2013: Reading Round-up

I have written blog posts about 32 books this year (14 non-fiction and 18 fiction which includes short story collections). In total I have read forty-five books and failed to finish another ten, which is probably about average for me. The books I have blogged about were all written by British, American or French authors, so one of my goals for blogging in 2014 is to write about books written by authors from other parts of the world.

Favourite Fiction 

Maybe you can tell from the enthusiastic postings that Emile Zola's Germinal was my favourite novel of the year. I read two Zola books as part of the Zoladdiction event hosted by Fanda and enjoyed both of them. 

Favourite Non-fiction

My best non-fiction read of the year was Anne Fadiman's At Large and at Small: Confessions of a literary hedonist which I read back in March. I didn't blog about this collection of essays here, but I am planning to reread this again in 2014 so will write about it then. I actually ended up reading this as Ex Libris: Confessions of a common reader was missing (maybe it's so good someone stole it?) from the library when I tried to borrow it, I plan to read this in 2014 too.

Off-blog Reading

I have read quite a lot of Scandi noir this year. I am probably rather late in discovering this crime fiction trend, but being behind the times hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for snowy landscapes and depressed, middle-aged detectives. 

At the beginning of 2013 I watched both series of the Swedish production of Wallander with Krister Henriksson, so I began by reading a few of Henning Mankell's novels. The other  Swedish authors I read were Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo and Stieg Larsson. 

A few months ago I discovered the Icelanders: Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sirgurdardottir (both of these surnames are written with an eth: the fifth letter of the Icelandic alphabet, but I don't know how to insert it with Blogger - sorry Icelanders, Faroese and Anglo-Saxons). I don't think I have ever read Icelandic literature translated in English before, and in fact, apart from hot springs, volcanic eruptions and banking crises, I know very little about Iceland. In these novels, history doesn't stay in the past and in the four books I have read so far,  secrets and  hidden crimes resurface after many years causing death and destruction for the modern day players of the stories.

2013 has also seen me experiencing cyberpunk for the first time. I planned to read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and William Gibson's Neuromancer choosing these as archetypal works of the genre. After looking on my local library's shelves, I ended up with Stephenson's The Diamond Age and Gibson's Pattern Recognition.

Pattern Recognition was not what I was expecting at all. I thought it would be set in the (near-ish) future and would feature lots of discussions around computer science and artificial intelligence. It didn't. The book is set in 2002 and in a pre-Twitter and pre-YouTube world feels rather dated. The central character, Cayce Pollard, is a cool-hunter who consults for multi-nationals and advertising firms about the latest trends. The book is a fast-paced thriller set in London, Russia and Japan and it was a real page-turner which I finished in about two days. However, certain elements of the plot and characterisation, in particular, annoyed me - Cayce suffers from an anxiety disorder brought on by certain logos: nausea brought on by Prada and Louis Vuitton. I wouldn't have thought that such a "disorder" would be much of a problem. Now, if it was Primark that would be another story. 

I will consider reading another William Gibson novel as I found Pattern Recognition a bit cheap-thrillerish, so I think his other works will probably be quite fun and not take too long to read.

The Diamond Age was probably the most difficult book I read this year. It had a highly complex plot with a lot of moving around in the timing of events (making it a bit difficult to keep track of where I was) and in depth discussions of Turing machines, nanotechnology, societal groupings and collective consciousness. Although I struggled with this novel, I still plan to read Snow Crash, as Neal Stephenson's writing deals with some really interesting discussions about the use of technology in society.

Short Story Sunday - Michel Faber

The Apple - Michel Faber

Michel Faber's collection of short stories, The Apple, is subtitled Crimson Petal Stories as many of the characters that first make their appearance in Faber's novel published in 2002, The Crimson Petal and the White, reappear in this collection. I have not actually read the novel about Sugar, a young woman who works as a prostitute in Victorian London, but as the author notes in the foreword to this collection, you don't need to have read the novel to appreciate this collection, "The stories are, as stories should be, little worlds of their own."

The Apple contains seven stories in 199 pages:

• Christmas in Silver Street
• Clara and the Rat Man
• Chocolate Hearts from the New World
• The Fly, and its Effect upon Mr Bodley
• The Apple
• Medicine
• A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing

It took me no time at all to finish reading the collection, and every story pulled me in to the action, fascinated and entertained me and impelled me to continue reading. This is not to say, however, that I liked all of the stories; some of the stories came across as unnecessarily crude and made me feel quite peculiar. I read the whole thing in two sittings, but that was more due to time constraints than anything else, as this is the sort of book that you could read in one go if you had a couple of hours free.

The two stand-out stories for me were Chocolate Hearts from the New World and A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing. I think that the second story is probably the favourite of fans of The Crimson Petal and the White as the narrator of the story is Sophie's (the little girl from the novel) six year old son and as such constitutes a continuation of the Sugar saga as readers discover what happens to Sophie as an adult. The story follows the arrival of Sophie's family in London where they have returned after living in Australia for several years. Her son's impressions of life in England after his wild and free childhood in Australia and his comments about his bohemian parents are most amusing and although this is the longest story in the collection (64 pages) I was quite sad when it ended.

Chocolate Hearts from the New World describes a father's frustrations with and fears for his daughter Emmeline. Dr Curlew is worried that his teenage daughter will leave marriage too late as "The same physical features that made him such a distinguished looking man - tall, rangy build, aquiline nose, long face, strong jaw - were a calamitous inheritance for a girl." Despite Emmeline announcing that she does not want to get married, her father hopes that she will find a suitor when he learns that she writes to many men around the world. Most of Emmeline's letters go unanswered however, as her letters are missives on the subject of slavery and she mainly writes to cotton plantation owners in the United States urging them to turn their back on slavery and allow their hearts "to be penetrated by the love of Christ". Most of the responses she receives to her letters take the form of a rebuke, 

"I will thank you to keep your ignorant and impudent babblings to yourself, said one. Has it occurred to you, Miss, said another, that the very clothes you are wearing as you pen your imperious missive may have their origins in my cotton fields?"

The story of Emmeline and her father, like the other stories in this collection, is realistic, subtly-crafted and features witty dialogue.

Short Story Sunday - Victoria Hislop

The Last Dance and Other Stories - Victoria Hislop

Victoria Hislop's collection of stories was published in 2012 and features ten stories:

• The Priest and the Parrot
• The Kafenion
• Aflame in Athens
• The Zacharoplasteion
• The Periptero
• One Cretan Evening
• The Butcher of Karapoli
• The Lesson
• The Pine Tree
• The Last Dance

Each story features an illustration on its title page by British illustrator Quinton Winter (what a fabulous name!). Do you like/dislike illustrations in books, or are you indifferent? I don't really care for illustrations in novels, but I absolutely love them in short fiction. Placed on the title page, illustrations make a collection very easy to navigate and encourage me to think about the story in a more visual sense (I usually focus on plot and dialogue with descriptions taking a secondary role). I don't usually look at them before reading the story, but I always return to look when I finish reading; it's interesting to see what the focus of the illustration is and whether there is any cross-over between the mental images that the story created for me and the images that the illustrator, in conjunction with the author or editor, chose to create for the story.

