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Reviewed for FF Friday.
Ellen Klages' Passing Strange is a love story, a romance between Emily, a runaway daughter of a blue-blood New England family, and Haskel, a brilliant artist who makes her living drawing lurid covers for the pulps. But it is also a love song to the city of San Francisco in the 1940s, vibrant in its descriptions of lesbian bars, Chinatown cocktail lounges, and the World Fair.
Klages' writing is superb. She pulls a few tricks I normally dislike, such as mid-scene point of views switches, but the style is so well-done it does not impact my enjoyment or the three-dimensionality of the characters. The romance goes quickly (this is a novella,) but it's both affecting and believable.
There are elements of magic, well-foreshadowed, but out of focus enough I'd label this book more magical realism than fantasy, and the final use of the magical elements leads to a satisfying ending just as I was bracing myself for something a lot more depressing.
Highly recommended.
Ellen Klages' Passing Strange is a love story, a romance between Emily, a runaway daughter of a blue-blood New England family, and Haskel, a brilliant artist who makes her living drawing lurid covers for the pulps. But it is also a love song to the city of San Francisco in the 1940s, vibrant in its descriptions of lesbian bars, Chinatown cocktail lounges, and the World Fair.
Klages' writing is superb. She pulls a few tricks I normally dislike, such as mid-scene point of views switches, but the style is so well-done it does not impact my enjoyment or the three-dimensionality of the characters. The romance goes quickly (this is a novella,) but it's both affecting and believable.
There are elements of magic, well-foreshadowed, but out of focus enough I'd label this book more magical realism than fantasy, and the final use of the magical elements leads to a satisfying ending just as I was bracing myself for something a lot more depressing.
Highly recommended.
