- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New edition edition (3 Jan 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0860684024
- ISBN-13: 978-0860684022
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 401,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'Fizzing with allegory, symbolism and surprises' - 'The Times'.
Product Description
Here is the ritualism of Tokyo where lovers ponder the intangible reflections of themselves, 'reflections of nothing but appearances, in a city dedicated to seeming', and 'the velvet nights spaked with menace' of a wasted London, poised on the brink of destruction. In these extraordinary tales Angela Carter pinpoints the symbolism of the city streets and weaves allegories around forests and jungles of strange and erotic landscapes of the imagination.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dazzling fireworks for the mind,
By A Customer
This review is from: Fireworks (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)
A perfect title for this collection of odd, occasionally brilliant, dazzling and artificial tales. Some of the stories, set in rapacious South-American jungles and bitter Northern highlands, are instantly recognisable; this in Carter in the sensual and wicked fairy-tale mode she is perhaps most well-known for. Other tales set in Japan (recounting or perhaps inventing her 'Sadie Thompson-esque' experiences as a barmaid in the Orient, as she memorably described it elsewhere), are clever and introspective, full of the dreamy beauty, the absorbed masochism and downright strangeness of Japan. These tales grow on you slowly, like those Japanese paper flowers that open out underwater. I think Fireworks illustrates better than any of her other story collections (excepting the glorious Bloody Chamber) just how fantastically inventive and rigorously intelligent Carter could be. Truly fireworks for the mind.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
amazing.,
By
This review is from: Fireworks (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)
This was my first (and as yet only) Carter read. What an outstanding introduction.
I had to read the whole book in one sitting. Incredible depth and wonderful twists and turns. Such imagination-like fairytails for those of us who forgot to grow up, even though our bodies took the liberty. The stories that thrilled me the most in terms of both aestethicism and substance were... The executioner's beautiful daughter The loves of Lady Purple Penetrating to the heart of the forest and my favourite....Reflections. You could spend hours considering the text and all the things it could mean and all the things it represents...or just enjoy her crafted words. Not a huge book. The stories are a good length...not too long to lose your interest and not too short as to cut you off just as you are getting into one. The narrative styles vary which keeps interest and she is playful in switching perspectives without warning. The stories also cover alot of ground geographically speaking which adds another level of richness. I look forward to reading more.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Carter's best,
This review is from: Fireworks (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)
I am a big Angela Carter fan, and so for me this is certainly an intriguing piece - one of the few works that reflects her stint living in Japan, and also contains a lot of the ingredients she would go on to use in later works such as her incredible The Passion of New Eve (Virago Modern Classics). This makes "Fireworks" essential for any Carter fan who wishes to understand more about the underlying themes in her work.However, I got the feeling that most of the stories in this collection were her "B sides" - experimental pieces that didn't make the cut for her later, better collections. The stories lack the control and clarity of later works - there are far too many long, awkward sentences, repetition of words, and so many of the stories read far more like an elaborate description rather than an actual sequence of events. If starting out with Angela Carter's short stories, I would most definitely recommend The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (probably her best work), followed by Black Venus, rather than this collection. For fans of Carter, this is certainly worth reading purely for getting a greater "behind the scenes" insight into the author's mind.
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