BookBrowse Reviews Craft by Ananda Lima

BookBrowse:

A poetic, magical realist short story collection that begins when the writer sleeps with the devil.

You may have heard about books that are letters to God, but what about books that are letters to the devil? In a non-creepy-cult-y-horror-y way, I mean. If you can't think of an example, Ananda Lima's Craft is one that will take you by surprise. The narrator, who simply goes by "the writer," has her life changed after sleeping with the devil. Just for a moment, I'd like for you to guess how it might've changed. Maybe you'd assume the writer would become existential about her fate as a result of her actions. Maybe you'd think readers would follow the writer through a horrific, fire and brimstone Series of Unfortunate Events for the duration of the book.

In reality, Craft is a collection built around the conceit that after this strange encounter, the writer becomes inspired to write stories for the devil. In "Antropófaga," Béia can't seem to pack a lunch despite her best intentions and always ends up eating plastic-wrapped, bite-sized Americans from her work's vending machine instead. "Idle Hands" consists of a series of Amanda's painfully realistic writing workshop critique letters. Sometimes magical realist, sometimes intriguingly ordinary, each story has its own unique pull. In a surreal, hilarious, and tenderhearted way, Craft is an epistolary short story collection that is equal parts for the writer, who learns about herself through her stories, and her recipient, the devil.

There is humor in how matter-of-fact the narration is when personifying the devil (see Beyond the Book). Lima's characterization is both funny and believable, such as, "[t]he Devil loved the DMV." This is balanced with beautiful, poignant reflections. The writer contemplates how it feels to grow up, and the nostalgia one experiences when looking at old pictures: "How those silly nights feel like some freaky moving Escher picture of a mountain peak appearing to get smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror, but somehow still there in its full size." In moments like these, readers see Ananda Lima is a poet at heart.

The collection poses an interesting question to its audience: if the intended recipient for the writer's stories is the devil, what does this say about us, the readers? Are we nosey eavesdroppers, snooping through the collection like a little sibling leafing through their older sibling's diary? Are we the devil? Both views are pretty amusing to think about, though the second theory is my favorite. Perhaps all of us have a little bit of the devil inside of us, our morbid curiosity piqued by reading about Béia eating Americans. Given that question about the audience, Craft is tantalizing both in what it says, and in what it doesn't say. As the author writes, "...stories were more than knowing things, facts…It was the telling and the words, the spaces between them." If Craft is made to be read by the devil, who are we? That question feels distinctly poetic, and it's one of many reasons I will be rereading this book many times over.

This review first ran in the June 19, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.