A collection of short stories set in a fictional small town in Co. Mayo, where the Celtic Tiger's been and gone and hardly affected the lives of ColinA collection of short stories set in a fictional small town in Co. Mayo, where the Celtic Tiger's been and gone and hardly affected the lives of Colin Barrett's cast of characters, who work mostly dead-end jobs and lead dead-end lives.
I found Young Skins a bit of a frustrating reading experience. Barrett can turn a phrase when he wants to, and I could easily visualise Glenbeigh in my mind's eye I was reading: the drab council estates, the clatter of pubs, the petrol station with its seedy bathroom.
But this also felt very much like what it is: the first collection of short stories by a guy with an MFA in Creative Writing. Not a lot of variation in tone or voice, no sense of any interest in women's internal lives, some descriptive passages that were laboriously overworked (Please, Colin Barrett, take a break from writing about clouds). And while the dialogue has the vocabulary of rural Ireland down, the syntax was often off—too stagey—and the internal monologues often sound less "working-class GAA-playing guy who scraped a few passes in the Leaving" and more, well... guy with an MFA from UCD. (e.g. "He found me a sinecure as groundskeeper [...] He had seen a talent burgeon under his institution's aegis, and did not want to think it truly snuffed out." Another character thinks of himself as a golem made out of the Connemara dirt and while it's an arresting image, and while I'm not saying no Irish person knows what a golem is, I don't think it's, shall we say, part of the Irish cultural imaginary enough that it's going to be a go-to reference.)
There's enough promise here that I'll give Barrett's work another go—I'm curious about his splashy recent novel—but taken as itself I think Young Skins is a bit over-praised. ...more
Dora Myrl is one of a number of Sherlock Holmes imitators who sprang into being at the turn of the 20th century. A plucky orphan, qualified doctor-turDora Myrl is one of a number of Sherlock Holmes imitators who sprang into being at the turn of the 20th century. A plucky orphan, qualified doctor-turned-detective, and master of disguise, in this collection of short stories she foils thieves, cheats, and blackmailers, and occasionally figures out whodunnit, all while wearing a series of fetching hats. The detection required here is fairly slight, but Dora is more charming than such an improbable character should be. I kept feeling as I read that a clever adapter could make this into an entertaining Netflix series. ...more
The Awakening is one of those books which my sense is has never quite escaped its national context—Americans, I think, are likely to read it in high sThe Awakening is one of those books which my sense is has never quite escaped its national context—Americans, I think, are likely to read it in high school or uni but as a "classic" it's far less known in other countries. I only heard of it, and Kate Chopin's other short stories, a few years ago, and decided to read it out of curiosity about it as a piece of early feminist literature.
Having now read it, I can certainly appreciate why Chopin's work was rediscovered by second wavers, grappling as it does with questions of freedom, control, marriage, and motherhood. Both Edna—the main character in The Awakening—and several of Chopin's other female characters struggle with these questions in various ways. But while Chopin's prose is well-crafted, and there are some lovely moments of character observation, I found myself largely unmoved by her work. Her writing is not bad, but it didn't speak to me. I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters in The Awakening itself, and the short stories felt too much like hybrids of O. Henry/Just So Stories with uncomfortable racial undertones (or just... tones) to engage me at all.
(Truly bemused by all the reviews here which declare this to be a bad and/or non-feminist book because Edna Pontellier is selfish, unlikable, and not a role model. If you think a book needs to have a likable, emotionally mature superheroine at its core to be feminist, it may be that you've missed the point that Chopin was making about women being allowed to be individual people, and also your approach to literature is way more didactic than mine.)...more
An engrossing collection of short stories about Black women in the U.S., set roughly between the '80s and the present day, that grapples with questionAn engrossing collection of short stories about Black women in the U.S., set roughly between the '80s and the present day, that grapples with questions of loneliness and independence, intimacy and estrangement. Deesha Philyaw's sense of place is strong, and many of these stories—"Peach Cobbler", "Snow Fall", "Jael"—read like pressing down on a fading bruise. For a debut collection, this is impressive, but perhaps because Secret Lives is a debut is also why there are points where the voice feels a bit self-conscious. This is a minor quibble though, and I'll definitely look out for more work by her in the future. ...more
A collection of darkly whimsical short stories which I found something of a mixed bag. Consider my rating for this an average, because there were someA collection of darkly whimsical short stories which I found something of a mixed bag. Consider my rating for this an average, because there were some really strong pieces ("A Diviner’s Abecedarian", "Thread Boy", "Homebody"), and some which felt like prose gymnastics in search of a point. (The occasional meta musings about pointless stories were irritating to me.) When GennaRose Nethercott is at her best, there's a heft to even a short piece: the hook of a story premise is married with a follow-through delivered with a bite and a grin. However, even the pieces that didn't work so well for me may work for you, if you like stories that are largely there for fever-dream aesthetics and surreal, Welcome to Night Vale-esque vibes....more
It may be ungenerous to describe this short story collection—three brief stories total, two of them reprints, typeset with generous margins—as a cash It may be ungenerous to describe this short story collection—three brief stories total, two of them reprints, typeset with generous margins—as a cash grab capitalising on Claire Keegan's recent burst of popularity, but let us just say that I'm glad I borrowed this from the library rather than paying for it.
