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Tales of the New World: Stories
In her first collection of stories since her PEN/Faulkner-winning The Caprices, Sabina Murray confronts the manipulation, compassion, ambition, and controversy surrounding some of the most intrepid and sadistic pioneers of the last four millennia.
Iconic explorers and settlers are made intimately human as they plow through the un-navigated boundaries of their worlds to give...more
Iconic explorers and settlers are made intimately human as they plow through the un-navigated boundaries of their worlds to give...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
November 8th 2011
by Grove Press, Black Cat
(first published November 1st 2011)
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In ten short stories, some as short as seven pages and others over seventy pages, Sabina Murray considers the motivations, fascinations, and inner demons of various explorers. New World in this context does not refer to the traditional European idea of the Americas. Indeed, Murray’s longest story, “Fish”, features Mary Kingsley, an English woman who defied Victorian strictures by exploring and writing about West Africa. In “Paradise”, Murray writes about Jim Jones, comparing him to Hitler, Pol P...more
I like this collection very much. A friend gave it to me for Christmas, knowing that I share her love for the work of Andrea Barrett. She wondered if I would like Murray's tales of explorers. I do. The first piece in the book, the novella "Fish," is brilliant. It's beautifully written--all of Murray's stories are. But it's also imaginatively structured. What it includes (snarky fairies, images of incredible specimen-collecting journeys in Africa by a single white woman) and excludes (expected sc...more
Recently finished this book. Excellent stories overall, though there was one I just couldn't get into and ended up skimming. (And I never skim!) I will def. look for more of her books. I happened to pick this up off the 'new shelf' in my local library and am glad I did. Some of the stories which were written in a 'contemporary-for-the-times style,' (I just made that up) blew me away. Writing as a young man, say in 1814, is not so easy. For those who like short stories and enjoy thinking while re...more
I'm delighted to have discovered Sabina Murray's work - her evocations of the solitary natures of her cast of explorers in this new collection of stories sound authentic (even if most of the internal soliloquys of her characters tend to give an impression of uniformity), and I thought she captured the sense of the many situations and far-flung locales in the stories well, from Sakhalin to Victorian London to life on the high seas etc. What I found particularly interesting was how she imaginative...more
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I wasn’t sure what to expect when I asked for an advance reader’s copy (ARC) of Sabina Murray’s Tales of the New World but the title sounded enticing. For some reason, and this is embarrassing to admit, I didn’t even realize it was a collection of short stories until I had already begun to read. I guess my brain was taking a mini-vacation without me that day. Whatever led to me choosing this book, however, I’m really glad I did. Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=2243.
If this had been a sandwich rather than a book, the bread would have been the best part...the opening story, about explorer Mary Kingsley, was riveting, and the story that Murray chooses to end with is perfect to keep you thinking about it long after you've put the book down. However, while some of the stories in the center were humorously dark, I felt that those were the shorter pieces, and I struggled to keep full attention with the longer ones, mainly due to their chopped up style and lack of...more
I loved the first story in this book. It was a historical figure I knew, but seen in a whole new life. Not the sweet, or happy, or triumphant version you usually get in biographies or children's books, but a much more real, confused, and frustrated life. I absolutely loved the story. Several others stood out for me as well, like the tale of the seaman who survived the whale attack in the Pacific, but ultimately, I got bogged down in the middle of the book and couldn't finish it. I probably misse...more
This is a word I use sparingly, so believe me when I say this is an enchanting collection-—witty, irreverent, and endlessly inventive. It’s hard to imagine there being anything new to say about many of the explorers whose stories Murray tells here, and yet none of it has ever been told like this. The most brilliant piece of all is the novella about Mary Kingsley, alone worth the price of the book. Kingsley is as iconoclastic a heroine as one is likely to find anywhere in literature—-I would glad...more
In this collection of stories, Murray imagines the experiences of explorers and takes us to fascinating moments in history. I especially liked the story about Mary Kingsley, a British woman who found freedom from Victorian life, by setting out to conduct research in the Congo. Another looks at Jim Jones's "paradise" in Guyana.
DON'T listen to the other reviewers! This book is incredible. Some charge Murray's style is too detached. Those people have attachment issues! Her style is perfect to the material! Perfect to the past! This book is so good I want to plow through it over and over until I can do what she does!
Ten short stories about explorers. I loved the first story, "Fish," about Mary Kingsley, a Victorian woman who broke the mold by heading to Africa, and wish it could have been expanded into a full-length novel. As for the rest, ehh.
I really liked this set of short stories, all of which are fictionalized accounts of famous (and not so famous) explorers.
An example is a story about the Essex sunk by a whale. Read this shortly before reading Moby Dick.
An example is a story about the Essex sunk by a whale. Read this shortly before reading Moby Dick.
I found this pretty interesting. ODD collection, no doubt.
But the story about the woman that travels to Africa was intereseting; as was the one about Magellen.
Worth checking out.
But the story about the woman that travels to Africa was intereseting; as was the one about Magellen.
Worth checking out.
This would have been a 4 if I liked reading short stories more. If you like short stories, the real/fictional characters are fascinating and all but 1 story kept me interested.
This was a random pickup from the library, so I'm not disheartened that I didn't like it. I couldn't get through the first story. Ho hum.
Short stories about world travelers. The first one drew me in, but nothing after that really grabbed me.
the four stars are mostly for the very first story. the rest were good, but not quite the same magic and intensity as Fish.
The author chose her subjects for these stories well, and with the impressive research and effort she clearly put into the writing, she does a great job of bringing the diverse times and places in which the stories are set to life off of the page. And the stories themselves are mostly quite good as well. However, it's a shame her style is so ungainly, because it makes what could otherwise have been a much more enjoyable and fluid read a sometimes unpleasant slog to get through.
Very beautifully written. Standouts include: "Fish", "Paradise", "Last Days" and "On Sakhalin.
I heard about this book on the radio. It's 10 short stories about explorers. It turned out to be a little less adventurous and more poetic than I expected. It did make me look up the explorers, and some of the other people and places mentioned in the book at least on wikipedia and read a little bit about them.
The stories are hugely hit or miss; the ones I enjoyed were memorable, rooted in a really visceral interpretation of history and the quests of explorers, whereas others seemed a little lofty and her attempts to get creative with the language and structure of the narrators felt clunky. Solid 3 overall.
I liked the first story best, got bored as the book progressed. Stopped reading it.
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Sabina Murray was born in 1968 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is of mixed parentage—her mother a Filipina from Manila, her father a former Jesuit scholastic turned anthropologist from Boston. Her parents met in Washington DC, where both were pursuing graduate degrees. At the age of two she moved to Perth with her family, when her father accepted a position at the University of Western Australia....more
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