I found the collection a bit up and down, although at only 146 pages and written in clear, simple prose it is certainly a quick read. The first story was one of my favourites and instantly brought Roald Dahl to mind: a simple, human story where the characters try to mould life in a certain direction, but the unstoppable desires of man (love, hate, covetousness, in this case love) take over and the characters are just incidental players in the story of life.

Some of the other stories displayed this same vivid spark (The Periptero was another one of my favourites), but others seemed not fully formed (just an idea, not a complete story) or poorly developed with cliched and facile conclusions. For example, The Zacharoplasteion (patisserie in Greek - translating a Greek term into a French term to garner an English meaning!), really, really, really annoyed me. The story focuses on Angeliki who works for her mother in their small-town patisserie. Despite the fact that she has a dutiful daughter who works hard in the family business, Sofia frequently gives vent to her frustration that her daughter is now twenty-nine years old, and, unlike her contemporaries in the town, is still unmarried, "Why was Angeliki not like other girls? Why was she not married?" If the story had stayed with these two characters and developed the mother-daughter relationship I think it would have turned out well. Instead, Angeliki is single because she has already met her "prince charming" and knows that in acquiring a mate only perfection will do. Some time previous to the action of the story, a handsome stranger comes into the shop,

"His laughter and his good nature completely overthrew Angeliki. For five years she had worked there each day, and not once had she served a customer who had made her smile like this. She felt that all the ice-cream in the nearby cabinet would melt in his warmth. As well as taking a delighted interest in what was in the shop, he smiled: a deep, life-loving smile. She had never met anyone who was so relaxed and at ease with himself."

Any man who can melt a cabinet of ice-cream at ten paces is definitely a keeper! Although Angeliki has not really met this man, he just popped into her shop, had a brief conversation with her and bought some marzipan, "she was both made and unmade by the encounter." And, "Angeliki knew that her heart had been woken, not broken." I found this cliched and utterly cringe worthy, but I suppose if you believe in the lightening-bolt of love at first sight then it might not seem so bad. In some of the other stories the names of the characters have a meaning for the story (Aflame in Athens features two badly suited lovers: Irini (peace) and Fotis (coming from the Greek word for fire), maybe the fact that the mother is called Sofia (wisdom) shows that Ms Hislop does not believe in the sentimental concept of the prince charming and love at first sight, which could explain why the character of Angeliki seems so poorly developed.

Other elements of the collection which seemed slightly ridiculous to me were: an evening of music undoing years of serious sibling rivalry and the certainty that time will cause an over-protective and controlling mother to accept her son's partner.

It may sound like I really hated this collection. I didn't. Some of the stories were beautifully crafted and very enjoyable indeed. The other stories, which I disliked, or had some issues with, will probably only serve to make this book unforgettable.

Short Story Sunday - Edgar Allan Poe

The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Edgar Allan Poe

I confess. I have not read any of Poe's work before, even though I am quite a fan of crime fiction. However, a few months ago I saw The Raven, a thrilling, but rather disturbing film, and I think for ever more John Cusack will be Edgar Allan Poe, for me.

The Vintage edition of The Murders in the Rue Morgue contains the three Dupin Tales, the title story, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter. I read the first story, only, as I found Poe's writing very difficult to get into and frequently felt my mind wandering (there is a pile of library books on my bookshelf waiting to be read, so I hope that I haven't entered a reading slump). The four, preliminary pages describing Dupin's love of puzzles and "ratiocination" helped to build a psychological image of the detective but was severely lacking in physical description. .

The mystery itself (a murder carried out in a locked-room scenario) was interesting enough and the revelation of the perpetrator of the crime was certainly original and amusing. Perhaps it was a little too amusing: an orangutan with a razor, how extraordinary!

This week's brief introduction to Edgar Allan Poe has not totally put me off reading more of his work. I appreciate that he was a trailblazer when it came to crafting the detective story and I would like to do him justice by reading more of his stories in the future.

Short Story Sunday - Lorrie Moore

Birds of America - Lorrie Moore

This collection from 1998 contains twelve stories:

• Willing
• Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People
• Dance in America
• Community Life
• Agnes of Iowa
• Charades
• Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens
• Beautiful Grade
• What You Want to Do Fine
• Real Estate
• People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk
• Terrific Mother

The stories deal with relationships between: lovers, mothers and daughters and divorced, or soon to be divorced, couples; relationships that are ruptured, just beginning or changing in some way. The themes of marriage (the putting-up kind) and divorce are very strong throughout the collection, and like many of the other modern short story collections that I have read, cancer makes an appearance in a couple of the stories. I found most of the stories quite brittle and harsh; however, the dialogue (internal and between characters) in many of the stories made me chuckle and kept me reading.

Although I know that the stories are not about birds, the title made me look for them. In the collection, I found: jays, ravens, chickadees, blackbirds and vultures, gulls, grebes, flamingos, geese, ducks and crows. Audubon (the author of the original Birds of America) is mentioned in What You Want to Do Fine. The main characters of this story, Mack and Quilty, have visited Audubon's house on one of their previous road-trip vacations. Although Audubon is mentioned in this story, I thought that the choice of Birds of America as the title of the collection had a greater meaning - perhaps Lorrie Moore's Birds of America is supposed to be a comprehensive reflection of the lives of various types of modern Americans. I am not sure about this analysis, and when I was reading the collection I did feel that maybe I was missing various points from not understanding enough about life in the US. In any case, I enjoyed this collection and found the writing clever and witty.

Short Story Sunday - Roald Dahl

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl

After WWII Roald Dahl returned to England and spent some time living with his mother in Buckinghamshire. They lived in Old Amersham for a number of years and the country stories contained in this collection are set in the Chiltern Hills, in and around that town.

The collection, with illustrations by John Lawrence, contains seven stories (most of which were first published between 1953 and 1960). The longest story (Mr Feasey) is forty-three pages long, but, long or short, all the stories are easy to read, hilariously funny and quite often nauseatingly grotesque; I made the mistake of reading the revolting tale, The Ratcatcher, while eating breakfast.

The ratcatcher and his ferret.

