Review: Magic for Beginners

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My first exposure to Kelly Link was through a contemporary literature course my final semester of college. I read the eponymous story, "Magic for Beginners," which is about a group of loyal fans of a TV show about a library inside a tree. But it's hard to describe what Link's stories are ostensibly concretely 'about' in a way that captures their magic. A better description for that story might be 'the best short story I've read, in a way that dug down deep inside my psyche and showed me what I fundamentally enjoy about short stories and media in general,' or 'an exploration of the relationship between media and its audience, shown through the experience of one fan as he navigates his changing relationships with his family and friends, as well as with the show they all love.' The show only airs on channels that are otherwise static, and doesn't air according to any schedule. The actors don't play the same characters from week to week. There's an episode that takes place entirely in darkness, inside a card catalog.

I feel like that story is a thematic template for all of Link's stories. Plots are dreamlike and fantastical and, in theory, impossible, but all the more beautiful because she doesn't try to explain what makes them possible in this world. Things just are, and Link encourages the reader to roll with the punches and to accept the impossible strangenesses of her worlds, and thus our own world. The writing is lovely and whimsical and haunting, and the stories stick with you for a long time.

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