You are probably thinking to yourself, Gentle Reader, something like why does the silly bastard read books of short stories if he’s just going to whine about how he doesn’t really like the short story form? Aha! Tricked you. I am not going to whine about how I didn’t much enjoy Jane Yolen’s short stories in Sister Emily’s Lightship because I just don’t like the short story form very much. Although, if you must know, I do think that I would have enjoyed the stories more if I hadn’t read them all in a row; they are similar, one to another, in theme and concerns, as one might expect a group of stories by one author to be, and I was less enchanted by the tenth or twelfth story, just because it was the tenth or twelfth story.
But what I’m really going to whine about is that there were 32 pages missing from this book! Page 224 (verso), I’m reading “Sun/Flight”, a sort of Icarus story, not too bad although I thought it was going on a trifle too long, and then page 257 (recto), I’m halfway through “Ghost of an Affair”. And I am entirely missing three stories, including “Dick W. and his Pussy; or, Tess and her Adequate Dick”, which sounds as if it would be right up my alley. So that’s five stories ruined. It’s a library book (I shall inform them that their book is defective) so I’m only out my time and good humor. If I had my good humor, I might attempt to make some joke about a signed edition and a missing signature, but frankly, I ain’t in the mood.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.