Despite their apparent simplicity  and strong sense of time and place, many of the stories are timeless, masterful studies of human nature: the covetous antiques dealer in Parson's Pleasure who is ultimately vanquished by his own slick, well-practiced swindle; the fiance, who cannot hope to ever please his beloved's father, in Mr Hoddy; and the sly bookmakers at the greyhound track, in Mr Feasey, who prove that however much you think you might be pulling the wool over someone's eyes, you might just be being taken for a ride too. 

Short Story Sunday - The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime

The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime - Edited by Michael Sims

If you enjoy the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, but would like to see some ladies involved in the crime-solving action, then this book is for you.

This Penguin Classics title, edited and with an introduction by Michael Sims, features ten short stories and one excerpt from a longer work:

• The Mysterious Countess - W. S. Hayward (1864). This story shows Mrs Paschal - a professional detective who works for the police - in action solving the mystery of a wealthy countess' wealth and a bank robbery.
• The Unknown Weapon - Andrew Forrester (1864). We meet Mrs G, another professional detective, who solves the mysterious death of Graham Petleigh, the son of the local squire of a Midland's town, who is found dead outside of the family home.
• Drawn Daggers - C.L. Perkins (1893). Loveday Brooke is perhaps the first female detective created by a female author (four of the eleven stories in this collection are written by female authors). In this adventure she is hired to solve the case of a missing piece of valuable jewellery.
• The Long Arm - Mary E. Wilkins (1895). The protagonist of this story, Sarah Fairbanks, is not a professional detective. After being accused, questioned and subsequently released for the murder of her father, Miss Fairbanks determines to investigate the crime herself as the police seem incapable of making further discoveries that would aid them in catching the murderer. Mary E. Wilkins was an American author and this story takes place in New England.
• That Affair Next Door - Anna Katharine Green (1897). This is the one entry in the collection which is an excerpt from a novel rather than a short story. That Affair Next Door is available to read in its entirety on Project Gutenberg and the first chapter which appears in The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime serves only to whet the appetite for Anna Katharine Green's entertaining female busybody detective, Amelia Butterworth. Anna Katharine Green is another American author; she grew up in Brooklyn and Buffalo and most of her stories are set in New York.
• The Man With The Wild Eyes - George R. Sims (1897). Dorcas Dene is a former actress now married to an artist. She becomes a detective when she is compelled to seek work again after the illness and resulting blindness of her husband. Her neighbour, a retired policeman, gives her a start in the investigations business and when he retires she takes on his clients. Dorcas uses her skills learnt from the theatre to disguise herself on her various cases. In this story we see her impersonating a nurse in order to solve the riddle of a gentleman's daughter who has been attacked but pretends that a tramp carried out the assault. Dorcas is tasked with uncovering the real identity of the assailant.
• The Adventure of the Cantankerous Old Lady - Grant Allen (1899). Lois Cayley has just graduated from Girton College and without any family ties she sets off to achieve her dream of travelling the world. As she doesn't have any money she funds the first stage of her journey by becoming a ladies' companion and accompanying a wealthy aristocrat on her trip to Germany. Lois keeps her companion's diamonds safe when a fellow traveller tries to steal them and helps the police to locate the would-be thief.
• How He Cut His Stick - M. McDonnell Bodkin (1900). This story features professional detective, Dora Myrl. She is a plucky, new woman who is happy to get around on a bicycle and carries a revolver. In this story she is tasked with discovering how a large amount of gold was stolen by a thief who managed to disembark from a train travelling at more than 50 miles per hour.
• The Man Who Cut Off My Hair - Richard Marsh (1912) - tells the story of Judith Lee who is a teacher of lip-reading, she relates an adventure from when she was twelve years old. She helps the police to catch a gang of thieves who have been carrying out thefts of valuable jewels and other belongings over a number of years. The twelve year old Judith succeeds where the professionals have failed due to her skills in lip-reading, so more a case of being in the right place at the right time rather than active detective work.
• The Man with Nine Lives - Hugh C. Weir (1914). We are introduced to Madelyn Mack in this story. Hugh C. Weir's female sleuth is based on a real female detective, Mary Holland, who ran an investigations agency with her husband. Like Sherlock Holmes, Madelyn Mack is considered a genius by those around her, especially her sidekick Nora Noracker, and like Sherlock (famous for his cocaine habit), when she is bored she consumes cola berries as a stimulant
• The Second Bullet - Anna Katharine Green (1915). This is the second story of the collection written by Anna Katharine Green. This story features her other female detective, the young, wealthy socialite Violet Strange.

Although the quality of the stories was rather up and down, the collection forms an excellent starting point from which to explore the adventures of fictional, female detectives. 

Diary of a Provincial Lady - E. M. Delafield

"Do I know, she asks, how very late it is for indoor bulbs? September, really, or even October,  is the time. Do I know that the only really reliable firm for hyacinths is Somebody of Haarlem? Cannot catch the name of the firm, which is Dutch, but reply Yes I do know, but think it is my duty to buy Empire products. Feel at the time, and still think, that this is an excellent reply. Unfortunately Vicky comes into the drawing-room later and says: "Oh, Mummie, are those the bulbs we got at Woolworth's?"

From reading this first scene of Lady Boxe's instructions regarding forced bulb planting, I knew I was going to enjoy Diary of a Provincial Lady. I found all the scenes which involved Provincial Lady's children, Robin and Vicky, very funny, particularly when visitors drop-in unannounced and seem to be slightly horrified by the behaviour of the children and their mother's inability to prevent it.

One particular scene which really made me laugh was when the superior Miss P. and her effete friend Jahsper visit the Provincial Lady one rainy afternoon. Miss P. takes off her wet cape (hitting her friend Jahsper in the eye with a weighted corner of the garment) and proceeds to lecture on Proust and the absurdity of names derived from flowers, like Rose, Daisy, etc. Just when Provincial Lady has had enough,

"Entire situation is, however, revolutionised by totally unexpected entrance of Robin - staggering beneath my fur coat and last summer's crinoline straw hat - Henry [Robin's friend from school], draped in blue kimono, several scarfs belonging to Mademoiselle, old pair of fur gloves, with scarlet school-cap inappropriately crowning all - and Vicky, wearing nothing whatever but small pair of green silk knickerbockers and large and unfamiliar black felt hat put on at rakish angle.

Completely stunned silence overtakes us all, until Vicky, advancing with perfect aplomb, graciously says, "How do you do?" and shakes hands with Jahsper and Miss P. in turn, and I succeed in surpassing already well-established record for utter futility, by remarking that They Have Been Dressing Up.

