Difference between revisions of "Newest Short Stories Reviews"
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| + | |author=Diana Wells | ||
| + | |title=Odes and Prose for Older Women | ||
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| + | |genre=Short Stories | ||
| + | |summary=I am, of course, not an older woman and nether is Diana Wells. We were born in the same year and we are what is best described as 'upper middle aged', but - perhaps in anticipation of what is to come - Diana has collected together her writings on the subject and I read through them in two sittings (the break was enforced) and I laughed and cried, but the wry smile of recognition never left my face from beginning to end. There are about eighty five short stories and odes - with none more than a few pages long - written, we are told, from observation, experience or imagination and I can only conclude that Wells has led a very rich life. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780356838</amazonuk> | ||
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|title=Sad Monsters | |title=Sad Monsters | ||
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|summary=Anita Desai's ''The Artist of Disappearance'' is a collection of three novellas with several satisfying unifying features. All are set in modern day India, all involve some looking back in time and all three involve some consideration of the creative art - who it is for, what happens to it once it leaves the artist's control and who 'owns' it. Most of all, each one is beautifully written, with strong characters and evocative descriptions of personal loss. In terms of length each is relatively short - around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel that you've been engrossed in the story just as much as if you had read a novel of more conventional length. | |summary=Anita Desai's ''The Artist of Disappearance'' is a collection of three novellas with several satisfying unifying features. All are set in modern day India, all involve some looking back in time and all three involve some consideration of the creative art - who it is for, what happens to it once it leaves the artist's control and who 'owns' it. Most of all, each one is beautifully written, with strong characters and evocative descriptions of personal loss. In terms of length each is relatively short - around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel that you've been engrossed in the story just as much as if you had read a novel of more conventional length. | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553953</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553953</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 13:17, 5 November 2013
Odes and Prose for Older Women by Diana Wells
I am, of course, not an older woman and nether is Diana Wells. We were born in the same year and we are what is best described as 'upper middle aged', but - perhaps in anticipation of what is to come - Diana has collected together her writings on the subject and I read through them in two sittings (the break was enforced) and I laughed and cried, but the wry smile of recognition never left my face from beginning to end. There are about eighty five short stories and odes - with none more than a few pages long - written, we are told, from observation, experience or imagination and I can only conclude that Wells has led a very rich life. Full review...
Sad Monsters by Frank Lesser
If you thought you had it bad… Here is the chupacabra writing to the newspapers for better press – notices that don't universally mention his goat-sucking habits before his chess-playing, dancing or debating record. Here is a banshee struggling with high school life, knowing the end of everyone that comes across her path. Here is King Kong, being defended in court by a lawyer with a revelation to the jury about his bipolarity and how wrong it was to get his hopes up with a Broadway show in a strange city. Did you honestly think Godzilla enjoyed the way his life ended up? Full review...
Dear Life by Alice Munro
Alice Munro has made an art form of short story writing. Dear Life is a collection of truly beautiful short stories, perfectly crafted in a way that leaves no wanting feeling, as is often an issue with short stories. Each of the 14 stories contained within the collection is just that; a story in its own right. There is no getting caught up and lost in style and literary flare, but a cool prose, a calmness of tone and good strong stories. Full review...
The Complete Short Stories: Volume Two by Roald Dahl
Having only recently read the first volume of this collection of all of Roald Dahl’s short stories I couldn’t help but think of the phrase too much of a good thing although I have never really agreed with the phrase (I could happily gorge on chocolate or whisky for days without the slightest regret) I am still pleased that this book provides yet more evidence of the inaccuracy of the expression. With stories as diverse as a butler getting revenge on his employer and a baby being brought up on royal jelly by a fanatical bee lover, these are tales of horror, humour, adventure, love and all out weirdness. Full review...
Tales from the Dead of Night: Thirteen Classic Ghost Stories by Cecily Gayford (editor)
This collection of classic ghost stories covers all kinds of chilling tales. There are physical ghosts, emotional ghosts, ghosts that are never seen but merely sensed, and even the odd entity that just seems ghostly, even though it might be an ordinary everyday thing - but still makes you feel as if you’ve, well, seen a ghost. Each story is preceded with some information on the author. The stories are from are from several different periods and the settings range from winter nights in England to sultry summers in India. This combines to make for an excellent overview of all kinds of spooky sagas. Full review...
The Color Master by Aimee Bender
Another parade of fascinating, unusual personalities and odd events from the author of Willful Creatures. This time out Aimee introduces us to people like Hans the fake Nazi, young William to whom all people look the same and Janet who decides to spice up her love-life with detrimental results. Among other things we also witness a less-than-altruistic anti-war demonstration and an odd occurrence in an orchard showing how odd an apple-only diet could make us. Full review...
