Massachusetts magical realism powerhouse Kelly Link has provided an amazing new collection with White Cat, Black Dog, where we get seven masterful pieces that reflect the complications and struggles found in all relationships, mirrored through classic, forgotten international fairy tales.
I think the first piece, “The White Cat’s Divorce,” might be my favorite. When an quirky old man facing down his own mortality needs a solution for passing on his estate, he asks his sons (in a bit of a King Lear fashion) to find the smallest, most perfect dog to accompany him as he shuffles off this mortal coil. What he gets instead is a magic hazelnut to satiate his desires in more ways than one. A beautifully Shakespearean take on the French classic “The White Cat” by Madame d’Aulnoy, the only spoilers here come via the original author and title.
“Prince Hat Underground,” meanwhile, is a more cerebral piece where a character must navigate a somewhat purgatorial, middle-world universe to find his partner and perhaps learn what their true motives are in their relationship—a very difficult piece to describe without spoilers, but a thoroughly worthwhile journey. This one is based on the Scandinavian tale “Prince Hat Under the Ground.”
“The White Road” is another favorite in the collection, if only for the subject matter. A troupe of traveling actors performs from town to town, but they also need to present corpses along the way in response to an unnamed plague contagion. But where is the narrator’s love? Is there a master plan at work? A betrayal? Was he never part of the plan of the person around whom he centers his world? The answer lies in the execution.
In the next story, an interpretation of the Brothers Grimm’s “The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was,” Link engages with material I have also played with—a complete oral story told in a few paragraphs, reinterpreted for audiences in the print age (or beyond the print age at this point?). In “The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear,” we meet a literature professor facing increasingly bizarre characters during an airline delay that truly reveals who is immune from fear and who isn’t.
“The Game of Smash and Recovery” is a science fiction reimagining of “Hansel and Gretel.” It didn’t do as much for me as the others, but it was still quite lovely.
The Scottish ballad “Tam Lin” is featured in “The Lady and the Fox,” a story about a man who only appears during snowstorms. Naturally, he falls in love with our protagonist and needs a way to move beyond his unfortunate circumstances into a truly manageable relationship with her. It is gorgeous.
“Skinder’s Veil” is my final favorite and a beautiful bookend for the collection. A graduate student who needs remote time to focus on his writing (a setup I am very familiar with) is tasked with house-sitting a remote Vermont cabin. Only a small series of rules comes with the job: let anyone who knocks inside (they are always animal-like and amazing), except Skinder himself. He accomplishes a lot, and the twist is deeply satisfying.
I really enjoyed Link’s new collection. She is a solid writer with beats that make every story shine, regardless of how ridiculous her premises are (inspired or not). It is one thing to draw from poorly written original texts with amazing concepts, but quite another to humanize them into a fresh marmalade of great storytelling. Link is a nonpareil in every sense of the word.
