The Other Door

Marvelously crafted, slyly sidestepping the reader'sexpectations, the characters in Karen Heuler's The Other Doorrespond to the unexpected events in their lives, accepting andthen rising to the challenges, no matter how strange. For them,reality requires invention. In "The Second Coming," the Virgin Mary steps down from herbackyard visitations to join the new incarnation of Christ. In"Like a Piston, Like a Flame" a dancer finds a new way to performafter a freak accident destroys her legs, but not her will. The titlestory, "The Other Door," presents a woman who finds a longforgottendoor in her apartment and upon opening it is led fromone surprise to another. Although many of the stories in The Other Door have qualitiesreminiscent of traditional fables, they are perhaps more fabulousthan fabular. They are contemporary folktales, at times venturinginto fantasy while retaining the details of everyday experienceand psychological authenticity. As in the best folktales and fables,symbols and suggestions come to life and are often linked to thepowers of imagination and memory as a means of reconciling thecharacters to cycles of life and death.