Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces

by Angela Carter

Book Overview

Nine darkly inventive tales of desire, slaughter, and hideous knowledge. . . . This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140105883
• ISBN13: 9780140105889
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The Beauty of the Profane

I find it difficult to describe the appeal of this in a few short sentences - like Carter's other work it is fabulous, provoking and sexually charged. Here again are her enduring themes - domination and transformation ('Master'), the ultimately desireable loss of innocence ('Penetrating to the Heart of the Forest'), and forays into the dark, folk-tale regions she has navigated with such effect in past works.They are described as 'pieces' and justly so; but pieces that are remarkable, fascinating and lose nothing for their brevity and strangeness.

Japanese eroticism & medieval torture

Yes: in FIREWORKS, Angela Carter manages to tell stories dealing with Japan, medieval torture tactics, incest, gender-bending, and mirrors (LOTS of mirrors). It's a beautiful book...only a glimpse into her imagination and only a small taste of her bizarre politics. And, as she explains in her afterward, these stories are not stories, but "pieces," "tales"--a nod to Poe or even to the Brothers Grimm. This is a very unusual--and rewarding--collection of writings.