Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

Magic for Beginners
by Kelly Link

Published: 2006
Genre: Fantasy
Paperback: 297 pages
Rating: 3

Description from the amazon:
Magic for Beginners is Kelly Link’s eagerly anticipated and critically acclaimed follow-up to her beloved debut, Stranger Things Happen. “Cumulatively weirder and wiser” (The Believer), this new story collection riffs on zombies, marriage, witches, superheroes, haunted convenience stores, and weekly apocalyptic poker parties, among other things.

Link’s work is truly unique. Time Out New York called her stories “cross-genre gems,” and her admirers in the literary community—from Peter Straub and Karen Joy Fowler to Alice Sebold and Michael Chabon—reflect the amazing range that makes her style so special. Call it kitchen sink magical realism: Fantastic and bizarre but funny and down to earth, there is something for everyone in Magic for Beginners.

Description from back cover:
An entire village takes up residence in a woman's handbag. A man becomes convinced that his dead wife is having an affair. A family moved to their dream house in the suburbs, where gradually everything they have becomes haunted. The mundane mingles with the magical to dazzling effect in Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners.

My two-bits:
In-a-word: weird

This was a collection of stories and like all collections there are stories that are more entertaining than others. Yes, the zombies related ones did peak my interest a bit more than the others. No need to worry. They are not the gory type. And, the story with the premise of a village in a handbag really was a fun one.

Zombie sightings:
Beware: there be zombies in some of the selections.

Zombies didn't discriminate. Everyone tasted equally good as far as zombies were concerned. And anyone could be a zombie. You didn't have to be special, or good at sports, or good-looking. You didn't have to smell good, or wear the right kind of clothes, or listen to the right kind of music. You just had to be slow.
(Some Zombie Contingency Plans, page 165)

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* part of Alice in Whatsitland