Atmosphere becomes very, very strained indeed, only Vicky embarking on sprightly reminiscences of recent picnic, which meet with no response. Final depths of unsuccess are plumbed, when it transpires that Vicky's black sombrero, picked up in the hall, is in reality the property of Jahsper. I apologise profusely, the children giggle, Miss P. raises her eyebrows to quite unnatural heights, and gets up and looks at the book-shelves in a remote and superior way, and Jahsper says, Oh, never mind, it really is of no consequence, at the same time receiving hat with profound solicitude, and dusting it with two fingers." 

 E. M. Delafield is witty and satirical about the lives and personalities of the adults in the Diary, but her treatment, although also very funny, of the children is sympathetic and touching.

In addition to having a good laugh, I also found the book quite educational when it came to popular literary trends of the late 1920s. I was inspired to find out more about the magazine Time and Tide which Provincial Lady reads and to which she submits work. If you are interested in the history of this magazine there is a short feature available on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, which focuses on the magazine's founder,  the Welsh sufragette, and good friend of E. M. Delafield, Lady Rhondda. The segment is from an edition of the programme first broadcast in 2010.

The Diary was also quite useful for building a reading list of popular late twenties fiction. I found the following titles mentioned:

• All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque 1929
• Harriet Hume - Rebecca West 1929
• Orlando - Virginia Woolf 1928
• The Good Companions - J. B. Priestly 1929
• High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes 1929
• An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser 1925
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Anita Loos 1925
• The Exciting Family - M. D. Hillyard 1927
• The Edwardians - Vita Sackville-West 1930

I am not very well-read when it comes to 1920s and 1930s literature and have only read one of these titles. Which titles have you read and were they enjoyable?

At one of Lady Boxe's dinner parties, the Provincial Lady meets the author of Symphony in Three Sexes. I couldn't find this title when I searched. Does anyone know what it is? I thought it could allude to Freud's Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex 1905, or if it is meant to be fiction, maybe Lady Chatterley's Lover or The Well of Loneliness. Any help will be most appreciated.

Short Story Sunday - Elizabeth Taylor

The Blush and Other Stories - Elizabeth Taylor

This collection of stories has been my first experience of Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975). I know she is quite popular with book bloggers (I first heard about her through Jane at Fleur Fisher who is a big fan) so I had high expectations for this week's Short Story Sunday.

I haven't been overly enamoured by most of the short story collections I've read, which focus on the lives of women (Truman Capote, Julie Orringer, William Trevor, A.S. Byatt), but Elizabeth Taylor's stories have been my favourite so far. In common with the other collections, The Blush and Other Stories contains tales of women: trapped, suffering growing pains, grieving, disappointed with how life has turned out and other slightly depressing themes. However, the stories often feature a lightness and sense of hope which, combined with the author's sympathetic development of her characters, renders the tales less lugubrious than they might otherwise be. Perhaps the age of this collection (the stories were first published in 1951) makes them rather genteel and less gritty than modern writing.

The collection contains twelve tales:

• The Ambush
• The Blush
• The Letter-Writers
• A Troubled State of Mind
• The True Primitive
• The Rose, The Mauve, The White
• Summer Schools
• Perhaps a Family Failing
• Good-Bye, Good-Bye
• Poor Girl
• Hare Park
• You'll Enjoy it When You Get There

The Letter-Writers, which tells the tale of two friends - whose decade-long friendship has developed through correspondence only - meeting for the first time, was one of the most pathetic stories in the collection (as in arousing pathos, not contemptible or worthless). It seems that this story was inspired by the epistolary friendship Elizabeth Taylor shared with the novelist, critic and biographer, Robert Liddell. In addition to his friendship with Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Liddell also became friends with Barbara Pym whilst at Oxford. I have not heard of this writer before and I am rather intrigued by his choice of friends - I have read that both of these ladies are considered the best and most underrated female authors of the twentieth century. Please comment if you have read anything by Robert Liddell.

It's quite difficult to choose my favourite story from this collection, as I enjoyed so many of the stories. However, the final story, You'll Enjoy it When You Get There, keeps making me smile to myself days after I finished reading it. This story tells the tale of eighteen year old Rhoda who has to attend a business party with her father as her mother is in bed suffering from jaundice. Rhoda is painfully shy, which her mother finds a terrible failing,

"Self-consciousness it was always called when I was young, and that is what it is. To imagine that it shows a sense of modesty is absurd. Modesty. Why, I have never known a truly modest person to be the least bit shy."

Rhoda responds that it is alright for her, "You can drink. Then anyone can talk."

Rhoda's determined attempts at small-talk (about how her cat is from the same area as the location of the party) during the business dinner are amusing and result in the final hilarious scene on the dance floor.

This is not the only story with comic or light-hearted touches in the collection. I also found parts of: The Blush, The True Primitive and The Rose, The Mauve, The White amusing or outright funny.

I intend to try more of Elizabeth Taylor's writing in the future.

Short Story Sunday - A.S. Byatt

Sugar and Other Stories - A.S. Byatt

I am beginning to wonder if maybe some of the short story collections I have been reading are better read over an extended period. Sugar and Other Stories left me with the same feeling as I had after reading the collections by William Trevor and Julie Orringer. Each story in these collections taken on its own is fascinating and wonderfully crafted, but read as a collection over the space of a week, or so, the themes (mainly dealing with women's lives: inter-generational conflict, parental death, betrayal, missed opportunities, etc) seem depressing and bleak.

My favourite stories from A.S, Byatt's collection are: Racine and the Tablecloth, Loss of Face and the title story. Sugar is an autobiographical story about the death of a female writer's father, the mythology that memory creates around the history of a family and a mother who lies. It is possible that Racine and the Tablecloth is also partly autobiographical as the story begins with a thirteen year old girl going off to boarding school; A.S. Byatt went to a Quaker boarding school at the age of thirteen. In any case, the study of the relationships between the pupils and the didactic methods of the teacher certainly had the ring of truth. If you have attended a girls' grammar, private or boarding school I am sure that this story will instantly transport you back to a time of (best) forgotten feelings and fears.

Loss of Face, along with The Dried Witch, forms the mid-section of the collection which moves the action to different cultures. The story follows Celia Quest, a female literary scholar, and her colleagues from a British university on their visit to South Korea where they lecture at a literary conference. Celia Quest is open to new experiences and wants to embrace this strange and alien culture. The title, Loss of Face, is a pun which describes Celia Quest's failure and the reason for her failure (she commits a grave faux pas because she does not recognise someone's face).

The only story which I didn't enjoy reading due to the structure rather than the subject matter was Precipice-Encurled. In this tale, Byatt combines real events that occurred at the end of Robert Browning's life with a fictionalised story about a young painter and a tragic event at a villa in the Apennines. I found it difficult to keep the different threads of the story straight in my mind and I really only "got" the fourth and main part of the story set in Villa Colomba.