I've enjoyed Keegan's clean prose and deft portraits in the past, but here only the first of the three stories—a study of weaponised incompetence and oblivious self-centredness—came close to working for me. Even that lacked the hint of acid it needed, though. The others fell flat, showing how thin the line can be between "spare" and "simplistic". Should a collection that was apparently almost called Misogyny feel so muted?...more
A light, dry, chilly short story about a teenager called Marguerite who is from a privileged background. The satirical jabs about the publishing indusA light, dry, chilly short story about a teenager called Marguerite who is from a privileged background. The satirical jabs about the publishing industry are fun; the voice is entertaining, but the main character fails to entirely convince. ...more
Sultana's Dream is set in a world where men live in seclusion, and women run a peaceful, advanced world, where technology runs on solar power.
It was Sultana's Dream is set in a world where men live in seclusion, and women run a peaceful, advanced world, where technology runs on solar power.
It was also written by a Bengali Muslim woman in 1905.
Truthfully, I think that Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's story is more of interest as a historic than as a literary piece, but I do think it would teach well in a women's history course. The scholarly apparatus accompanying it is useful but is now fairly dated (written in the '80s)....more
A collection of short stories and prose sketches by early 20th-century writer Robert Walser, A Schoolboy's Diary is uneven, idiosyncratic, and often sA collection of short stories and prose sketches by early 20th-century writer Robert Walser, A Schoolboy's Diary is uneven, idiosyncratic, and often strangely charming. These pieces—sometimes only a page long—show Walser returning over and over to issues of authority, obedience, childhood, and the beauty of the Swiss landscape. Inevitably, some of these are much stronger than others. But when Walser was on, he was on: whether with verbal watercolours of various places, sometimes whimsical and sometimes eerie; or with his channelling of the eponymous schoolboy with a narrative voice that's doing something more complex and subversive than it appears at first glance.
A very solid collection of short stories from the 19th/20th centuries that all have something to do with the sea. I particularly enjoyed Jack London'sA very solid collection of short stories from the 19th/20th centuries that all have something to do with the sea. I particularly enjoyed Jack London's "The House of Mapuhi" and Stephen Crane's "The Open Sea", which read like a watercolour painting; I didn't get on with Patricia Highsmith's "One for the Islands" or the last story, Mark Halprin's "Sail Shining in White" (smug; wildly unconvincing dialogue). Definitely one to dip into if you've got a thematic interest in the sea or seafaring....more
As the title says, East Jerusalem Noir is a collection of short stories set in Palestinian East Jerusalem; unlike what the title says, however, I woulAs the title says, East Jerusalem Noir is a collection of short stories set in Palestinian East Jerusalem; unlike what the title says, however, I wouldn't really classify any of these as noir. They're more a set of explorations of what life is like for everyday people under occupation. As with many short story collections, this is a very mixed bag in terms of quality, and my rating reflects a very rough average. A couple are truly good, some are average, and a swathe of them either feel half-formed or are actively bad. (view spoiler)[Plus one that's genuinely awful, by Jameel al-Salhout, which is I think intended to be a critique of shallow western/Orientalist disengagement from the political situation in Israel-Palestine but just came across as misogynist and overblown. I'll grant that in one place it may have been a function of a translation choice more than anything else (to have an Englishwoman be confused by the herb thyme and recognise neither it nor its name was bizarre) but I don't think the translator was the only reason my face was fixed in a rictus grimace the whole time I was reading it. (hide spoiler)]...more
A debut collection of short stories set in contemporary Botswana. Gothataone Moeng has often vivid turns of phrase and a real knack for letting a charA debut collection of short stories set in contemporary Botswana. Gothataone Moeng has often vivid turns of phrase and a real knack for letting a character's words and actions show us who they are. I could "see" many of the people she talks about here—often young women feeling themselves pulled in various directions—with great clarity. There are some beautiful poignant moments here. But I found Call and Response to be more a series of vignettes/character studies than stories proper, with the individual pieces seeming to come to an end rather than truly finishing. And I think I could roll a little more easily with a story that faded out like that if I felt it had been written with a point in mind rather than a theme. That quibble aside, there's a great deal of promise here and I'll keep an eye out of Moeng's forthcoming novel....more
