preserved by the wetland, who he immediately falls in love with. Cillian takes her home and they date: she sleeps in his bed, goes with him to classes and school dances, and makes friends of her own, despite being clearly dead. The town community is mostly welcoming to bog girl, and Cillian’s mother worries that he is making a grave mistake and throwing his life away. When Cillian awakes one night to find Bog Girl reanimated, he abruptly falls out of love with her and breaks up with her by casting her violently back into the bog.

Madame Bovary’s Greyhound follows the relationship and almost psychical connection between Emma Bovary and her dog, Djali, as they fall in love and out of love. Djali runs away after she decides she prefers freedom over ownership and lives in the wild. Even though Emma and Djali lead separate lives, their emotions and minds remain somewhat connected. Djali finds a new owner and during a run-in with Emma Bovary years later, remembers everything about her previous owner, while Emma struggles to remember her dog’s name.

In The Tornado Auction, Robert Wurman, a Gosper County tornado farmer, alone after his children have moved out and his wife has passed away, puts himself into debt buying a young tornado to raise after years of retirement. Robert reconnects with who he used to be through a deep affection for his tornado and raises it despite warnings from family and friends about his health. When the tornado escapes its enclosure and wreaks havoc on the town, Robert realizes that he cannot watch his work come to fruition, and he drives away from the thing he loves to save his own life.

Black Corfu follows a doctor and his admiration for his medical profession, despite the fact that his aspirations are halted by his race. The doctor prevents corpses from wandering after their death by cutting their hamstrings and has done so without fault for many years. When he takes on a wealthy white apprentice and chastises him for his sloppy work, the apprentice starts a rumor that the Doctor has made a mistake. The word of the white apprentice is taken at face value and the Doctor is doubted deeply by everyone he knows. He loses his honor and his job. After he cuts his own hamstrings and then kills himself, he walks out of the forest, a dead man suffering from unnatural life.

In The Gondoliers Janelle, an echolocating Gondola driver lives in New Florida, a squatter town that grows after the apocalypse. Janelle navigates the treacherous waters, filled with bile, the tops of old buildings by using the songs of the objects around her and the songs of her three other sisters. Janelle becomes addicted to sneaking out to Bahia Rosa, the wasteland off the coast of New Florida. In Bahia Rosa, her echolocation stops functioning, so she can bathe in radioactive the water. A stranger requests passage to the wasteland, and when it rains so hard that Janelle can no longer navigate, he kills himself in her boat. She finds herself back at Bahia Rosa, sees her sister there, and finds out they have the same addiction.

In Orange World, Rae is expecting a baby after many difficulties getting pregnant, and during a turbulent moment in her pregnancy makes a deal with a devil to save her baby. It is born healthy, and although she is overwhelmed with love for her son, she spends the whole night awake, breastfeeding the devil in a gutter. She tells her New Mom Group, and many of the moms agree that despite the devil’s threats, Rae must wean it. The mothers get together and catch the devil, watching it die as it calls out like an infant child.

Overall, Orange World uses dark suspense and magical realism to create narratives that are thoroughly relatable. Despite alien disease, apocalypse, and ghosts, Russell’s stories are truly about how we create, protect, and endure family. The plot of each story is suspenseful, well-paced, and each has its own startling ending. This is a collection that readers could race through, and finish in a day, and, just as easily, savor for months.

TD;LR: Karen Russell is a hero of magical-and-mythic fiction, and her new book Orange World is dark and delicious. Pick it up, or try any of her others.

I'm looking forward to reading more, posting more, etc. See you soon!