The Complete Short Stories: Volume One by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl’s name on a book has for me always meant I was in for a fun and imaginative read. His children’s books are the pinnacle of children’s literature and combine fantastic ideas with wordplay and some of the most amusing characters and situations. The stories for a younger audience always managed to thrill and entertain both adult and child and reading them aloud is a joy. In short I believe Roald Dahl was a true master of storytelling. I have however only actually read one of his adult books before reading this collection of short stories. Full review...
The Dinner Club and Other Stories by Rob Keeley
Being on home dinners gives Aidan the chance to make some money...
A bridesmaid and a page chase a runaway wedding cake...
Mia and her Dad turn detective...
These are just a few of the premises you can try out for size in Rob Keeley's third book of short stories for middle grade readers. He's really having some fun with this format. I approve. We need more short story collections for this age group. They're entertaining and they appeal particularly to reluctant readers. Short stories like this can act as a springboard to full-length novels. Full review...
Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective by Paul Kane and Charles Prepolec (Editors)
C. Auguste Dupin is often regarded as the first fictional detective and at the very least Edgar Allan Poe’s character was the blueprint for many sleuths to come, most notably Sherlock Holmes. Dupin is an eccentric genius from Paris whose use of logic and deduction aid the police on their most baffling cases. The characters literary debut was in the short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841 and between 1842 and 1844 Poe wrote two more short stories about Dupin and his exploits. Beyond Rue Morgue contains nine stories (in addition to the original Poe tale) by various authors and gives many different takes on the same character or influenced by him. From samurai assassins and the apocalypse to an agoraphobic distant relative of Dupin attempting to solve a murder without even leaving her home; the different writers all take the intriguing character to places we wouldn’t expect and the creativity of all keeps the character fresh from story to story. Full review...
Russian Stories by Francesc Seres
This brilliant and varied collection of short stories is the product of a current academic interest in cross-cultural translation. Francisco Guillen Serés is a Catalan professor of Art History from Aragon. A Russophile, he has travelled widely to collect stories from those writing during the past hundred years of Russian history. These have been translated into Catalan and then into English. These unusual and delightful stories, some twenty one of them written by five writers read fluently and engagingly. They form an informative tapestry of Soviet and post-Soviet life, moving back in time with the older, earlier writers like Bergchenko, who died in the siege of Stalingrad, at the end. Ranging over mythic and symbolic tales to realistic portrayals of personal relationships; love trysts in St Petersburg, ferocious bears in the deep heart of the Taiga to the perils of becoming lost in continuous orbit in space. All aspects are impressively recounted. Full review...
Best British Short Stories 2013 by Nicholas Royle (editor)
Expect to read some quality work in Best British Short Stories 2013, sourced from a number of short story magazines; 'Granta', 'Shadows and Tall Trees', 'Unthology' and 'The Edinburgh Review' are just some of the publications in which these pieces were to be seen first. If asked to identify a red thread between the components of Nicholas Royle’s anthology, I would say that in each short story, everything is left to simmer under the surface. There is a frustration brought about by the lack of clarity in every short story, which to me is a reflection of just how unclear the most seismic of situations may be to any individual involved. Full review...
This Close by Jessica Francis Kane
'This Close' is a sensitively written collection of short stories exploring the fragile nature of the bonds connecting friends, neighbours and family. As the title suggests, most of the stories contain pivotal moments where a missed opportunity, fleeting as it may be, can propel a person along a path culminating in regret or loss. Each story is poignantly written and perceptively observed. As a reader, I was drawn in and became so emotionally involved with the characters that it was often impossible to close the book until I knew how each story ended. Full review...
Behind the Facade by Dennis Friedman
We have all, at one time or another, wished that we had the ability to read minds. Imagine how interesting it would be to peer beyond the external appearance and to understand the various thought processes lurking beneath the surface. Psychiatrist Dennis Friedman gives the reader the opportunity to do just that with his collection of short stories 'Beyond the Facade' Full review...
Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan
We should always make time for short stories. Especially if they are written by Margo Lanagan. In Yellowcake, a traveller boy uses three items to reunite an old man with his memories. A boy with a crippled foot watches his townfolk butcher a beautiful creature washed up in their harbour. Rapunzel gets a makeover in which things turn out differently. We find out how the Ferryman of the Dead became the Ferrywoman. And more. Full review...
Krispy Whispers by Melvin Burgess
A woman stops you in the road and gazes fearfully into the pram. "Your babies are not human," she says. Then she runs off.
Ooh! Alien changelings! Cuckoos in the nest? Are they really? Really, really, really? Can you be sure? So begins the first story in Krispy Whispers, a series of flash fictions by Bookbag favourite Melvin Burgess. You also get a girl dreaming of riches, a lonely woman who finds a pet and gets a boyfriend too closely together for mere coincidence. And a priest who actually meets God. And a very worrisome monster. Concentrate hard. Because you'll need to keep up... Full review...
