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Joanne Harris, author of CHOCOLAT, BLACKBERRY WINE and FIVE QUARTERS OF THE ORANGE, cooks up a surprise for her many fans in this anthology: Not only can she write short stories, she can also display an amazing range. These pieces are completely unlike her dreamily delicious food-oriented novels, some dipping into human nature's dark and secretive aspects. In her foreword, Harris muses on how delightful it is to find short stories back in vogue. Her anthology should help keep them in style.
JIGS & REELS begins with the irresistible "Faith and Hope Go Shopping," in which two residents in a nursing home escape into the outside world to seek their hearts' desires. But just as the reader settles comfortably in after that heartwarmingly adventurous yarn, she encounters the polar opposite in "The G-SUS Gene," a scathing science fiction yarn about free will and religion, which left me pondering, "Did she mean...? Or was it...?" In the author's foreword, she confides that short stories stick with her; I can guarantee I'll be pondering "The G-SUS Gene" for quite some time.
Harris specializes in a good twist in the tale; some are more of a surprise than others. In "Hello, Goodbye" a gossip columnist's disturbing take on an ultrafashionable funeral culminates with an expected but ironic and tragic twist. I could never have predicted the ending of "Waiting for Gandalf," in which a group's long-running role-playing game goes awry when cynical newcomers join in. And I adored the surreal kink in the plot of the honeymoon saga "Fish."
Harris's characters, such as the plump, bald vampire (virgins would never look at this leech twice) in "Never Give A Sucker . . ." are wonderfully strange and strangely wonderful. A loner receives an amazing gift, one with the potential to keep on giving, from "Tea With the Birds" enigmatic Mr. Tamaoki. We even get a peek into the other side of the Cinderella tale from "The Ugly Sister." The stars of "Auto-da-fe" and "Free Spirit" are terrifying characters. And speaking of characters --- what becomes of the ones writers abandon? Harris gives us the answer in the Twilight Zone-ish "Last Train to Dogville."
I admire Harris for demonstrating her considerable skill in an amazing variety of genres, which include horror stories, fractured fairy tales, a hilarious class reunion of witches, a chilling version of THE LITTLE MERMAID, offbeat love stories, and more. However, a few of the pieces, such as "Any Girl Can Be a CandyKiss Girl!" and "A Place in the Sun," seem to be not quite stories with plots, but more on the order of scathing fictional commentary on our preoccupation with beauty and youth. Reading these is like being served only exotic appetizers when you're expecting a hearty rib-sticking meal --- interesting but not very satisfying.
Although a bit more development would have boosted considerably the quality of a handful of pieces, I was enthralled with a majority of the tales. As a fan of Harris's dreamy novels, I enjoyed being awakened to her stunning range as a storyteller and look forward to reading more of her short stories.
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)
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