Saturday, June 22, 2013

Books for Breakfast: The Fox Woman

The Menu



The Fox Woman, by Kij Johnson

I've been waiting to get my hands on a copy of this book, which isn't available electronically or in the usual bookstores. And so, when Banzai Cat posted photos of books that he needed to let go, because of an impending move, the first book I asked for was The Fox Woman.

I've been reading the electronic version of Johnson's story collection, At The Mouth of the River of Bees on and off for some time now (it's on my Kindle, and I don't always bring the device with me, so I can read the stories only on the days I have it). A couple of weeks ago I encountered the story, "Fox Magic", which was the kernel of The Fox Woman novel. The story stayed with me days after I'd read it, so that it didn't take very long for me to pick up the novel from the to-be-read pile.

Here's the short review:

The first half of the book did not disappoint; my attention flagged slightly in the middle (love, love, love, longing, longing, longing), but it eventually got interesting; and by the end of the book, I was moved to tears (something I did not quite expect, particularly because the ending of both the short story and novel are the same--but the novel was able to go places that the short story did not).


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