Orange World and Other Stories - The Library of the Uncommons

paperback, 288 pages

Published May 14, 2019 by Vintage.

ISBN:: 978-0-525-56607-6

From the Pulitzer Finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell's extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination.

Karen Russell's comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In"Bog Girl", a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a two thousand year old girl that he's extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In "The Prospectors," two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. In the brilliant, hilarious title story, a new mother desperate to ensure her infant's safety strikes a diabolical deal, agreeing to breastfeed the …

From the Pulitzer Finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell's extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination.

Karen Russell's comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In"Bog Girl", a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a two thousand year old girl that he's extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In "The Prospectors," two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. In the brilliant, hilarious title story, a new mother desperate to ensure her infant's safety strikes a diabolical deal, agreeing to breastfeed the devil in exchange for his protection. The landscape in which these stories unfold is a feral, slippery, purgatorial space, bracketed by the void--yet within it Russell captures the exquisite beauty and tenderness of ordinary life. Orange World is a miracle of storytelling from a true modern master.

3 editions

4thace reviewed Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell

An interesting set of outlandish stories

4 stars

This is a collection of magical realism tales, many of them dark or outright horror (the title story has body horror elements), all of them somewhat unsettling with the protagonist in some degree of danger. It feels as though the author has incorporated more recent experiences of her life as a mother into her imagined universes. Of the eight stories I most liked The Bad Graft, Bog Girl: A romance, The Gondoliers, and Orange World the best for the way I could immerse myself in the story, but I did often feel as though I had to work at the reading to get something out. The style isn't totally bleak with humorous elements tossed in to lighten the mood Like the other collection of hers I read, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, the settings are widely varied, though I can sense a kind of character trait in common among the …

This is a collection of magical realism tales, many of them dark or outright horror (the title story has body horror elements), all of them somewhat unsettling with the protagonist in some degree of danger. It feels as though the author has incorporated more recent experiences of her life as a mother into her imagined universes. Of the eight stories I most liked The Bad Graft, Bog Girl: A romance, The Gondoliers, and Orange World the best for the way I could immerse myself in the story, but I did often feel as though I had to work at the reading to get something out. The style isn't totally bleak with humorous elements tossed in to lighten the mood Like the other collection of hers I read, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, the settings are widely varied, though I can sense a kind of character trait in common among the protagonists in the form of a dogged persistence in the face of a difficult challenge. The premise of each story is presented without any sense that the characters consider things to be absurd. For the best stories I felt like the endings were the best part when things came together in the mind of the main character.