Recently Read: Silk

[ellyssian]

Silk by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Sometimes you read an author's first novel and it screams "Hey, new guy here! Yep, gawsh, this is my first try at this sort of thing. I'm going to be a real writer when I grow up!" and that's usually accompanied by a whole bunch of warnings in the jacket copy and quotes: "Newguynewguynewguy!" Sometimes, in those works, the words don't quite reach out to the story; other times the story sits back and its eyes go all blurry and it wonders if those words have anything to do with it.

This is greygirlbeast's first novel, but you wouldn't guess it from anything except some of the jacket copy and quotes and such, or from researching a timeline and publication dates, and realizing this was it: the first novel.

I suppose you could compare this to some of her later works - and as I'm reading the novels in order, I've only got one other under my belt thus far - and discover certain stylistic changes, but there's none of that first-novel awkwardness that needs to be grown out of.

The characters are drawn quite realistically; I'm fairly sure I've met some of them in other guises, wandering around city streets or in dark places where music happens. Caitlín mentions that the music fits a time and a place, and that some have asked for it to be updated, and I'm not quite sure if that fixes me to a time and a place as well, as, even looking for it, I could not find any tune or band that seemed wrong.

This is an excellent, intelligent read - and the only thing I can say as to why it isn't much more widely read would be to go off on a tangent regarding lowered reading levels, expectations, and perhaps intelligence of the average modern reader. So prove me wrong, if enough people are above that average, it will raise the bar. Go, get a copy or two of this (and Caitlín's other books, as well) and enjoy an excellent, dark, unsettling read!

Comments

[wyyknot.livejournal.com]

Searched local library and found several of her books. They do have Silk, so should I start there, or does it not matter?

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Silk and Threshold both start separate arcs, with different characters, so I suppose you could start with one or the other. The first thing of hers I read was actually a short story collection - To Charles Fort, with Love - but with the novels, I'm attempting to read them in order of publication.