We Never Talk About My Brother (2009)

We Never Talk About My Brother is truly an amazing story collection. I liked The Last Unicorn, which is why I picked it up, but this is one of my all time favorites.

It's so hard to talk about collections with any kind of coherence without breaking it down by story, but the stories were fantastical and wonderful and beautifully written. It is hard to choose my favorite, but I liked the last story least. I love the uncle and the angel, and the mysterious Japanese folk story, and the battle to the death with terrible poetry. I borrowed it, but I'm afraid I'll have to buy it now so that I can read it again later. ( )

The first book I've read by Peter S. Beagle. I've been meaning to read something of his for a while, but all I knew was The Last Unicorn, and honestly I don't like unicorns very much. I was never that into horse books either.

I didn't enjoy the first two stories in this collection particularly. They were good, but the first one seemed to ramble a bit, and first-person narrative is not the way to win my heart, even though I admit it has its place in the world of writing, in short fiction especially.

From the magnificent (and very third-person) "The Tale of Junko and Sayuri" onward, though, I was hooked. I think I may have found one more fantasy author that I can read without fear of being horribly disappointed by bad prose or shallow storytelling. The stories were well-told, meaningful, memorable, and often very funny.

And because two stories were set in the universes of other novels of his, I now have an idea of what I can read by him besides The Last Unicorn (although I will get to that one eventually, really!) ( )

Perhaps best known for his classic novel “The Last Unicorn,” Peter S. Beagle explores a diverse selection of fantastical, mythological, and otherwise magical elements in this collection of short stories. Despite the magical ingredients peppered throughout, Beagle’s stories remain firmly rooted in the real world and real emotions. While many of the stories initially feel familiar in contruction to a widely-read fan of fairy tales and fantasy, they frequently take unexpected and delightful turns, ending up being about something very different than they initially seemed. The lovely fable “ The Tale of Junko and Sayuri” is a particularly effective example of this. Beagle’s characters are multilayered, rich, and eminiently believable, from the grouchy brilliance of the artist in “Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel;” to the tortured naivity of the title character in “King Pelles the Sure;” to the nervous-yet-bold youth of the children in “The Stickball Witch.” Highly recommended. ( )

I am LOVING this book.

I'm about halfway through, and ALL the stories are marvelous- just as I'd expected of Beagle- intricate, humane, and wonderful.

And now I'm done and- wow. I adore Beagle. ( )

http://lonelymountain.net/books/apr09.html#beaglewntamb ( )