“The Color Master” by Aimee Bender
January 2, 2014
The Color Master was the winter 2014 LARB Book Club pick. To join the Book Club, where we put you in conversation with editors and members and send a copy of the selected title to your door, become a LARB Friend member today.
“Tales that dazzle, confound, electrify, disturb, incriminate, and empathize. . . . [The Color Master] is absurd. It is remarkable. It induces mental whiplash.” —The Chicago Tribune
A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with hair the color of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard; a woman plays out a fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life; an ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children; and two sisters travel deep into Malaysia, where one learns the art of mending tigers who have been ripped to shreds.
In each of The Color Master’s fifteen remarkable stories, Aimee Bender holds a funhouse mirror up to reality, proving, once again, that she is one of the most intelligent and imaginative writers of our time.
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“Tales that dazzle, confound, electrify, disturb, incriminate, and empathize. . . . [The Color Master] is absurd. It is remarkable. It induces mental whiplash.” —The Chicago Tribune
A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with hair the color of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard; a woman plays out a fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life; an ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children; and two sisters travel deep into Malaysia, where one learns the art of mending tigers who have been ripped to shreds.
In each of The Color Master’s fifteen remarkable stories, Aimee Bender holds a funhouse mirror up to reality, proving, once again, that she is one of the most intelligent and imaginative writers of our time.
¤
LARB Staff Recommendations
Aimee Molloy’s Maternal Horror
The gripping horror of Aimee Molloy’s “The Perfect Mother” lies in showing us the demons of motherhood in broad daylight.
Backwards Robberies and Backwards Revisionists: The Art of Aimee Bender
Aimee Bender’s imagination is as boundless as ever.
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