As I bought a second-hand copy of this book, I was free to write on the text. My pencil was busy scribbling away as there were so many interesting literary features that jumped out at me as I was reading. Byatt uses a lot of inkhorn terms in her writing, but they are used judiciously, and not frivolously. I like learning something when I read and if I am reading fiction then I hope to be wowed and moved by language rather than facts. Two new words for me which I particularly enjoyed in this collection are "rebarbative" and "eructation".

I found Byatt's prose sonorous and rhythmic; she makes good use of alliteration, but it is subtle and sophisticated (not that I care about subtlety; I am quite content with the overuse of alliteration). For example, 

"She didn't see so far or focus so fast. She noticed her hips, on the Common, and had to make a real moral effort to see the hooded crow, or the hovering kestrel."

Repetition is also used quite frequently in many of the stories. e.g. "It is amusing. It is amusing that the same girls should already have been exposed to the betrayed and betraying cries of Ophelia's madness." Also, in The Next Room the word "precipitate" or "precipitately" (not really an everyday word) is used four times in a twenty-seven page story. The father of the main character, Joanna, is described as retiring precipitately. He did not live long after his retirement which suggests that sudden decisions and events have disagreeable outcomes, and Joanna says that she will not take any precipitate decisions about her parent's house or her future after her mother's death. Later she says that she will sell the house as soon as possible which leads one of her colleagues to remark, "Isn't that a bit precipitate?"

I really enjoyed A.S. Byatt's writing and although I found the collection rather sad (more action, less agonising.  That's my motto.) I intend to read more of her short stories, in particular The Matisse Stories which sounds very good.

Zoladdiction Round-up

The Masterpiece

Cafe Guerbois, the model for Cafe Baudequin in The Masterpiece from  Wikipedia

I enjoyed the first third, or so, of the story. I was surprised that Claude and Christine's relationship seemed to be progressing so smoothly - I had envisioned more of a dramatic, drama-filled toing and froing and the involvement of a third party. I thought that Irma Becot would have a part to play in their relationship, so I was not surprised when, at last, she did make an appearance in the story, although, by that time Claude had descended so far down the path of creative mania, that it no longer seemed to matter, as he really had no use for real women other than as models for his painting.

The section of the story from Claude's obsession with painting the nude woman in the Ile de la Cite scene until the acceptance of one of his paintings at the Salon was incredibly difficult to read: Claude is tortured by his inability to express himself fully through the creation of a masterpiece, both Christine and Claude are unbearably mean to their child, "The kid's an idiot, if you ask me", and the lovers' relationship is completely obliterated by artistic obsession, "She had ceased to exist, since all he could find to adore in her now was his art, and nature, and life."

Towards the end of the novel when we revisit the original "gang" and hear how their youthful ambition has, for the most part, been dashed on the rocks of reality, I began to feel less stressed by the overwhelming feeling of impending disaster. Life goes on, groups of friends grow up, move on and find new ways of living. Of course, this made the dramatic end of the story very shocking.

Among the artistic angst and desperation there were a few episodes which came across as light-hearted and made me smile.

I was amused when Sandoz, or rather, the putative Zola, tells Claude about his literary plans, and I think this quotation serves as a good description for the Rougon-Macquart series.

"I'm going to take a family and study each member of it, one by one, where they come from, what becomes of them, how they react to one another. Humanity in miniature, therefore, the way humanity evolves, the way it behaves... I shall place my characters in some definite period that will provide the milieu and the prevailing circumstances and make the thing a sort of slice of history, if you see what I'm getting at... I shall make it a series of novels, say fifteen or twenty, each complete in itself and with its own particular setting, but all connected, a cycle of books that will at least provide a roof in my old age, if they don't prove too much for me in the meantime!"

I also found the character of Mathilde amusing, particularly at the end when she has Jory well and truly under her thumb.

Lastly, my favourite quotation, by far, is from a scene, early in the novel, at one of Sandoz's Thursday dinners when the talk turns to models, "Mahoudeau was furious because good bellies were a thing of the past; it was impossible, he said, to find a girl with a belly worth looking at." Down with washboard stomachs!

I can't say that I enjoyed this novel, but it is certainly a fascinating read if you are interested in: the creative process, French Impressionism or the groupe des Batignolles.

Final Summary

I had hoped to read more novels than I did. When I signed up to Zoladdiction, I chose to read only two novels as I knew I would be moving house and that any more would probably be too ambitious. Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the location in my profile has now changed, as in the last month I have moved 400 miles southwards. It has been a challenge keeping up with my reading and posting my impressions of Zola's work, but I have really enjoyed this reading event and hope to take part in more events in the future.

Works Read

• Germinal
• The Masterpiece
• Captain Burle (a short story)

Favourite Work Read

Without a doubt, Germinal. I can definitely see myself reading this novel again and again.

Favourite Characters

La Maheude in Germinal for her strength and resistance and Sandoz in The Masterpiece for his constancy and loyalty to friends and family. I didn't like the main, male character in either book; Etienne seemed foolish and naive but well-intentioned, and I don't have a positive word to say about the character of Claude.

Future Zola Reading Plans

I would like to read some more novels from the Rougon-Macquart series, particularly: La Bete Humaine and Pot Bouille. I also plan to read a novel outside of the series and think this will probably be Paris from Zola's Three Cities Trilogy.


Thanks Fanda and O for hosting this event.

Short Story Sunday - Emile Zola

Captain Burle - Emile Zola

Having read a collection of stories by Guy de Maupassant for last week's Short Story Sunday, I have to say that I don't think I would be able to tell the difference between a Zola story and a de Maupassant one, as regards plot. Of course, as I am reading translated works, I can't comment on the differences, if any, in use of language between the two authors. Like many of the stories I read last week, Captain Burle is a farcical tale which seems humorous at times but ultimately has a tragic ending.

Captain Burle, his aged mother and young son live together in straightened circumstances in a provincial garrison town. Captain Burle, who has given up active duty and now grows flabby in a desk job as quartermaster, is a disappointment to his martinet of a mother who harbours thoughts of martial glory and honour for her son. She is determined to raise her grandson in a strict manner filling his head with ideas of soldierly daring and courage so that he is ready for military school as soon as possible. Captain Burle's son is a delicate, soft child who despairs at the thought of military life and war.

One stormy evening Major Laguitte (who has a marvellous catchphrase of "thunder and lightning!" which brings to mind Captain Haddock and his "thundering typhoons!") hammers on the door of Captain Burle's apartment in a furious rage. Captain Burle is not at home (he spends his evenings carousing with Melanie at the Cafe de Paris) so Major Laguitte tells the Captain's mother that he has discovered that his subordinate has been embezzling garrison funds. The Major served under Captain Burle's father and as a friend of the family is keen to avoid scandal by covering up the fraud and remonstrating with the Captain forcing him to mend his ways. 

