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    Jigs & Reels: Stories
    Unavailable
    Jigs & Reels: Stories
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    Jigs & Reels: Stories
    Ebook258 pages4 hours

    Jigs & Reels: Stories

    By Joanne Harris

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Each of the twenty-two tales in this enchanting collection is a surprise and a delight, melding the poignant and the possible with the outrageous, the magical, and, sometimes, the eerily haunting. Wolf men, dolphin women, defiant old ladies, and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear -- in Jigs & Reels the miraculous goes hand in hand with the mundane, the sour with the sweet, and the beautiful, the grotesque, the seductive, and the disturbing are never more than one step away. Whether she's exploring the myth of beauty, the pain of infidelity, or the wonder of late-life romance, Joanne Harris once again proves herself a master of the storyteller's trade.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 17, 2009
    ISBN9780061970047
    Unavailable
    Jigs & Reels: Stories
    Author

    Joanne Harris

    Joanne Harris is the author of seven previous novels—Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Sleep, Pale Sister, and Gentlemen & Players; a short story collection, Jigs & Reels; and two cookbook/memoirs, My French Kitchen and The French Market. Half French and half British, she lives in England.

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    Reviews for Jigs & Reels

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      I've enjoyed Joanne Harris' novels for about ten years; she's one of just a handful of female novelists I follow. Her ability to bring a location and an atmosphere to life for the reader is almost unparalleled, but those are qualities that are highlighted by the long form of the novel. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to get with her short stories, and...well, I think my hesitation was justified.It's not that the stories are in any way *bad.* They're not. Several of them simply feel very bitty. In a couple of cases, this is intentional; something like "Any Girl Can Be a CandyKiss Girl!" is intentionally tiny because it revolves around a single joke. Others, though, simply pull out the "gotcha" too far. I dare any experienced reader not to predict the general thrust of "The Ugly Sister," "Al and Christine's World of Leather" or "Last Train to Dogtown" within a couple of pages. It's not that they're written poorly, but they're predictable, and Harris doesn't get the length she needs to make the journey feel worthwhile regardless.The best stories are, frankly, longer, and allow Harris to paint a picture through first-person perspective. "Gastronomicon" is just as simple, really, as some of the other stories mentioned, but it tickles the fancy a little bit more just through the sheer naivete of the narrator. Even better is "Class of '81," a quirky class reunion story, and best of all is "Breakfast at Tesco's," which finds a lover of old movies trapped as a bystander in a modern-day situation. Even "The Little Mermaid," which wears its fairy-tale-update aspect right there on its sleeve, is made more powerful through Harris' use of first person.
    • 3/5
      Classy collection of short stories. Lots of varietyRead May 2006
    • 3/5
      rabck from MyssCyn; short stories. Uneven reading for me. Faith and Hope Go Shopping was a nice lark, Auto-da-fe was creepy but intriguing and written very tightly. But others were just too loosely written.
    • 3/5
      I always find Joanne Harris' writing magical and absorbing. It doesn't do it for me quite as well in this collection of short stories, though. Some of them are enjoyable -- and I do like the 'punchline' of her stabs at the beauty industry -- but the quality isn't very consistent. I really like her way of describing things, and her descriptions of food are always amazing, but some of these stories just weren't as vibrant and colourful as I'd hoped.

      I like that she has short introductions with each story. I like knowing what's in a writer's head that sparks the story.

      Joanne Harris' books/stories are like comfort food for me -- goes down easy, doesn't satisfy for long. I always want a little more.
    • 4/5
      A collection of short stories: quirky, odd, sad, strange, sometimes sweet, sometimes horrid. Not all of them work, but the ones that do are deeply satisfying, and most of the others are at least worth a read. Joanne Harris, like so many others, doesn't admit to being a science fiction/fantasy writer, but she doesn't exactly try very hard to hide it either, and the fantastic elements give her writing a certain charm.
    • 3/5
      I was really looking forward to Jigs & Reels because I love short stories and I have really enjoyed what I've read of Harris's work. She has a way with words that makes me want to read more.I did love a couple of the stories in this collection, but mostly they were just . . . okay. Harris's writing makes up for a lot, but the constant use of "gotcha!" twists led to me trying to guess what the final reveal would be, instead of enjoying the stories themselves.
    • 3/5
      A good mixture of short stories; I liked most, but a few baffled me. Joanne Harris is a favourite author of mine, but this was not my favourite book. Still above average.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this - a great collection, and quite different from some of her other work, although not without Harris' typical dark twists.
    • 4/5
      A varied collection of short stories. Compared to many of Harris's novels I found some of the stories quite surprising, but in a good way. Many of her books are somewhere between fantasy and reality (don't take me wrong - I do like the books) whereas these stories ranged from fantasy to more "realistic". Overall a recommendable read.
    • 1/5
      Summary: Short Stories covering a range of genres.The Take-Away: The slim volume includes 22 short stories, covering a wide range of genres -- fantasy, thriller, horror, etc. For a fast reader like myself, one thing glared at me from the pages -- the voice was the same for all of the stories. Harris has a strong voice and seldom wavered from it. Reading this title only enforced it.However, since voice is one of the hardest things to explain, the collection would make a great example for anyone who doesn't understand. I think if I had taken longer breaks between stories, I would have enjoyed it more.Recommendation: Skip it.