Subject: BLACK WATER 2 edited by Alberto Manguel

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Date: 17 May 91 23:46:03 GMT

[Followups directed to rec.arts.books]

		   BLACK WATER 2 edited by Alberto Manguel
		  Potter, 1990, ISBN 0-517-57559-0, $14.95.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		       Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper

     In 1985, Alberto Manguel came out with BLACK WATER, an excellent
anthology of "fantastic" stories from all over the world.  Unlike most
anthologies published in the United States, it was not slanted toward
American or British authors, but had a wide assortment of Latin American,
European, and Asian authors.  Now he has followed that up with BLACK WATER
2, 65 stories of the fantastic from around the world.  These aren't science
fiction stories.  Most aren't horror stories in the usually accepted sense
(of vampires, werewolves, and other such staples), though some are horrific
in nature.  The closest common appellation would be fantasy, though if
you're expecting unicorns and elves, look elsewhere.  (There is a mermaid,
though.)  I found this just a notch below the first anthology in quality,
but still far more interesting than most of what one sees today.  These are
older stories, but for the most part have not been widely reprinted in the
United States (with the possible exceptions of Jerome Bixby's "It a GOOD
Life," Bernard Malamud's "Jewbird," and Arthur C. Clarke's "Nine Billion
Names of God," but even those are known more within the science fiction
community than to the public at large).  Highly recommended.

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or [email-masked]