I’ve been a fan of Crowley’s writing since I found “Little, Big” 1991. In addition to “Little, Big”, Crowley has published three grouped novels: “Aegypt”, “Love and Sleep”, and “Daemonomania”, a collection of short fiction published most recently as “Otherwise”, and a new non-fantasy novel titled “The Translator”, which has been reviewed quite positively. Aegypt is out of print, and my understanding is that the two related books depend somewhat on the first for their context. I’ve been wanting to buy it, but not enough to pay $40 for a used copy.

Therefore I was excited to see “Novelties and Souvenirs - Collected Short Fiction” come out recently in paperback. This is a collection of short stories produced by Crowley over the past twenty-five years. The themes and genres are various, and are connected by Crowley’s excellent prose styling and melancholic tone.

I recently saw “Finding Neverland”, which is the story of J.M. Barrie’s writing of “Peter Pan”. Throughout the film we are given allegorical clues to the elements that ultimately wind up in Peter Pan: Porthos (who was a Newfoundland in real life, but becomes an English Sheepdog in the film), the coat hanger in Emma’s mother’s hand becomes the Captain’s eponymous Hook, and so on. In reading “Novelties and Souvenirs”, I had a similar experience with Crowley’s writing, at least with Little, Big.

In “Her Bounty to the Dead” we find an old farmhouse at the end of a winding driveway filled with old furniture and many rooms, much like Edgewood. In “Novelty” we have a writer who spends his days drinking in The Seventh Saint Bar and Grill, a location that features prominently in Little, Big. And we have similar characters to those in LB — filled with gnawing doubt and uncertainty, struggling with melancholy and regret. Crowley explores other themes as well, including a wonderful retelling of the creation story in “The Nightingale Sings at Night”, and a great time travel story in “The Great Work of Time”. Most of the stories are finely-crafted and successful.

I get the sense that Crowley mines heavily from his own life and personality, as does every writer. I think these stories probably show as much about the man as the themes and ideas he develops in his larger works.