Reviewed by Kristin
These stories often read like fairy tales. In the titular
story, “Seasons of Glass and Iron”, Tabitha is wearing iron shoes. She must walk
and walk until they are worn out, and then begin anew in a new pair. Amira is
sitting on a high glass hill, trapped there with a continual supply of golden
apples. Only when the iron meets glass do the women find a possible escape.
“Florilegia; or, Some Lies about Flowers” is of Blodeuwedd, a
woman who was formed from blossoms and trapped into a loveless marriage. She is
more at home communing with the mud, the bees, and the books of the library,
than with the life she is expected to lead. As in most tales cleverness
prevails, and with El-Mohtar’s skill, in a mere sixteen pages.
“Pockets” finishes the collection, as strange and impossible
items appear in Nadia’s pocket. Somewhere between a scientific investigation
and a wise librarian, Nadia finds some measure of resolution to her mysterious
collection.
This is a hard collection to describe. El-Mohtar does not
suffer from using too many words. In almost everything I’ve read from her, she
makes every word count. This slim volume contains eighteen writings published
in a magazine, anthology, or online between 2008 and 2023. As El-Mohtar notes
in the introduction, she saw a lot of life changes in those fifteen years. Each
entry serves as a snapshot of that particular time in her life. There is not
cohesion between stories, both poems and prose, but for the beauty of the
precise words chosen.
