The Best of R. A. Lafferty

Starred review from November 9, 2020
World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Lafferty (1914–2002) wrote the 22 stories of this distinguished collection in the 1960s and ’70s. Offbeat, usually joyful, and always a few steps beyond reality, these tales showcase Lafferty’s humanism and linguistic mastery. Lafferty lived most of his life in Oklahoma and drew on the U.S. Western and Native American tall-tale traditions for stories like “Narrow Valley,” which celebrates human decency and resilience. In Hugo winner “Eurema’s Dam,” Lafferty’s schlemiel inventor Albert hilariously and eerily forecasts today’s computer-centric world. “The Primary Education of the Camiroi,” presented as a report to a PTA, skewers self-serving and illogical leaps in education, like speed reading and curriculum overhauls; it even suggests that “a little constructive book burning, especially in the field of education” may be necessary for human progress. Each story is accompanied by an introduction by a noted contemporary science fiction author, among them Samuel R. Delany, Neil Gaiman, and Nancy Kress. In clever prose, Lafferty invites readers both to deplore human frailties and learn to laugh at them, resulting in a collection to reread and savor.

February 1, 2021

R.A. Lafferty (1914-2002) was an influential short story writer of the "tall tales" school, who flourished in the 1960s through the 1980s. His work garnered a host of prestigious awards, but Lafferty was best known, and is still celebrated today, as a "writer's writer," for all the authors he inspired and influenced. This collection showcases the best of his stories, and features introductions and afterwords by writers he influenced, including Neil Gaiman, Robert Silverberg, Connie Willis, Kelly Robson, Nancy Kress, and John Scalzi. Kress's intro to "Continued on Next Rock" is particularly poignant, and the story stands out, as do "Eurema's Dam," "Sky," and "In Our Block," introduced by Gaiman. VERDICT The stories in this collection sum up the quintessential Lafferty, but the standouts in this volume are the heartfelt introductions. Readers wondering about this writer who influenced their current favorite authors, and those who have seen references to this influential author but are having difficulty finding his work, as much of it has gone out of print, will enjoy this collection.--Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 8, 2021
In this new anthology, prolific editor Strahan provides a representative selection of the work of the seldom-reprinted sf and fantasy author Lafferty. It certainly succeeds on that score, encompassing the wide range of Lafferty's energetic and inventive prose, from the folksy fabulism of ""Boomer Flats,"" with its community of Sasquatches frequently visited by comets, to formalized inventiveness, like the alternate history of thought-recorded television in ""Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies,"" or the Swiftian satire of alien schooling in ""Primary Education of the Camiroi."" While readers will certainly be satisfied with this sample from the work of a frequently cited and beloved ""writer's writer,"" the fact that every story comes with an introduction by a different sf/fantasy writer, and occasionally also an afterword by an entirely different author, does at times give the feeling of drowning the reader in enthusiasm about the collections' subject. Qualms about the format aside, this is an excellent collection of a skilled genre stylist, and definitely recommended for any and all sf readers.

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