Both Japan and the women industrialize: indeed, “the bells and whistles are in bodies.” So pernicious and dehumanizing are these jobs that the women become the institution itself the narrator, Kitsune, says, “I had no limbo period. Just as “all Japan is undergoing a transformation,” so too are the women sold by their fathers into service and then brutally transformed into “reelers,” hybrid creatures that are half woman, half silkworm. “Reeling for the Empire,” perhaps the most compelling story in the collection, is set in Japan circa 1844. But her real subject matter here (as in an earlier book of stories and a novel, Swamplandia!, that was a finalist for last year’s Pulitzer) is storytelling-specifically the role of memory at the intersection of personal and national histories and the ways in which stories can both harm and heal. In her new collection of stories, Vampires in the Lemon Grove (Knopf), Karen Russell continues her exploration into the fantastical with characters including the eponymous bloodsuckers, human silkworms, and dead U.S. Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreation.Best of Chicago 2022: Music & Nightlife.
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