All fiction requires a reader to buy in to the world and characters that have been created, but sometimes stories can either be too unbelievable for the reader to relate to or they lean too much towards reality to be classified as fantasy. Karen Russell constructed a novel of exemplary short stories under the title Vampires In The Lemon Grove. Her stories are said to “vibrate with originality and life” with “imaginative reach and moral weight of works of much greater length.” The praise received for this collection of short stories is much deserved, and being her second novel after her award winning Swamplandia!, the author from Miami, Florida, has a bright future in short stories.
Karen Russell has gathered recognition for her first novel Swamplandia! and various other short stories published in the New Yorker and other writing journals. Having graduated from Northwestern University and Columbia University’s MFA program, her talent in short fiction stories has not gone unrecognized. Her first critically acclaimed novel was nominated for the Pulitzer award in Fiction, and she has also won a number of other prestigious awards such as the New Yorker’s 20 under 40.
Writing fiction helps with “reconnecting with the true, deep weirdness inherent in everyday reality, in our dealings with one another, in just being alive.” (Russell) She shows these emotions throughout the stories of Lemon Grove, with her more violent emotions expressed through the horrifying story of “Reeling for the Empire.” In this story, a group of young, enslaved Japanese women are turned into human silkworms to produce commodities that are precious to their empire. The story comes to an explosive ending when the main character chooses to fight against their seeming...
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...tion that has made her a unique American short story author has set her apart from the others whom have also mastered the short story and the novel, and her future works will undoubtedly be just as hard hitting, impactful and memorable as those in Vampires in the Lemon Grove.
Works Cited
Corrigan, Maureen. "Karen Russell's 'Vampires' Deserve The Raves." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 23 May 2014. .
"Vampires in the Lemon Grove summary and reviews." BookBrowse.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014. .
"Vampires in the Lemon Grove (Russell) - Author Bio." Vampires in the Lemon Grove. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014. .
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer – An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Charters, A. (2011). The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (8th ed.). Boston: Bedfor/St. Martin's.
This piece of autobiographical works is one of the greatest pieces of literature and will continue to inspire young and old black Americans to this day be cause of her hard and racially tense background is what produced an eloquent piece of work that feels at times more fiction than non fiction
Stein, Karen F. "Amy Tan." Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2001): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. EBSCO. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
Stanley, D. A. (Ed.). (1999). Novels for Students Volume 7. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research.
While Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been described as the “quintessence of evil creatures we meet in our everyday lives” and “the Darkness” in the hearts of men (Herbert, 2004, pp. 62), Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight
Conclusively, while Bram Stokers novel Dracula is seen as a gothic and horror story, I argue that it is a novel that seeks to address female sexuality directly. Seen through numerous passages, Stoker confronts and battles the views between sexuality during the Victorian era though his genius of characterization of characters present within the novel. As it seems highly intentional to me, I respect the way in which he criticizes and critiques upon female sexuality by bringing into light new ideas regarding female desires. When contrasting his text upon today’s culture, the differences to how one perceived the vampire has changed significantly.
Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Revised ed. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993. 7 vols.
The main conflict associated in the story of “Fledgling” is the young vampire Shori Matthews consistent struggle to regain the memories she lost in an accident taking place at her home in a fairly big community that was in the process of reaching newer insights. Shori goes along with broken remnants of her memory with Wright, Brook, and Celia i...
Blasingame, James, Kathleen Deakin, and Laura Walsh. Stephenie Meyer: In the Twilight. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2012. Print.
...ary devices covered in this paper cannot even begin to cover the entirety of a great short story. The point of view, the symbolism, and the setting are just a few things that make these stories so memorable. The ability of Shirley Jackson to make a reader question the way society allows as normal with its traditions, families, and customs causes the reader to think that this can happen anywhere. Charlotte Perkins Gilman makes the reader wonder throughout the story is she crazy or is she possessed. The ability to make the reader sit white knuckled holding the book is amazing and the writing styles of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Shirley Jackson will forever go down in literary history.
In Twilight, Edward Cullen presents the question; “ But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” The role of vampires is very controversial. Back in the day they were evil, soulless monsters and people genuinely feared them. However, in the present day it seems that we have grown to love them and even hope to one day be them. There are a plethora of vampire stories and many of them have become immense hits. With so many vampire stories, it is not uncommon that readers are able to identify a vast amount of similarities. Although similar in aspects, there are still many differences between the classic and modern day vampires. Two highly popular stories, in which we can easily identify similarities and differences, are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.
This fetish has been manifested in the movies I view, the television shows I watch, and the books I read. When my obsession with reading is crossed with my obsession with monsters, the result is a bookshelf containing more vampire novels than most people would consider healthy. I have discovered that every vampire novel varies vastly; no two books are ever alike. For example, the Twilight Series, the Anita Blake Series and the Vampire Chronicles Series have different legends and lore, different relationships between vampires and society, and different genres, theme, and purpose; this array of novels displays most clearly the range of audience the vampire genre can cater. The Twilight series is a bestselling series written by Stephanie Meyer that has captivated millions of teenage girls.
The author’s op-ed piece was published in 2009, the very peak of the vampire contagion, where one could find these creatures wherever they looked. This pandemonium that arose from vampires is what drove del Toro and Hogan to pen “Why Vampires Never Die.” Furthermore, the purpose behind this essay is to give an abridged description of the past of vampires for the people who had become fanatics of the creatures. Also, this essay showed how vampires have persisted in pop culture. They suggest that vampires have been remade by diverse cultures at different times, and this change echoes that society's angst and concerns. The novelist’s imply that Stroker’s Dracula may mirror an exaggerated human on a prim...