Review: Vampires in the Lemon Grove
Vampires in the Lemon Grove is a collection of wonderfully off-kilter short stories from Karen Russell that manage to be symbolic without being portentous. All of them have some aspect of the magical in them, but no two are alike. The variety of setting and character keeps the ideas fresh and the stories engaging.
The stories are also refreshingly non-cinematic. More to the point, they’re literary without making too much of that fact. They are a pleasure to read as much for their language and their structure as they are for their incident. They hold the reader’s attention without spectacle or excessive flash. I wanted to see what happened as much for what it means as for how a story turns out.
Vampires contains stories that reward contemplation and capture attention.
Recommended.