I have a feature-length review + interview today in PopMatters with Michel Faber about his new book of short stories, Vanilla Bright Like Eminem. Victorianists who read this blog will recognize Faber as the author of the neo-Victorian novel, The Crimson Petal and the White (and as a frequent interlocutor on the VICTORIA-L listserv). Vanilla Bright Like Eminem isn’t a neo-Victorian work, but neither is it as up-to-the-minute as its title perhaps suggests. Here’s a sample of the interview:
I suspect that what drives a lot of my fiction is not so much the power of fantasy (in the sense that you meant that word) but the problematical relationship of “subjective†and “objective†reality. I often show my characters constructing the universe around them, transforming the world according to the emotional/ psychological state that informs their perception. I allow the reader to decide whether this world is a gross distortion of what’s “really†out there, or whether it’s close to the “truthâ€.
As always, read the whole thing!