Bobcat and Other Stories

I am behind in blogging about great books.  It  may because I've been learning to love short stories, courtesy of Rebecca Lee.  She wrote Bobcat and Other Stories, and I learned about it on a twitter feed from Algonquin Books.  Here are some of the tweets that caught my attention:

"it's the book pulling me from my reading slump..."

"highly imaginative stories"

"just witty and lyrical prose that I found so memorable and strong"

"am forever grateful a story like Fialta exists"

I don't know that I can do better than some of those quotes, because her stories defy easy characterization.  I can only say that "imaginative" is a word not up to the task - her stories draw you into somewhat strange, even bizarre, stories and characters that feel completely real and possible.  And the range is great - she can even switch first person from male to female without a misstep.

I loved this book, and can't wait until she writes more.  In fact I reread her stories immediately after finishing them.  Can't remember ever doing that right away.

Meanwhile I have moved on to Alice Munro and will write more on that later.  For now I can say that Rebecca's stories are far more diverse than Alice's.  Alice is writing about a particular place and a particular period - beautiful but I think I am starting to understand her.  Rebecca is out there...no idea where she pulls those stories from...and I like being surprised by that.