Little Doors
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
“Every one of the 17 idiosyncratic short fantasies in this superior collection from Nebula and Philip K. Dick finalist Di Filippo is immaculately told” (Publishers Weekly).
“Di Filippo is like gourmet potato chips to me. I can never eat just one of his stories.” —Harlan Ellison
You can try to escape from the mundane, or with the help of Paul Di Filippo, you can take a short, meaningful break from it. In the vein of George Saunders or Michael Chabon, Di Filippo uses the tools of science fiction and the surreal to take a deep, richly felt look at humanity. His brand of funny, quirky, thoughtful, fast-moving, heart-warming, brain-bending stories exist across the entire spectrum of the fantastic from hard science fiction to satire to fantasy and on to horror, delivering a riotously entertaining string of modern fables and stories from tomorrow, now and anytime. After you read Paul Di Filippo, you’ll no longer see everyday life quite the same.
The 17 stories in this collection allow us to encounter Salvador Dali stumbling through his own personalized afterlife; experience the hilariously odd life of Hiram P. Dottle from birth through death and on into several reincarnations; gaze in wonder as a boy is born without a brain and his skull is invaded by wild animals; and, in the title story, a professor of children’s literature discovers a bizarre set of similarities between a lost text and his illicit relationship with one of his students.
Originally published: 2002
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Every one of the 17 idiosyncratic short fantasies in this superior collection from Nebula and Philip K. Dick finalist Di Filippo (Ribofunk, etc.) is immaculately told. The writing, however, verges on the self-consciously clever and is slightly condescending, as if Mr. Peabody were patiently explaining the workings of the Wayback machine to his pet boy Sherman. And if you don't grok the Wayback machine as a cultural metaphor, you may miss out on just how good (and often hilarious) the stories are for the right audience: baby boomer Di Filippo is very much of his generation. Furthermore, the author tends to confirm what we already know. In the title story we learn, again, of the dark power of the imagination; we are willingly led by the literally brainless in "Billy"; "The Grange" and "Our House" show that despite our veneer of civilization, we are still primal; insanity can be cruel ("Moloch") or amusing ("The Horror Writer"). Accomplished diversions into style take as subjects high fantasy ("Return to Cockaigne"), Don Marquis ("Mehitabel in Hell") and surrealism ("The Death of Salvador Dali"). Only a few tales like "Sleep Is Where You Find It" (co-written with Marc Laidlaw), in which legendary photographer Weegee wrestles with the meanings of life and death, and "Rare Firsts," a story about a book lover display real depth. Still, this is a collection worth reading, even if lacking profundity. FYI:The author's most recent novel isA Mouthful of Tongues (Forecasts, Sept. 30).