Where did the embezzled money go? Certainly not on Captain Burle's family. No, Captain Burle, who is considered an incorrigible philanderer (he is nicknamed Petticoat Burle by his men), spends his evenings flirting with Melanie, the owner of the local "bar", and spends his money on buying her affection. Major Laguitte marches over to the Cafe de Paris, hauls Captain Burle out of the bar and gives him a good talking to. It seems that the Major's intervention has reformed the Captain, as for the next few weeks he stays quietly at home and can be found snoring in bed at nine o'clock. 

Major Laguitte begins to relax and thinks that the problem has been solved, until, one day, when casting his eye over the accounts he notices irregularities in Captain Burle's accounting once again. He can't understand where Captain Burle has been spending the money as apart from his duties he never leaves his home. He also realises that even if he urges Captain Burle to mend his ways countless times, the Captain will always return to his habit of cheating.

The Major resorts to a drastic course of action, in order to put an end to Captain Burle and the constant threat that he will sully the memory of his late father and dishonour his mother and son. Even though he only has the use of one leg, he decides to challenge Captain Burle to a duel - if he kills the Captain the problem will be solved and if he himself dies then he will not have to witness the shame that the Captain's actions bring on his family. As the Major is the Captain's superior he cannot get permission to duel without first resigning his commission. The papers take a long time to come through, but at last the much anticipated day of the duel  arrives. 

"The majority believed that Laguitte would be run through the body in three seconds, for it was madness for a man to fight with a paralyzed leg which did not even allow him to stand upright. A few, however, shook their heads. Laguitte had never been a marvel of intellect, that was true; for the last twenty years, indeed, he had been held up as an example of stupidity, but there had been a time when he was known as the best fencer of the regiment, and although he had begun as a drummer he had won his epaulets as the commander of a battalion by the sanguine bravery of a man who is quite unconscious of danger."

The duel is fought and the Major is victorious. Shortly afterwards, Captain Burle's frail son, who desperately hoped not to attend the military academy, dies.

Zoladdiction - Week Three Thoughts

The Masterpiece

It is taking me longer to read The Masterpiece than Germinal. I am enjoying it, but it is not as fast paced as Germinal which had me on the edge of my seat and flipping through pages in anticipation. The relationship between Claude and Christine is not really that interesting for me, I haven't progressed that far into their story yet, but I am sure it is going to be filled with the unnecessary drama of young, angst ridden passion. The focus of the story for me is the ambition of the artists and the discussion of their desire to succeed in and for some, like Claude, revolutionise their chosen field.

When we first meet Claude he is stalking through the city at night, as is his custom, and on other walks his frustrated and confused inner thoughts seem to meander and turn as much as his unplanned rambles. Claude does not just stalk the streets alone; we often see him traversing the city with his friends and fellow artists. I love the constant walking that Claude and his friends spend so much time engaged in; the way Zola makes his characters frequently ramble around Paris helps to create a feeling of action and movement in the novel. Also, as Paris is so connected to the young men's professional lives - it is the visual stimulus of their working lives and the cultural capital from which they seek critical acclaim - we need to "see" the city to appreciate its presence - these lengthy rambles achieve this in a subtle way without feeling too much like a guide book (although, I have been using Google images to see the streets that Claude habitually passes on his rambles).

"They had just walked right across Paris, one of their favourite jaunts, although they had other favourites too; all along the riverside, for example, or over part of the fortifications, from the Porte Saint-Jacques, say, to Les Moulineaux; or perhaps out to Pere-Lachaise and back round the outer boulevards. For a whole day at a time they would roam the streets and squares, as long as their legs would carry them, as if they wanted to conquer one district after another by flinging their startling theories in the face of its houses. The pavements they tramped were their battlefield, the very soil of which produced an ecstasy which drugged their fatigue."

Claude walking along the Quai de Bourbon.

Short Story Sunday - Guy de Maupassant

On Horseback and Other Stories - Guy de Maupassant

Published by Capuchin Classics in 2008, this collection contains nine stories which originally appeared between 1877 and 1891:

• On Horseback
• Madame Tellier
• Mademoiselle Fifi
•  That Pig of a Morin
• The Horla
• The Necklace
• The Piece of String
• Two Little Soldiers
• The Christening

The stories chosen for the collection are generally quite short - the longest tale and the only one I didn't enjoy is The Horla at 28 pages -  they are a varied bunch: some simple and light-hearted, some cynical and depressing and although the stories are not moralising they make profound points about life and society which leave you pondering the events of the story afterwards.

My two favourite stories from the collection: the title story and The Necklace are very similar. Both stories are set in Paris and feature middle income families showing off in an attempt to elevate their social status; both stories end in disaster, with the characters in a worse situation financially than they were before.

Other themes developed in the collection are: the betrayal of a friend, nationalism in the form of mocking occupying soldiers, how to deal with supernatural forces, the loss of reputation and how one's youth and status can result in less severe repercussions for unacceptable behaviour.

As I am taking part in Zoladdiction this month, I was very excited to see one of his novels, L'Assommoir, mentioned in the final story, The Christening. The narrator of the tale, a ship's doctor, says that we may have read about the evil effects of alcohol in "that admirable book entitled L'Assommoir" but that he has seen even worse results of "the divine poison" during his years as a doctor. He relates the story of a family in Brittany who end up in the most distressing situation as a result of their hard drinking. This really was a shocking story and as it was the last in the collection it made a lasting impression.

Zoladdiction - Week Two Thoughts

Reflections on Germinal

I finished Germinal a couple of days ago and I am still reeling from the denouement. I don't really feel like starting another book at the moment, but as I am taking part in a challenge I shall press on!

The last one hundred pages, or so, found me on the edge of my seat with my mouth agape and a fair few tears springing to my eyes. I don't want to include any spoilers as, perhaps, someone who is planning to read Germinal will read this and feel cheated.

The parts of the novel which particularly captivated me were the references to the French Revolution: I noticed three (Cecile offering La Maheude's children brioche which instantly brought the famous fiction of Marie Antoinette saying, "Let them eat cake!" to mind; the striking miners' shouts of "bread, bread, we want bread"; and also the singing of the Marseillaise) although I am sure someone with more knowledge of that period would pick up many more references. I also really liked the development of the relationship between the children Lydie and Bebert (I don't think I shall ever forget their final scene) and I was drawn in by the pathetic lives and fates of all of the animals in the book.

After reading the book I had a look for a film version on the internet. I found the 1992 French production with Gerard Depardieu and Renaud on YouTube, although it has been dubbed into Spanish. Even though the film is long (two and a half hours), certain elements are not included which I felt changed the feel of the story - the miners seemed idealised as if the story had been given the Hollywood glow, for example, Jeanlin's character was not developed fully - nevertheless it is a very enjoyable film.

