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The Story Until Now: A Great Big Book of Stories
Called "one of our brightest cultural commentators" by Publishers Weekly, Kit Reed draws from life—with a difference. This new collection brings together thirty-four of her strong, original stories, from early classics like "The Wait" and "Winter" to six never-before-collected short stories, including "The Legend of Troop 13" and "Wherein We Enter the Museum." An early favorite, "Automatic Tiger," is the first in a series of Reed's stories about animals. There's a monkey who grinds out bestsellers with the help of a "creative writing" app. Her uncanny black dog can enter a crowded room and sit down at the feet of the next man to die. Her characters confront war in various mother/daughter battles, the war of the sexes, the struggles of men scarred by war. Kit Reed's self-described "transgenred" fiction is confirmation of an "extraordinary talent" (The Financial Times). The range and complexity of her work speaks for itself in The Story Until Now.
459 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 15, 2013
14 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Kit Reed
195 books54 followersKit Reed was an American author of both speculative fiction and literary fiction, as well as psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Kit Craig.
Her 2013 "best-of" collection, The Story Until Now, A Great Big Book of Stories was a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. A Guggenheim fellow, she was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize. A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she served as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.
Her 2013 "best-of" collection, The Story Until Now, A Great Big Book of Stories was a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. A Guggenheim fellow, she was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize. A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she served as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 9, 2019
A bit of a hit and miss collection of short dystopian stories by an original author with a bizarre and peculiar style. The author's focus is on the dark and paradoxical underside of contemporary society, in particular some of the excesses that characterise the American culture.
The sense of bitterness and almost Kafkian dislocation are pervasive, and the criticism of contemporary culture is often incisive and pungent. Unfortunately, not all stories succeed in delivering an interesting and convincing narrative.
It would probably have been a 2 stars, had not it been for a beautiful, beautiful short story that for some reason did hit me quite deeply: "Automatic Tiger", a heartbreaking story with multiple layers of symbolism and that all feline lovers (like myself) cannot fail to find quite poignant.
The sense of bitterness and almost Kafkian dislocation are pervasive, and the criticism of contemporary culture is often incisive and pungent. Unfortunately, not all stories succeed in delivering an interesting and convincing narrative.
It would probably have been a 2 stars, had not it been for a beautiful, beautiful short story that for some reason did hit me quite deeply: "Automatic Tiger", a heartbreaking story with multiple layers of symbolism and that all feline lovers (like myself) cannot fail to find quite poignant.
January 1, 2013
Naturally I give it five stars: my best stories, including six new and never-before-collected ones, with an amazing preface by the wonderful Gary K. Wolfe, award-winning author and critic. Look for "The Legend of Troop 13," about feral Girl Scouts, "Wherein We Enter The Museum," "Monkey Do," among others.
Beautiful hardcover from the Wesleyan University Press.
Beautiful hardcover from the Wesleyan University Press.
October 27, 2013
This is a very well-put-together collection of stories, but although I greatly enjoyed some of the stories, I'm not a huge fan of Reed's style overall.
Reed's work is dark-- she takes on the gritty underside of future, family, and the American Way. Some of the stories verge a bit too close to horror for my taste, others a little too "New Yorker"-- open-ended and bitter, cynical about the relationships between men and women, full of the angst of middle-age suburban couples (not a subject for which I can muster any sympathy).
Her sense of humor is brilliant and understated, but doesn't surface often enough.
Favorite quotes:
"They want you to believe that when they put your new baby in your arms, it's love at first sight, but instant mother love is another myth. I don't know who puts it out there, greedy grandmothers bent on posterity or men who want to see their spit and image popping out of you. You want to love your children but the truth is, you get used to them. You get used to being baffled and helpless and weepy and you accommodate, over time. I went through the first year terrified. Was I giving him everything he needed or warping him for life? Now he's fifteen and the jury's out and it won't come back. You tell me, did I do it right?
"God knows I tried. I tried so hard to do it right that I'm afraid I did everything wrong."
- Denny
"At the time, nobody was agreed on what they were going to do or how they would go about it, but they were all agreed that it was time for a change. Things could not go on as they were; life was often boring, and too hard."
- Songs of War
Reed's work is dark-- she takes on the gritty underside of future, family, and the American Way. Some of the stories verge a bit too close to horror for my taste, others a little too "New Yorker"-- open-ended and bitter, cynical about the relationships between men and women, full of the angst of middle-age suburban couples (not a subject for which I can muster any sympathy).
Her sense of humor is brilliant and understated, but doesn't surface often enough.
Favorite quotes:
"They want you to believe that when they put your new baby in your arms, it's love at first sight, but instant mother love is another myth. I don't know who puts it out there, greedy grandmothers bent on posterity or men who want to see their spit and image popping out of you. You want to love your children but the truth is, you get used to them. You get used to being baffled and helpless and weepy and you accommodate, over time. I went through the first year terrified. Was I giving him everything he needed or warping him for life? Now he's fifteen and the jury's out and it won't come back. You tell me, did I do it right?
