Five From the Shelf: Magical Realism

I recently posted a collection of my favourite spooky reads, full of creaking staircases, echoing voices and things that go bump in the night. Here, and on my Instagram account, I was met with a chorus of agreements that paralysing fear isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For many, Halloween is all about the gothic and dastardly, however there is a much more surreal and magical side to this holiday. Novels with magical realism are the perfect cure for those lacking a little enchantment. These are five of my favourite novels and short story collections that combine the sinister with the magical:

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

Secret libraries, a school of puppetry and a guerrilla group that takes on the fraternities who dominate universities all feature in this collection of short stories. These tales introduce us to individuals as they stand at decisive crossroads in their lives, whether this is in terms of their romantic relationships, familial bonds or career paths. A current of uncertainty runs through this book as several characters search for some stability, a pursuit that is consistently undermined by intermittent moments of phantasmagoria. Oyeyemi’s collection draws on a rich literary history, artfully blending myth and fairy tale with a brutal social realism that addresses grief, identity and fracturing love. In blending the traditions of story telling with a very contemporary voice, she has created a compilation of tales that remain unpredictable, relevant and unquestionably beautiful.

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

The recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature is regularly commended for his dystopian Never Let Me Go or his tale of British repression and romance, The Remains of the Day. Yet possibly the most overlooked of Ishiguro’s oeuvre is The Unconsoled, a kaleidoscopic story that leaves the reader uncertain of where they stand until the very end. Requested to perform at a much-anticipated concert, The Unconsoled follows a musician who arrives in an unnamed European town where he is confronted with a series of bizarre events that force him to explore his past. The story is brimming with contradictory plot points. Characters who seem to be strangers are slowly unveiled as family members, never-ending corridors lead to different parts of town and the details of the culminating concert are left unnervingly hazy. The Unconsoled is often critiqued as an undecipherable novel, yet for readers who allow the story to wash over them this will prove to be a dreamlike tale of identity, musicality and relationships.

The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Krudova

The newest book to make this list, Krudova’s short story collection The Doll’s House was published

in early 2017, when it quickly built up a reputation as a nightmarish collection that savours the grotesque and the humorous in equal measure. There is a strongly feminist message to this collection, which is established from its very first page, in which a woman unstitches her outer body, leaving behind her true physical self. The abandonment of past responsibility and expectations is a common theme throughout the stories, which explore the concept of enforced female dependence on men. Krudova uses the surreal to paint both the horror of an unequal society, and the possibilities for change.

The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter

Heralded as a key player in the world of magical realism, it seems impossible to write this list without mention of Angela Carter. Like many novels rooted in magical realism, Carter’s writing is indebted to the world of fairy tales. Magic, romanticism and the gothic seep through the pages of her work, placing the reader in a literary world that many will recognise. The Magic Toyshop begins when two newly orphaned children are sent to live with their eccentric and dangerous Uncle. There, they are lured into the sinister world of his toyshop and the puppets he performs with. This is ultimately a coming-of-age story, in which a young girl attempts to circumnavigate a macabre society of domineering men and voiceless women in order to gain her own power.

Ruby by Cynthia Bond

Nominated for the Baileys Prize in 2016, Ruby is an unflinching account of Ruby, a woman who has lived through years of abuse, the death of several children and the gradual decline of her life from celebrated beauty to an ostracised figure from whom children run. Over the course of the novel Ruby's story is unraveled, and the full extent of violence inflicted on her family for generations is rawly placed on show. This is a novel that lays bare the horrors of racism, presenting one woman as the representative who bears the the weight of centuries of brutality. As Ruby tries to run from the state in which she is born, in which she has seen relatives lynched and Klan-members hailed as heroes, she is forced into a life of sexual exploitation. For Ruby there seems to be no respite from pain. Underlaying this narrative is the ever-present threat of a malicious being that feeds on her heartbreak. Inside Ruby, the souls of countless murdered people live on, including those of her own children. Her body is the setting of an invisible war between the dead, and the backdrop to the echoing horrors of the past.

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