An Afternoon in London

Foyles on Charing Cross Road

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours in London yesterday afternoon. I planned a varied itinerary of library visits and a trip to my favourite London bookshop to pick up Zola's The Masterpiece, which I reserved prior to my visit. Of course, just a couple of hours in a large, busy city is not really much time at all, and after an airless, itchy-sheet night in a hotel I didn't have the energy to carry out all my plans. I decided to focus on my bookshop trip and try to get a bit of reading done.

I haven't visited Foyles in about ten years, but it is still as well-stocked and fun to browse in as I remember. The store now houses one of my favourite specialist bookshops, the language bookshop - Grant and Cutler. I didn't realise until I looked at the Foyles website that they had moved from their home on Great Marlborough Street. Although, I used to love their cluttered, floor-to-ceiling shelves and the fact that the further you went in the darker it got like some kind of treasure cave, their new space on the first floor of Foyles is, perhaps, easier to browse. As I was just browsing for fun and not requiring a particular text or any assistance, I can't comment on how their service may have changed since the move to Foyles.

The cover art of some of the French editions of Zola's work stocked by Grant and Cutler

After collecting my new Zola book, I picked up a coffee and headed off to the British Museum. Yesterday was the first time this year that I actually felt warm walking around, so I sat outside the museum to drink my coffee and start The Masterpiece. Sitting, soaking up the warmth of the sun reflected off the Portland stone of the museum created a contrast between the dark, stormy night in Paris that begins Zola's novel. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get into another novel for a while, after Germinal, but The Masterpiece seems like it is going to be very interesting too and I am already intrigued by the personality of Claude Lantier.

The Masterpiece at the British Museum

Short Story Sunday - Rene Bazin

Rene Bazin - What the Wind Replied and The Birds in the Letter-Box

To continue the April, French theme, I read two stories by Rene Bazin, this week. 

Rene Bazin (1853 - 1935) was a law professor at the Catholic University in Angers and a novelist of provincial life. He had a traditionalist outlook and his works show a love of nature and the simple, pastoral life. In his day, he was an influential member of the group of traditionalist, Catholic writers that also included: Maurice Barres, Georges Bernanos and Francois Mauriac. I was rather disturbed to find his works described as "obsolete" by the Encyclopaedia Britannica; the two stories I read both had simple and enduring themes which in no way renders them "obselete". 

What the Wind Replied is about a young boy and his mother. The beginning of the tale finds the family living in a house by the sea. As the boy grows up he becomes attached to the idea of a life at sea as his father before him had (his father was a sailor who died at sea). The boy's mother wants to protect her son from the dangers of the sea, so the family moves inland and she seeks to entertain him with new pursuits and a love of the forest, hoping that he will forget about his passion for the sea and his desire to live his life on the ocean waves. The boy pines for his first love and eventually falls ill. Despite the loving attentions of his mother and the professional care of a doctor, the health of the little boy does not improve. The mother comes to realise that she cannot protect her son from his desires and the dangers of the world; if she wants him to recover she needs to give him the thing he wants most - a return to the sea. 

In The Birds in the Letter-Box an aged, country priest lives out his life surrounded by his fecund kitchen garden and the numerous birds that steal his fruit. One summer, he discovers that a family of tits are nesting in his letter box, he doesn't think that the birds will cause a great deal of inconvenience as, like the rest of the village of St Philemon, the priest sends more letters that he receives. 

"The postman had little to do on his rounds but to eat soup at one house, to have a drink at another, and, once in a long while, to leave a letter for some conscript, or a bill for taxes at some distant farm."

However, just at this time the bishop in the chief town of the region meets with his assistants to discuss forthcoming appointments and promotions. He nominates the priest of St Philemon as the new priest of another parish in recognition of his years of virtuous service. The bishop sends a letter requesting a response to the offer as soon as possible. Of course, the priest at St Philemon does not receive this letter for weeks, as he refrains from checking the letter-box until the fledglings have flown the nest.

As soon as the priest receives the important missive he rushes off to the bishop's palace to explain the situation. He returns to his parish without a promotion, and, although he had never been ambitious, he says to his housekeeper, "Next year, Philomene, if the tomtit comes back, let me know. It is decidedly inconvenient."

Zoladdiction - Week One Thoughts

Germinal

The first novel I chose to read for Zoladdiction is Germinal, published in 1885. I decided to start with this book for two reasons: i) it comes chronologically before my other choice (only just, as The Masterpiece was Zola's next work published in 1886) and ii) we are currently in Germinal (21st March to 19th April, the seventh month of the French Republican Calendar) and I thought it would be fun to read the novel of the same name during this time.

I was attracted to Germinal by the themes of working life in a mining community, workers rights and political awakening. I haven't been disappointed. I have now reached the first chapter of part V and I have loved every page. Zola's writing is incredibly vivid and descriptive and it feels like he is reporting back after an assignment shadowing coal miners.

My favourite part is Etienne's first day down the mine when he finds work as a trammer and the best part of that scene for me is the description of Bataille, an old pit horse.

"He was Bataille, the oldest horse in the mine, a white horse who had spent ten years underground. For ten years he had lived in this hole, staying in the same corner of the stable, doing the same job, trotting up and down the dark haulage roads without ever going back up to see daylight. He was very fat, with a sleek coat and a benevolent air, and seemed to pass his time living the good life, protected from the misfortunes of the world above. Moreover, he had grown accustomed to the dark, and extremely clever. The passage he plied had finally become so familiar that he knew how to push open the ventilation doors with his head, and he remembered to stoop down to avoid bumping his head where the roof was too low. And he must have been able to count, for when he had done the regulation number of trips, he refused to start another, and insisted on being taken back to his manger. Now, with old age, his cat's eyes would sometimes cloud over with melancholy. Perhaps he had a vague vision, in the dim light of his dreams, of the mill where he was born, near Marchiennes, a mill set on the banks of the Scarpe, surrounded by broad meadows and swept by a constant breeze. There was something bright and burning in the air, a sort of huge lamp, but the creature could not recall it exactly. And he lowered his head, trembling on his aged legs in his futile attempts to remember what the sun was like."

We are introduced to Bataille as another horse is being lowered into the mine to begin his working life underground. Trompette, the new arrival, is scared stiff after his journey down the mine shaft and remains frozen in place. Bataille, who has just finished his shift, approaches to greet him, "And he suddenly let out a resounding whinny, whose happy music seemed muted with a sorrowful sigh. It was a welcoming shout, and a cry of pleasure at the arrival of a sudden whiff of the past, but also a sigh of pity for the latest prisoner, who would never be sent back alive."

