The theme of the stories in the book is that most of them are responses or homage to other works of fiction, most of which I am not familiar with. The opening story takes on Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, while some in the middle are responses to science fiction works, to the last story which combines Pride and Prejudice with Frankenstein. I liked almost everything in the collection, with the exceptions being several of the more experimental stories toward the end.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence: And Other Stories is a collection of stories by John Kessel. The publisher, Small Beer Press, made the book available both through LibraryThing as an Early Reviewer title, and through the Small Beer website as a free PDF download (still available here as of May 12, 2008). As well as, you know, a book you can buy.

This book is worth purchasing solely for the story "Pride and Prometheus", in which Mary Bennett, the serious and studious Bennett sister from Pride and Prejudice, encounters Victor Frankenstein and for the first time in her life is moved by romantic feelings. Frankenstein is likewise drawn to Mary, but makes no secret that his motivations lie elsewhere. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, so I will say only that this story is beautiful, serious, and heartfelt, never descending into parody or gimmickry.

The other story I was most interested in reading was the title story, "The Baum Plan for Financial Independence". In this story, the narrator picks up his relationship with Dot right where he left it off when he went to prison because of something the two of them did together. Because he can't refuse Dot anything, they break into a house Dot has heard contains a great deal of wealth, and are surprised when a passage from a bedroom closet leads to a train station that in turn leads to something like the Emerald City we know from Oz.

I found this story, and indeed most of the stories, very well written, but many of them, including "The Baum Plan", have an arbitrariness and/or lack of resolution that left me wanting something more. Kessel's prose contains lovely details, but there is sometimes a clean quietness to the stories that feels almost antiseptic, even when the characters are filled with strong emotion. One story, "The Snake Girl", appears to have no speculative element, which is certainly not a crime, but it reads a bit like the type of earnest literary magazine story that an intense college student writes just after suffering the end of his/her first profound relationship, rather than a story that offers any of its readers anything particular to think about.

Another story, "It's All True", is about a man who goes back into time (well, one timeline, anyway) to try and persuade Orson Welles to join him in a future that will appreciate his brilliance. (I understand that this universe is the same in which Kessel's novel Corrupting Dr. Nice takes place, although I did not recognize the connection myself.) This was a neat concept, and the resolution of the Welles element is generally satisfying, but I still came away with a slight feeling of "why does the story end here as opposed to anywhere else?" Also, in a few of the short-shorts, I felt as though the author clearly knew what was going on, but somehow I was missing critical information and/or the joke and/or the point. I also consider it a strength that Kessel does not browbeat the reader with clumsy exposition, but at the same time I felt like I often didn't get enough information to work with.

All that said, it's worth your time to take a look at this book. Different stories will appeal to different readers. And again, "Pride and Prometheus" is worth more than the price of admission (which is $0 if you do the download -- but it's still worth the actual price of the book!) all on its own, with an ending that is not only not arbitrary, but feels necessary and just right. ( )

(Amy) The short stories in this book range from "weird and interesting" to "weird and distasteful" to "weird and boring". The first category probably comprises the greatest proportion, fortunately, but nonetheless, it was very slow going, making it all the way to the end.

The title story (the first in the book) showed a promising concept - a bizarre edge-on take on a very, very different Wizard-of-Oz story - but in execution proved to be a) boring and b) gratuitous. I'm all in favor of retold tales, but I do generally prefer that the new version justify its existence by telling something different about the original story, or about life in general - or hell, just being entertaining. This story utterly failed to accomplish this, at least so far as I was concerned.

As for what the blurb text calls a "modern classic story sequence about life on the moon", well, it was entertaining enough. However, terribly sorry, but "female-dominant sex-positive society" is not shocking, it is not titillating, it is not insightful exploration of possible shapes of future humanity. It is practically cliched, and really reads like a series of wistful thought exercises by a frustrated fetishist. Enh.

I think the likelihood of me picking up another book by this author is best classified as "slim to none".
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze... ) ( )

http://lcrw.net/kessel/smp-dl.php?fil...

A collection that is in the main, science fiction. There are 14 stories, which is a considerable number for a single-author book, so room for some variety, with excursions into fantasy, Frankenstein crossover pastiche, whacky, and even mainstream reptile loving.

The strength of this work is in the section the author calls "A Lunar Quartet":  —The Juniper Tree  —Stories for Men  —Under the Lunchbox Tree   —Sunlight or Rock, and the first two are the two best, and excellent tales.

Overall, a good quality group of stories, averaging 3.57.

Baum Plan for Financial Independence : The Baum Plan for Financial Independence [short story] - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : Every Angel Is Terrifying - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : The Red Phone - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : The Invisible Empire - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : The Juniper Tree - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : Stories for Men - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : Under the Lunchbox Tree - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : Sunlight or Rock - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : The Snake Girl - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : It's All True - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : The Last American - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : Downtown - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : Powerless - John Kessel
Baum Plan for Financial Independence : Pride and Prometheus - John Kessel

Magic money.

3 out of 5

Dead cat, not people?

3.5 out of 5

“My amygdala vibrates with primal impulse as the sensory overload threatens to reduce my IQ by forty points.”

3.5 out of 5

"The governor had vowed “to expunge the viper of female vigilance organizations” from the state."

Just another dead president in a line, why these blokes so upset?

4 out of 5

Colony murder mystery reconstruction results.

4.5 out of 5

Cousinly sexist society xx gene fight club.

4.5 out of 5

Boring retreat.

3 out of 5

Only bet when you know what you are doing.

3.5 out of 5

Overconfident ice chick, and I get stuck with the reptile.

3 out of 5

Welles into the negative.

4 out of 5

DAS Biography.

4 out of 5

I'm almost off, Duck.

3 out of 5

Dodgy experiment dwarf busted brain damage interlude.

3 out of 5

It's Alive with Prejudice.

3.5 out of 5

http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/04/ba... ( )