From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble Review
Nalo Hopkinson, award-winning author of
Brown Girl in the Ring and
Midnight Robber, has released an impressive collection of short stories entitled
Skin Folk. Hopkinson -- who was born in Jamaica and grew up in Guyana, Trinidad, and Canada -- delves into diverse world ranging from Caribbean folklore to fantastical horror to dark erotic fiction.
My favorite story was easily "Snake," the eerie tale of a serial child molester. The pervert, Stryker, goes to the park next to an elementary school every morning to watch the kids. He is a freak in every sense of the word. He is obsessed with cleanliness: He washes his hands over and over and has to clean his shoes inside and out as soon as he gets home from work. Every day, while he sits in the park watching the little girls, he also observes a group of seniors who practice ta'i chi, as well as an elderly couple who walk through the park and feed the birds. When he finally decides that he must add another little girl to his "collection," he gets an unpleasant surprise….
Short story collections give the reader an opportunity to experience a writer from several perspectives -- background, culture, visions, and philosophies -- and this anthology is no different. Hopkinson has a unique, poetic way of looking at the world. ("The pears looked like the bodies of plump, freckled green women.") And not unlike collections by authors such as Milan Kundera and Jerzy Kosinski, this collection offered me a glimpse into a culture I previously knew little about.
Not having read Hopkinson before, I didn't really know what to expect. However, I didn't expect the stories to be so well crafted and brilliantly written. Skin Folk gets my highest recommendation. (Paul Goat Allen)
Washington Post Book World
Vivid and immediate.
San Francisco Chronicle
Hopkinson's use of language is sometimes shocking and usually entrancing; she flinches from nothing.
Dallas Morning News
An important new writer.
Publishers Weekly
Caribbean folklore informs many of the 15 stories, ranging from fabulist to mainstream, in this literary first short-fiction collection from Nebula and Hugo awards-nominee Hopkinson (Brown Girl in a Ring; Midnight Robber). Notable in the folk-tale vein is "Riding the Red," about Red Riding Hood, now a grandma, and her primal relationship with the wolf. Unlikable protagonists feature in several remarkable stories. In "Greedy Choke Puppy" a bitter woman discards her skin at night and kills children for their life-force. In "Under Glass," set in a postapocalyptic Earth scoured by glass storms, a girl caught outside during a storm realizes what it means to be too hard-hearted. Other stories celebrate life as characters learn to come to terms with what and who they are. In "A Habit of Waste," Cynthia, formerly black but now in a new, white body, brings food to an indigent man, only to discover that he has unexpected resources. "Slow Cold Chick" follows Blaise, the terrified owner of a rapidly growing cockatrice, as she gains the courage to speak her mind. Hopkinson implies that the extraordinary is part of the fabric of day-to-day life. Her descriptions of ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinarily circumstances ring true, the result of her strong evocation of place and her ear for dialect. Some stories meander, but underneath them all is a sure grasp of humanity, good and bad, and the struggle to understand and to communicate. Agent, Don Maass. (Dec. 1) Forecast: Though marketed as science fiction, this collection should hand-sell to fans of multicultural fiction. Born in Jamaica, Hopkinson grew up in Guyana, Trinidad and Canada, her current home. Copyright 2001 Cahners BusinessInformation.
VOYA
Both science fiction and realism make up the stories in this collection that will draw readers in fabulous directions. The award-winning author of Brown Girl in the Ring (Warner, 1998/VOYA August 1998) and Midnight Robber (Warner, 2000/VOYA June 2000), Hopkinson sets her stories in her native Toronto and the Caribbean, borrowing from European and Caribbean folklore, magical realism, and speculative fiction. Riding the Red, The Glass Bottle Trick, and Precious toy with the tales of Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and Diamonds and Toads. Under Glass borrows lightly from Andersen's The Snow Queen, but is a haunting and dystopic science-fiction story set in two worlds that come shatteringly close. Anansi, Dry Bone, the Lagahoo, and the Soucouyant are characters from Caribbean folklore that take their places in the stories as well. Ultimately Hopkinson's tales are rooted in real life, and her characters use whatever tools they have at hand—physical or spiritual—to find their way to self-realization and satisfaction. From the graphic designer, who touches up porn Web sites and has an eye for what is underneath the skin in Something to Hitch Meat To, and the lonely Blaise, who learns in Slow Cold Chick to eat what nourishes her, to KC, the Fisherman, who makes her first visit to a whorehouse in a powerfully erotic tale, these stories are arranged carefully, connected end-to-end with images or metaphors. Running through them all is a sense of touch that is evoked in the title. Although she seems to borrow liberally from various literary traditions, Hopkinson's voice is whole and unique. Readers of any genre undoubtedly will find a connection here. Fans of Francesca Lia Block, Annette CurtisKlause, or Robin McKinley who are ready for something new especially might appreciate this stunning and memorable collection. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P S A/YA (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2001, Warner, 260p, $12.95 Trade pb. Ages 15 to Adult. Reviewer: Nina Lindsay SOURCE: VOYA, February 2002 (Vol. 24, No.6)
Library Journal
From a brief but compelling reenvisioning of a classic fairy tale ("Riding the Red") to a haunting tale of a young woman remembering who she really is ("And the Lilies Them A-Blow"), this collection of 15 stories, some of them previously published, demonstrates Hopkinson's lyrical prose and unabashed inventiveness. The author of Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber, she combines a richly textured multicultural background with incisive storytelling. For most libraries. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Fifteen Afro-Caribbean-flavored fables, some set in Toronto, by lauded Locus Award winner Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring, 1998, etc.). "Riding the Red" varies Little Red Riding Hood tale by adopting the viewpoint of Grandma, whose hormones lust for Wolfie. "The Money Tree" entwines two or three familiar themes: piracy and greed, a mother who's a river nymph, and the fatal problems with water of her two grown children. "The Glass Bottle Trick," a tale to delight Angela Carter, mixes Beauty and the Beast and Persephone and Pluto, telling of young Beatrice, a top student set on medical school; instead, she's seduced into marriage with wealthy, twice-widowed Samuel, who thinks himself ugly, does not want children, and keeps his air-conditioned house sealed and so cold that insects refuse to enter. Much longer is "Fisherman," no fable but rather an erotic tale that goes on and on, about a fisherman losing his virginity in a whorehouse, a story that teases and teases because it has but one secret to reveal and whose highlight turns on a splendidly arresting physical act most readers would find improbable-until one thinks about it. And some may even have done it. "Precious" is a variation on the Midas theme: Isobel and her sister are both blessed and cursed when they give water to an old crone. The sister later spits out bats, spiders and lizards while Isobel, whose greedy husband calls her Precious, spits out diamonds, rubies, even bars of platinum, whenever she speaks. So she remains mute while her husband goads her to talk. The richly veined "Greedy Choke Puppy" makes clear how folklore feeds real magic into everyday Caribbean life. These wonderful duppy and jumby things leave you with abelly full of good feelings, like dumplings bobbing in you like you've never tasted before.
