What is art? To a sculptor it may be the formation of beauty from stone, or some other material; to a writer the forming of words into poetry or prose. The creation or retelling of myths and wonders, bringing to them a new understanding — but beauty as well. To the Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney, in his Defense of Poesy, “lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, [the poet -- or, indeed, the artist in general] doth grow, in effect, into another nature, in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or, quite anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the heroes, demi-gods, cyclops, chimeras, furies, and such like.” And so it may be proper that the book we have here, The Tears of Isis, begins with a poem about a sculptor, a modern Medusa, and concludes with the title story of another sculptor who travels a continent for inspiration, in search of the goddess, “the Weeping Isis,” and ends with discovery of her own self.
But The Tears of Isis, the book, is a journey too, encompassing, yes, “forms such as never were in nature,” as not just “La Méduse,” but also a man’s soul absorbed by an octopus, vampires both physical and metaphorical, music and retellings of Cinderella, an Ancient World caper involving the Golden Fleece of legend, a far-future recasting of Sleeping Beauty — one of three stories in The Tears of Isis set in the author’s world of the “Tombs,” another “Tombs” tale of the origin of ghouls, cockroaches spawned by war, insects by UFOs, Lovecraftian monsters called forth by candles, a woman who takes in a rat as a pet, the “death planet” Saturn and women who buy birds, the life-cycle of dragons, another “Tombs” story of love and a zombie-like form of revenge, and at last to Isis — her search to create but destroying as well, as is part of her nature, and back full circle to sculptress Medusa who “spoke to her hair at times” and “in her dreams . . . her hair hissed its/ answers.”
Are these tales, then, her doing, the fever dreams of one who both creates and dismantles, who transmutes life itself into stone? And are Medusa and Isis the same, the goddess who, with her consort Osiris, rules over death and life at the same time, taking the form of both nurturing mother and flesh-eating vulture?
My Review
I was able to have the opportunity of reading 'The Tears Of Iris' as an ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) on Goodreads.
It was unfortunate that I found the book disappointing. I had hopes that it would be pretty good, but originally had expectations for it. The cover may look unappealing to some but somehow it intrigued me into reading the collection of short stories. I found the blurb misleading. When I first read it I thought it had potential since I like twisted fairy tales and adventure. Unfortunately, I thought that the blurb had no relation with the stories. I thought the stories would be a twisted version of classics, but not in this case.
It personally too me a while to get through the collection of stories since I would read one, then put it down and not pick it up for a while. I thought the stories were too short and didn't have any connections or relevance between stories. Although the ideas of the stories were good, I found them really confusing and was annoyed that there was no background to the story and its characters. Out of the 19 stories only one caught my liking, 'Bottles', I like my Vampire tales.
I was overall disappointed but glad to have read something a little different, even though the writing could have been improved a tad.
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