Get in Trouble: Stories

by Kelly Link

Copyright © 2015 by Kelly Link

Borrowed from CLP on 3/19/23 after reading this Vulture piece by Lila Shapiro: The Fabulist in the Woods, March 14, 2023: https://www.vulture.com/article/kelly-link-white-cat-black-dog-profile.html The collection was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for 2016. Disconcerting, swerving between gripping, fascinating, funny, incomprehensible, mysterious, repulsive. Some otherworldly bits. Some magic, some meanness, some parties, some hangovers. Always a streak of humanity, which, for me, saves the collection. Nine stories, 6 over 40 pages, so hefty not light. Caused a stir with many reviews, e.g.: https://www.npr.org/2015/02/10/384112942/ignoring-the-rules-kelly-link-traffics-in-wonder-irony-and-teenage-longings https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/25/get-in-trouble-kelly-link-review-short-story-collection https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/books/review/kelly-links-get-in-trouble.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/books/review/kelly-link-by-the-book.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2015/02/07/review-get-trouble-kelly-link/zqx2Fq6wg9ZyTPjzi4qqhP/story.html Kelly Link reviews of other books: https://kellylink.net/books/stranger-things-happen-old/stranger-things-happen-reviews https://kellylink.net/books/pretty-monsters/pretty-monsters-reviews-2

General notes at contents, two swipes left. This story: 2011 Shirley Jackson Award for best Novelette. Grease? Moonshine? p. 9 Bawbees and extraordinary toys, 14, 19 Enspelled 20

Ophelia Merck

Nurse Tannent.

Andy.

“God ain’t who your pappy needs to get on his good side,” Andy said.

Haha

the application of some greaze and good manners,”

Question - moonshine?

Toby Jugs

Question

“We’re not the kind of people who go to college.”

So sad

Simile

Simile metaphor

Haha - sounds nice

Haha

Haha

“My daddy thinks everyone is going to hell,” Fran said from under the counterpane. “I don’t care where I go, as long as it ain’t here and he’s not there.”

Haha

There were lots of other toys.

Bawbees for babies,

Question

the more they need you, the more you need them. Things tip out of balance.

Question - little? Editor!

More bawbees, too,

Haha

Something else happened, too: something slipped out of Ophelia’s pocket and landed on the carpet of moss.

Haha

There’d never been no such thing before.

Grammar! Deliberate? Orin need of an editor?

carpenter bees, bringing back their satchels of gold,

Ophelia sat enspelled

Simile

“The summer people,”

Haha - shades of Alice in Wonderland

Fran, it was like a fairy tale.”

cat-head

Uestion

Haha

“They make things,” Fran said. “That’s what Ma called them, makers.

Ma said she felt sorry for them. She thought maybe they couldn’t go home, that they’d been sent off, like the Cherokee, I guess.

I expect time works different where they come from.

“You can still go away, though,” Fran said, not caring how she sounded. “I can’t. It’s part of the bargain. Whoever takes care of them has to stay here. You can’t leave. They don’t let you.”

“You mean, you can’t leave, ever?” “No,” Fran said. “Not ever. Ma was stuck here until she had me. And then when I was old enough, I took over. She went away.”

teetotally different,

Haha

Haha

Haha

“I won’t ever do it, but I think I can imagine it okay.”

teetotally growed

the fantastic shapes of the dirigibles, and the dragons that were hung on string and swam perpetually through the air

“I wasn’t asking for help. But if you offer, I’ll accept.

The mattress was stuffed with the down of crow feathers.

Haha

All of it seemed pleasing and troubling to Fran, in equal measure after so many years.

Question