In Which I Buy Myself a Present
Sep. 14th, 2007 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebToday I received in the mail my very own printed copy of Stoplight Stories by Patrick, which I have finally ordered from lulu.com. I looked at it, re-read my favorite story, and put it on my bookcase, between Truman Capote and Roald Dahl, a good place.
Then I had supper and pulled the book out again and decided to re-read the whole thing. Everyone else likes "Elephant" and "Shoe Tree" best, but I'm partial to "Popcorn." (Uh, which I also had for dinner. The exact same kind of popcorn as is in the story. But I'll have something different tomorrow.)
There is one story for each letter of the alphabet; I've now read through "Kitchen Water." Yes, "Elephant" is a good one. One kid attempts to show evidence that her parents like her sister best, but succeeds in showing that her parents are clueless and her sister is wily. Very wily.
Most of the stories are haunting. Perhaps they all are. Patrick draws you in with his good writing and his characters' realistic but somehow charming oddities. And then you find out something bad. Sort of like listening to a beautiful Lyle Lovett song and then listening carefully to the lyrics.
Reading so many of the stories on the same day, it feels almost like a book of mystery stories: each story has a mystery; can you figure out what it is before you get told?
I always thought that different people would find themselves most haunted by different stories, depending somehow on something in their psyches. "Ice" is haunting me the most right now. Apparently my psyche is especially drawn to good little girls. Everyone knows that bad people need to pay attention and learn things to find opportunities, twist them around for their own nefarious use, and refrain from getting caught. But it turns out that good little girls should also learn as much as they can, because they sometimes need options, too.
I'm feeling chilly and sleepy, so I'm going to go read myself to sleep and perhaps have some very interesting dreams.
Then I had supper and pulled the book out again and decided to re-read the whole thing. Everyone else likes "Elephant" and "Shoe Tree" best, but I'm partial to "Popcorn." (Uh, which I also had for dinner. The exact same kind of popcorn as is in the story. But I'll have something different tomorrow.)
There is one story for each letter of the alphabet; I've now read through "Kitchen Water." Yes, "Elephant" is a good one. One kid attempts to show evidence that her parents like her sister best, but succeeds in showing that her parents are clueless and her sister is wily. Very wily.
Most of the stories are haunting. Perhaps they all are. Patrick draws you in with his good writing and his characters' realistic but somehow charming oddities. And then you find out something bad. Sort of like listening to a beautiful Lyle Lovett song and then listening carefully to the lyrics.
Reading so many of the stories on the same day, it feels almost like a book of mystery stories: each story has a mystery; can you figure out what it is before you get told?
I always thought that different people would find themselves most haunted by different stories, depending somehow on something in their psyches. "Ice" is haunting me the most right now. Apparently my psyche is especially drawn to good little girls. Everyone knows that bad people need to pay attention and learn things to find opportunities, twist them around for their own nefarious use, and refrain from getting caught. But it turns out that good little girls should also learn as much as they can, because they sometimes need options, too.
I'm feeling chilly and sleepy, so I'm going to go read myself to sleep and perhaps have some very interesting dreams.