Recommended Reading: 'White Time' by Margo Lanagan

Filed by: Darren on August 17, 2007 at 17:59
Filed In: Books

Right then, that's two Margo Lanagan collections (this one and Black Juice) read and enjoyed, one more (Red Spikes) still to be savoured.

I have to confess that I went into this volume assuming that it wasn't likely to be the strongest of the three because the stories were all written with a younger reading audience in mind. I therefore rather thought they would be less thematically surreal or situationally adult, but as it turns out there's some very odd-ball situations and some quite adult themes on display throughout. Lanagan clearly isn't a writer who pulls her punches just because her readers are a little on the small side, although she might wear slightly thicker gloves...

Personal highlights: the title story, 'White Time', had some interesting sfnal ideas that weren't dumbed-down by the application of a teenager as narrator / p.o.v. character. 'The Night Lily' and 'Wealth' both had a strong element of the bizarre. 'Dedication' and 'Big Rage' both explored the sort of relationships that you might not normally associate with a teen audience (or perhaps I'm doing the audience an injustice there?) and none of the other stories in the volume contained ideas or concepts that you could accuse of being simplistic. My favourite though was the highly entertaining 'Midsummer Mission', which must surely win the prize for the most entertainingly foul-mouthed fairy to appear in children's literature.

All in all, another very good collection which, if not quite as exotic and rich as Black Juice, definitely has much to recommend it to readers in both the young and not-so young adult age brackets.

Author info: Among Amid While, Margo Lanagan's blog
Ordering info: Amazon.co.uk (my hardback copy set me back all of £6.42, including postage)
Publication info: August 2006 (Eos Hb), originally published October 2000 (Allen & Unwin, Pb still available)

Additional 30.08.07: Ed Ashby has sent me a link to a Sci-Fi Wire interview with Lanagan on the subject of Red Spikes.

Filed on: August 17, 2007
Filed under: Books
Tagged with: fiction-collection | Margo-Lanagan | White-Time |

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2 Responses to 'Recommended Reading: 'White Time' by Margo Lanagan'

Ed on August 28th, 2007 10:55 pm

For those who still have to sample the wonders of Margo Lanagan you can find the opening story from the Black Juice collection here
Ariel on August 29th, 2007 8:17 am

Cheers Ed, great link. And that's one of the strongest stories in the collection as well, imho, so well worth a read.

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