An interesting collection of 20 or so folk tales from the Fon people of Benin. Raouf Mama arranges the stories in thematic groups, and his prose styleAn interesting collection of 20 or so folk tales from the Fon people of Benin. Raouf Mama arranges the stories in thematic groups, and his prose style is clear and engaging. I didn't love the fact that Mama had edited some of the story endings to be neater/more palatable, but at least he makes clear when he's done so, and to be fair it is traditional for such tales to change in the re-telling....more
The Beadworkers is a collection of short stories, poetry, and drama by Beth Piatote (Nez Perce) which explores ideas of Native identity, belonging, anThe Beadworkers is a collection of short stories, poetry, and drama by Beth Piatote (Nez Perce) which explores ideas of Native identity, belonging, and heritage language loss and reclamation. Summarising the book like that no doubt makes it sound very dry and worthy, but Piatote's writing is shot-through with lyricism and a bone-dry humour that I appreciated. I found the first few stories the weakest, though I'm not sure if it's that I just lacked the cultural context to grasp the point that Piatote might have been making. The collection grew in strength as I read, though, and I thought the closing reworking of the Classical Greek tragedy Antigone as "Antíkoni" was pointed and powerful. ...more
If Miss Marple were Swedish, sitting on a secret nest-egg, and low-key sociopathic, she might be something like Maud. An 88-year-old retired schoolteaIf Miss Marple were Swedish, sitting on a secret nest-egg, and low-key sociopathic, she might be something like Maud. An 88-year-old retired schoolteacher living in Gothenburg, Maud has no compunction about using murder to solve any problems she encounters. Helene Tursten does a good job at juxtaposing the cosy-Christie tone of much of the book with Maud's wry, often dark observations and memories. Maud is a weirdly engaging anti-heroine, but I didn't quite buy the ending she gets here—a dash too much of saccharine in what's otherwise a very tart confection....more
A collection of several short stories and a novella, many of them high fantasy/set in alternate universes and with female lead characters. There are sA collection of several short stories and a novella, many of them high fantasy/set in alternate universes and with female lead characters. There are some good story ideas here, and I appreciated that Marjorie Liu has middle-aged women as protagonists about as often as she does those in their late teens/early twenties. This was the case with Liu's queer retelling of "The Briar and the Rose", which was the strongest story of the collection for me. Others were less successful (the one featuring a gay tech billionaire called Alexander Lutheran who was bioengineering monstrous giant worms and was consciously modelling himself after the fictional character of Lex Luthor while also trying to find a Superman to save/fuck him was actually insufficiently campy and weird to work), and I wasn't as impressed with Liu's prose style as other people seem to be. ...more
J'ai vu Lupin sur Netflix, donc j'ai lu cette compilation de petites nouvelles qui relatent les exploits d'Arsène Lupin, le "gentleman-cambrioleur". LJ'ai vu Lupin sur Netflix, donc j'ai lu cette compilation de petites nouvelles qui relatent les exploits d'Arsène Lupin, le "gentleman-cambrioleur". Le livre est agréable à lire, mais plutôt moins divertissant que l'émission. La psychologie des personnages est souvent importante pour le déroulement de l'histoire, mais tout aussi souvent, cette psychologie n'est pas très convaincante....more
This is a collection of short stories, so the expectation that some will be good and some not so much probably comes baked in. I've never seen the aniThis is a collection of short stories, so the expectation that some will be good and some not so much probably comes baked in. I've never seen the animated TV show for which Raphael Bob-Waksberg (great name, by the way) is apparently best known, and so perhaps I'm not the target audience here. There were aspects to Someone Who Will Love You which didn't work for me: sentimentality masquerading as wry detachment, a tendency to go to the same well a bit too much, conceits which were let to run a bit too long. (Also, the one story in the form of a poem was just so bad it gave me contact embarrassment and I had to skip most of it.) Still, when the formula—a kind of straight-faced delight in detailed absurdity—works, it works. ...more
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