The Relaxed Snowman

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Pearl and the Boil - Rosanne Rabinowitz

In adolescence, we form very strong attachments to music, films or books that seem to speak to us. Such things can stick with us for life, and a rediscovery in middle age can be as evocative of youth as photographs or diaries. This story is about that rediscovery, about regret and missed opportunities. Ms. Rabinowitz writes in a subtle impressionistic style that perfectly complements the subject matter.

--------------------------

Flying back from Oxford to New Jersey, Cora joins her sister Julie in helping their parents relocate to a new home. When Cora stumbles upon an undiscovered, unopened letter addressed to her childhood self, she is flooded with memories and sensations concerning a collection of stories called The Scarlet Thread and the Amber Road. The letter it turns out, is a response to a note which Cora has left in the very book and returned to the library – almost like a message in a bottle. The message could be understood as Cora’s childhood self longing to share her experience of the stories with a kindred spirit. The story shifts from the first to the third person, scenes from her adult self are juxtaposed with moments from her childhood, the scenes overlapping with fragments vividly described from the collection of stories: A girl enters a house that is filled with sky, another girl is trapped in a bottle, a flower mysteriously starts to play music only to devour the little girl who has nurtured it to bloom, statues come to life during a moment of passion, cities exist where colors are banned, a train is filled with distorted bodies. There is a rich pattern of images and colors and sensations in this story.

------------------------

  Rosanne Rabinowitz’s finely detailed study of a woman’s search for a book she once picked up in the school library acknowledges the power of books as totems, somehow focusing a person’s entire worldview. The story within this story develops the idea of feelings or ideas transforming people’s lives –either for the better – a pearl, or for the worse – a boil. The story’s psychological depth allows the reader to appreciate the symbolic power of the book. A girl and boy encountered in a field of flowers, provides a sort of Arcadian vision for the story’s protagonist, towards which she strives. Flowers and plants are symbols of love but, later, in a different story within the story, another plant engulfs and digests the girl who tends it.

---------------------

"There's an element of something almost fable like about this story, with the events described entirely empirical on the surface, but beneath that the hint of fact and fiction entangling in the manner of sympathetic magic." (Black Static #25 - TTA Press)

-------------------------

 "And the warmth and final joy of "The Pearl and the Boil"?"

---------------------
Any further reviews after 20 Jan 12 will appear in the comments below.

My own views: http://horroranthology.wordpress.com/editors-story-by-story-commentary/

Labels: HA of HA, Horror anthology of Horror anthologies, pearl and the boil, Rosanne Rabinowitz

posted by Weirdmonger  # 3:09 PM

Comments:

One of the stand-out stories in this entire volume is ‘The Pearl and the Boil’ by Rosanne Rabinowitz, another deeply moving story that takes place over several years, with childhood memory and the minor tragedies of growing up revolving around a vividly remembered but lost childhood book of horror stories, and a dreamlike early sexual encounter that may or may not have escaped from the pages of the book itself. This piece is also striking in that it has one of the most satisfying endings of a story of this type.

# posted by  Weirdmonger : 8:02 AM

 

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

<$BlogBacklinkTitle$>  
<$BlogBacklinkSnippet$>

posted by <$BlogBacklinkAuthor$> @ <$BlogBacklinkDateTime$>

Create a Link

<< Home

Archives

05/2004   06/2004   07/2004   08/2004   09/2004   10/2004   11/2004   12/2004   01/2005   02/2005   03/2005   04/2005   05/2005   06/2005   07/2005   08/2005   09/2005   10/2005   11/2005   12/2005   02/2006   03/2006   04/2006   05/2006   06/2006   07/2006   09/2006   10/2006   11/2006   12/2006   01/2007   02/2007   03/2007   04/2007   05/2007   06/2007   07/2007   08/2007   09/2007   10/2007   11/2007   12/2007   01/2008   02/2008   03/2008   04/2008   05/2008   06/2008   07/2008   08/2008   09/2008   10/2008   11/2008   12/2008   01/2009   02/2009   03/2009   04/2009   05/2009   06/2009   07/2009   08/2009   09/2009   10/2009   11/2009   12/2009   01/2010   02/2010   03/2010   04/2010   05/2010   06/2010   07/2010   08/2010   09/2010   10/2010   11/2010   12/2010   01/2011   02/2011   03/2011   04/2011   05/2011   06/2011   07/2011   08/2011   09/2011   10/2011   11/2011   12/2011   01/2012   02/2012