White Time (review)

In this Australian import, Lanagan explores a wide range of topics such as death, love, and longing in ten short stories. "The Queen's Notice" explores the fate of a rodent, chosen by the rodent queen for his bravery to be her next mating partner but unexpectedly isolated from everything he loves by his newly exalted status. Exploring similar themes of isolation but set in a drastically different milieu is "The Boy Who Didn't Yearn," a tale of a desperately lonely and psychically gifted girl who unconsciously creates the perfect boyfriend out of her own desires. "The Night Lily" is set in a harrowing war-filled world where a young boy, his family dying around him, finds comfort in a giant jellyfish-like creature that lives in his room and may or may not be real. What is real or imagined, ambiguous or certain, is clearly less the point of these stories, however, than an experimentation with writing styles and the multiple meanings of words. As in her previous short-story collection, Black Juice (BCCB 3/05), Lanagan's language and sentence structure are impeccable and well crafted. Though the sophisticated vocabulary and complex plots will make readers work for their literary payoffs, most of this collection is powerful and effective; patient readers with a literary bent will be rewarded with intriguing, meaningful stories that explore the beauty and complexity of life, even in its rawest moments.