Living Trapped in Dead Marriages
In the collection of short stories titled Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link paints a vivid picture of the family relationships in the modern society with an original and humorous approach. Through an ingenious use of the Fabulist fiction genre, Kelly tinges her stories with magical and enigmatic figures that leave the reader astonished, disoriented, yet amused. Cats, cat’s skin, witches, ghosts, mediums, rabbits, crocodiles and possessed objects personify paradoxes and inconsistencies of family and social interactions in a modern life, which seems more focused on appearance than on essence. The author uses magic to leave open doors to multiple interpretations encouraging the reader to reflect on the less obvious…