"God knows I tried. I tried so hard to do it right that I'm afraid I did everything wrong."
- Denny
"At the time, nobody was agreed on what they were going to do or how they would go about it, but they were all agreed that it was time for a change. Things could not go on as they were; life was often boring, and too hard."
- Songs of War
December 2, 2013
I was introduced to Kit Reed's works when I was a child. At that time, her story "Automatic Tiger" deeply impressed me. I was overwhelmed by feelings when I first read it. I kept imagining what I would do with my tiger, how wonderful would it be, and I couldn't understand the actions of the main character, I couldn't justify him.
Photo source: josephreed.netDuring my numerous movings across country, I lost the book. I couldn't remember the title of the book or the author. All I could remember was that it had the robotic tiger in the plot and it was really sad.
But one time when I was googling it (again), it came up! I checked Kit Reed on Goodreads, and to my surprise she was registered there. I posted to her page how much her story means to me, and guess what? She replied to me! I couldn't be happier.
So I tried her new collection of stories, and I was fascinated.
These stories are not your bed time stories! Not the kind you could read and go to sleep without remembering about what you read. They stick with you. When you will be commuting to work, you will remember it. When you do your yoga, the images will come to your mind. Just so you know, I warn you.
Continue reading on my blog:
bookgeek.ru
May 20, 2013
I knew nothing about Kit Reed until I recently read one of her stories in Asimov's. I liked it so much that I read this collection. Her writing reminds me most of Shirley Jackson's. The collection spans more than half a century. Reed is a master writer; the stories are imaginative, original, and sometimes hilarious. Many of them are about women, their place in the culture, and their ambivalent dissatisfaction with it. Others are about zanily dysfunctional families or individuals.
However, reading so many of her stories at a time didn't work so well for me. First, my own taste runs to less literary than her writing--no fault of hers. But second, with such close juxtaposition, you can see that all the stories have, to my mind, too much in common. They all are dark, humorous, and have a nasty twist at the end (if not throughout). So, though each story is, it its way, a gem, I think I would have (and did, with five or six of them) enjoyed them more in the magazines or collections in which they were originally published, mixed with stories of other writers.
However, reading so many of her stories at a time didn't work so well for me. First, my own taste runs to less literary than her writing--no fault of hers. But second, with such close juxtaposition, you can see that all the stories have, to my mind, too much in common. They all are dark, humorous, and have a nasty twist at the end (if not throughout). So, though each story is, it its way, a gem, I think I would have (and did, with five or six of them) enjoyed them more in the magazines or collections in which they were originally published, mixed with stories of other writers.
July 1, 2013
Nice collection--some a bit far out and more conceptual but many that were touching and real-feeling.
November 26, 2017
Very quirky writing style. I liked 10 out of the 35 stories in this book, namely: Denny, Automatic Tiger, High Rise High, Journey to the Center of the Earth, In the Squalus, Sisohpromatem, On the Penal Colony, The Food Farm, In Behalf of the Product, and The Wait. Those ten definitely worth reading. The rest really too weird for me.
This author is out on the edge. She can take a concept and run with it to an extreme. In some cases this works out in a strangely interesting way. In other cases, it's just strange...
This author is out on the edge. She can take a concept and run with it to an extreme. In some cases this works out in a strangely interesting way. In other cases, it's just strange...
former-hopefuls
December 11, 2024I may come back to this. I read "Winter" as a recommendation found somewhere online, which I enjoyed. Then I decided to skip back to the first story, which may have been a mistake. "Denny" did not work for me at all. And I felt like the ending was kind of annoying and cheap.
So back to the library it goes. If I owned it I could see reading some more of these stories. So if a cheap copy presents itself one day, I might just pick it up.
So back to the library it goes. If I owned it I could see reading some more of these stories. So if a cheap copy presents itself one day, I might just pick it up.
September 6, 2023
Kit Reed was one of the great sci-fi short story writers. Will not give spoilers, but if you are a fan of sci-fi sort stories, this is a must read. More of a contemporary spin than Weird Women Wired Women.
April 11, 2015
I'm trying to put my finger on a way to describe this, and the best I can do right now is say that it keeps making me think of a very odd blend of Megan Lindholm and Connie Willis. With a heavy dash of Shirley Jackson, pardon me as I stare at the pages and try to process what I just read.
The stories aren't bitter, exactly. I wouldn't call them cutting. They will not poison you nor make you bleed.
But they will quietly identify a pressure point, and then push down on it with a pencil-tip, and you will feel it for days afterwards.
The stories aren't bitter, exactly. I wouldn't call them cutting. They will not poison you nor make you bleed.
But they will quietly identify a pressure point, and then push down on it with a pencil-tip, and you will feel it for days afterwards.
May 2, 2015
Here's my review from Foreword Reviews:
https://www.forewordreviews.com/revie...
Great book!
https://www.forewordreviews.com/revie...
Great book!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews