Happiness Is...Tin House: Fantastic Women

I picked up what looks like an amazing anthology-magazine today, the latest Tin House, which is all fantastical stories from women. Some of my favorite, favorite writers are in here: Kate Bernheimer, Rikki Ducornet, Shelley Jackson, Kelly Link, Lydia Millet, and Stacey Levine just to name a few. Also, there's Rick Moody's remembrance of Angela Carter, which I'm really looking forward to. Honestly, I didn't make the connection between Kelly Link having a story online there and this publication being out. So it was a lovely shock to encounter it in the bookstore.I sampled the beginning of the Jackson, and it looks like a great story. I also read the Link in between going to two movies. It's called "Light," and I enjoyed it. It's not my favorite Link--"Origin Story," "Stone Animals," and another I can't remember the title of right now are my favorites--but I did enjoy reading it. Some nicely surreal touches. I would've liked a little more insight into the main character--flat isn't the right word; more like, removed. I'm not sure it was the exact right approach for the story, because of the fact that the surreal (what some have called SF) elements aren't fleshed out, either (which is good--the matter-of-fact quality of those elements is what makes them real). But it was a fun read. I'm not quite sure why the perplexed kerfuffle in a couple of places about what it's "about", because it seems pretty straightforward to me. It's a reality that's like ours except there are pocket alternate (different?) universes just around the corner; sometimes we visit these universes and sometimes things from them visit us. Other than that, it's about a woman and some iguanas and a hurricane and a bar and...well, you know I just think that sometimes we put too much pressure on a Link story. We want to dissect it to the point that we get in so close we can't see the story anymore.Anyway, I also bought the George Saunders nonfiction collection--looks great!Jeff