Picture from Wikipedia entry on pit pony

I hope to finish reading Germinal this weekend but I suspect that it will not have a happy or pleasant ending.

Short Story Sunday - Honore de Balzac

Honore de Balzac - In the Desert

I am taking part in Zoladdiction this month and I have decided to make April the month of all things French. So, for this week's short story I read a marvellous tale by Honore de Balzac (another French classic writer that I had not previously read).

In the Desert or A Passion in the Desert as I also saw it translated, is a tale about a Provencal soldier in North Africa during Napoleon's French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798 - 1801). The soldier is captured by North African soldiers and marched through the desert by his captors. One night, he manages to escape, but he is so desperate to get as far away as possible from the enemy that he pushes the horse he has stolen to exhaustion. The stolen horse collapses and dies and the soldier is left alone in the desert. After wandering for a while, lost in the sands, he comes across a small oasis with: water, date palms and a small cave for shelter. For a short while the soldier is somewhat relieved as he has been rescued from certain death from thirst and exposure, but soon he begins to almost go mad from the solitary situation in which he finds himself.

The soldier tries to make the best of the situation and attempts to improve his shelter by using palm leaves as a mat for sleeping; however, in the night he wakes up and realises that a large animal is in the cave with him. As dawn arrives the soldier sees that his fellow cave dweller is a fully grown, female panther.

The rest of the story details the relationship between the panther and the soldier and how slowly they begin to trust each other and eventually end up loving one another. Their "love story" ends through a misunderstanding: the panther suddenly bites the soldier's leg (probably rather gently as she does him no harm) and the soldier reacts instinctively plunging his dagger in her throat and killing her.

The soldier is rescued shortly after the panther's death and returns to France.

Short Story Sunday - William Trevor

Cheating at Canasta - William Trevor

After reading such praise as:

"There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world" 

Wall Street Journal

And hearing William Trevor described as the "master" of the short story, I was really looking forward to reading Cheating at Canasta

I did not like this collection, at all. Each tale is as depressing as the last, in, what seemed to me, a celebration of melancholia. The twelve stories feature:

• A young mechanic in rural Ireland whose life is changed forever after a car accident.
• A wife who, for the last nine years, has tried to ignore her internal screams of anguish and avoid communicating with her husband after he was investigated by the police in connection with the murder of a high-class prostitute.
• A vagabond returning to Ireland after many years in England, to threaten and blackmail the priest in the town where he grew up.
• A man reminiscing about his wife and the blissful early days of their marriage. At her behest, he travels to Italy and dines in their favourite restaurant, but he dines alone as his wife and their shared life together have been claimed by dementia.
• A young teenager who feels guilty after her boyfriend beats another boy to death. She knows that he was, in part, showing off to her and she knows that, if only for a moment, she enjoyed the fact that her boyfriend wanted her to notice him even though his posturing display involved extreme violence.
• A plain, teenage girl stuck in a dull life who is courted by an older, sexual deviant. Their burgeoning relationship is halted before he can abuse her. But, she laments the end of their 'friendship' in her dull, empty life devoid of love.
• An elderly widow who mourns the loss of her husband and the end of an era, when her sons are forced to sell off parts of their estate in order to survive financially.
• A shy, soft-spoken teacher who is left by his younger lover despite the quiet harmony of their relationship and the lack of arguments and disputes.
• A farmer who falls in love again after the death of his wife from cancer. He hopes to marry his neighbour Teresa, but their union is disrupted by the needs and desires of their children.
• An elderly lady who bristles at the letters which her husband continues to receive from a woman he had an affair with decades ago.
• The relationship between Hester and Bartholomew, two unmarried, middle-aged siblings from Dublin who find themselves seeking new housing arrangements after spending their whole childhood and half their adult lives together in the same home.
• The chance meeting of two men in Paris who had been childhood friends in Ireland. The story details the loss of innocence and the crime of adults who forget things which should not be forgotten.

If I found the collection so depressing, why did I continue reading? The critics are right, William Trevor really is a master of the genre. His characterisation, particularly of his mature women characters, is excellent. The stories are also well paced and do not drag. Although, some of the stories in Cheating at Canasta were only several pages long, all of the stories felt fully developed. In just several pages William Trevor is capable of drawing the whole story and focuses on the heart of the matter so intensely that you wonder why you would even need the extra pages that the longer form demands.

You can read the eleventh story from the collection, Faith, for free online at The New Yorker

Short Story Sunday - Jane Gardam

The People on Privilege Hill - Jane Gardam

 Jane Gardam's collection contains fourteen stories that deal with memory (a mother remembering her daughter's wedding in The Hair of the Dog and former class mates reminiscing about their time at university in The Last Reunion), relationships (a lonely old lady and her love for a gorilla at the local zoo in Pangbourne and the end of a marriage in Snap) and sons leaving home to go out into the wide world (Lester on his last night at home before his first term at university in The Fledgling and Jim Smith attending an interview for medical school in The Flight Path).

My favourite stories were The Fledgling and The Flight Path. The two stories are similar in that they both deal with young men on their first trips away from home, The Fledgling is set in modern times and The Flight Path follows Jim Smith from the North East of England as he journeys to London for the first time in his life in order to attend an interview for medical school. It is winter 1941 - the Blitz. Jim's mother has arranged for him to spend the night of the interview with Nell, a cousin of hers, who lives in Wimbledon with her husband, a former dentist. Jim successfully navigates the Tube to find a train heading towards Wimbledon. I loved the description of the crowded carriage of the Tube,

"Fore and aft he was pressed into a host of silent people pointedly looking away from each other and clinging to leather nooses that hung down from the roof." 

Jim's intended destination is on the flight path of the bombing raids, but when he arrives he finds tranquil, suburban streets lined with large Victorian houses. His Aunt Nell and her husband Bob live with Cissie (Nell's aged aunt) and two long-term lodgers. There is also Mac in the kitchen, who seems to be their cook or, perhaps, another lodger who pays for her board by cooking the meals. Jim is absolutely famished, when at last,

The door behind the denstist all at once banged open and a cloud of warmth flooded in with a glorious smell of cooking and a goddess filled the doorway. She bore a big blue oval cooking pot. She was tall and blonde. A figure of gold."

She may be beautiful, but to an eighteen year old boy, she was old, "She might even have been thirty.". That made me laugh, as I did many times throughout the collection. Although the themes developed are not amusing: mutating relationships, loss, nostalgia, the vagaries of old age, Jane Gardam's characterisation is deft and frequently comic.

As soon as the household Jim is visiting finishes dinner the air raid sirens start. I won't tell you how it finishes.