McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales

Michael Chabon, ed.

From Book IT! GremLindz Style (http://gremlindz.blogspot.com/2008/03/freedom-for-adventures.html)

Thrilling Tales promised to bring me all new, never before seen, original stories. And that, by god, it did. All of my favorite subjects were covered: time travel, the end of the world, cats, revenge, true love… wait a minute.. Seriously though, the stories were delightfully strange and adventurous. “Catskin” was about a boy whose mother turned into a cat after she died, and then she burned down a house with cats in it, and sewed him what was essentially a cat-skin hoodie. Every now and then he decided to put the hoodie on and walk around on all fours like a cat. I’m still trying to figure out any metaphors or ssssssymbolism, although it may have just been a really weird story. And I’m all for that! Because I am weird. Although I don’t think I would ever sew cat hides together to make myself a little cat jacket. That seems a bit too far.

Thrilling Tales marked the first works I have read by Michael Crichton and Stephen King. I know, very hard to believe that I’ve never read Stephen King, but there it is. And they were back-to-back. The rate at which Stephen King pushes out stuff is amazing to me. It makes me wonder if he actually still enjoys writing, or if it has become so commonplace to him that he doesn’t really even have to try anymore. Because that would be sad. But at the same time, should he really have to try anymore? He’s built up such a substantial platform that I think people will buy his books even if they are crap. Does Michael Crichton still write books? To be honest, I was (obviously) never too interested in either, and I’m not really any more interested now. I have to say that my favorite story in the whole collection was Nick Hornby’s “Otherwise Pandemonium.” What is it with me and apocalyptic scenarios? I do enjoy them, although I can’t recall reading a book with such a premise. But “Pandemonium” took apocalypse to a different level by adding in a time-travel-y aspect that is really fun and had me frantically turning the pages so I could find out what happens. Not since High Fidelity have I been that engrossed in Hornby’s stuff, and it was refreshing to experience it again. Please don’t disappoint me with another book like A Long Way Down. Seriously, man. Don’t.

And there are still so many other great stories! One about a detective investigating the death/murder of Hitler’s neice/lover. A stream-of-thought-ish recount of a drug epidemic in NYC that included conspiracy theories and apocalyptic scenarios (this was a jackpot despite the somewhat annoying stream-of-thought-ishness which made me feel like I was on drugs). One weird one about a husband and wife who collected salt and pepper shakers and (spoiler:) ended up killing each other (I’m still not sure why). A tale about a circus elephant that gets hanged (this had some great twists in it that I can’t give away but gave the story have an amazing structure). One war story about a general who escapes and seeks refuge with a girl and her grandmother that I didn’t think I’d enjoy, but did, because it was not only touching but really pissed me off at the end. (Isn’t it great when a book/story really gets an emotion out of you?!) A story about a guy who is working at an archeological dig and the mischief a writer stirs up when she comes to do some research. I could go on and on! They were all great, which I find rare in a short story collection.

by Lindsay Snieder

McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales on:
Amazon
Random House