The Pre-War House and other short stories by Alison Moore
Alison Moore's Pre-War House is a collection of 24 short stories, only three of which are original to this collection, but most were first published in the last couple of years and, unless you are a an avid reader of The New Writer they will probably all be new to you. Moore's themes tend to concentrate on fairly dark characters, usually with a hidden secret, and more often than not dealing with the past and frequently some kind of personal loss or anguish. If you enjoyed Moore's Booker Prize shortlisted The Lighthouse, you will find plenty to enjoy here as most of the stories have a similar hauntingly sad feel to them. With one possible exception, a very short piece called The Yacht Man which did nothing for me, the stories are beautifully judged and equally satisfying, often saving a final hit or a surprise until the end of the pieces. Full review...
The Walk and other stories by Robert Walser
The publication of this collection of around forty short stories affords the English speaking public a unique opportunity; that of reading Walser, possibly the leading modernist writer of Swiss German in the last century. He has received high praise in 'A Place in the Country', W G Sebald's recently published posthumous collection and he is well-known as being a significant influence on Franz Kafka. His work here dates from 1907 to 1929 and along with his poetry won him recognition with Berlin's avant garde. He combines lyrical delicacy with detailed observation; reflective melancholy with criticism of brash commercialism. The fine writing in this volume strives to achieve a hard won integrity together with an experimental capacity for reflection. It challenges the reader and provokes him to new insights. Full review...
The Woodpecker Menace by Ted Olinger
The Key Peninsula is a small spur of land on the Puget Sound in Washington state, shaped - you guessed it - like a key. Its resident are disparate and include both incomers and those who'd see themselves as pioneer settlers. But they're joined in a communal sense of island living. It's on a much smaller scale, but I think most British people can feel affinity with identifying as an islander. It flavours our relationship with continental Europe in so many ways. Full review...
The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories by Nikolai Leskov, Richard Pevear (translator) and Larissa Volokhonsky (translator)
This is a collection of 17 Nikolai Leskov stories as mixed in subject matter as they are in length. From the very short Spirit of Madame de Genlis, warning of the dire consequences of selecting literature for a mollycoddled princess, to the novella-length The Enchanted Wanderer telling the tale of the apparently immortal monk who prayed for suicide victims, Leskov (aided greatly by the talented translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) unlocks the mores, traditions, religion and superstitions of 19th century Russia for a modern readership. Full review...
Outsiders by Roberto Saviano, Carlo Lucarelli, Valeria Parrella, Piero Colaprico, Wu Ming, Simona Vinci
Outsiders is a collection of six pieces of writing by Italian authors. The pieces have been collated from a supplement to an Italian daily newspaper and six have been chosen around the theme of outsiders for translation into English. Thus, the pieces themselves were not written around this specific theme but have rather had this theme imposed on them in this collection. Since the outsider is often used in various forms by writers to observe the status quo, this is not a big leap of imagination. Full review...
Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender
In this collection we're shown the reaction of ten men with terminal illness prognoses, a large man purchasing a very unusual pet and the case of a hard-done-by boyfriend. There are also delights like the shop that sells words crafted into what they read, a boy with keys instead of fingers and the beautifully touching tale of the pumpkin-headed mother who gives birth to an iron-headed baby. No, this isn't your average collection of predictable short stories; these are Aimee Bender short stories. Full review...
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
I know you shouldn't judge a book by the cover, but when the cover has a title like Vampires in the Lemon Grove, I can't help but be a little intrigued, especially when the author has a recent history like Karen Russell's. This history includes a Guardian award nomination for a previous collection with another great title; St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and a Pulitzer Prize shortlisting for her novel, Swamplandia! Full review...
Encounters of Sherlock Holmes by George Mann (Editor)
Sherlock Holmes remains an enduring icon of English literature; perhaps as popular today as he was back in the late 1800s, maybe even more so with the advent of TV and film adaptations of his adventures. Indeed, such is the lasting appeal of the character that since the death of Conan Doyle there have been literally hundreds of works published, picking up where the original stories left off. Full review...
The Gurkha's Daughter by Prajwal Parajuly
Parajuly is the son of an Indian father and Nepalese mother hailing from Gangtok in the Indian Himalayas, but spending most of his time somewhere between New York and Oxford. His insight is therefore something we should probably trust. Full review...
The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich
There is more opportunity than ever these days to downsize your library. You can take all those lumpen classics to the charity shop now that they can be downloaded for free onto an e-reader. And with these couple of hundred pages you can also divest yourself of a heck of a lot of fiction about love, for this can easily replace so much you've read at greater length, with less imagination and with much less humour elsewhere. That hyperbole is only partly inspired by the style of the contents, for it really is that good. Full review...
Vengeance by Lee Child (Editor)
I like short story collections. They're useful reading material when you're a mum of young children as you can usually manage to squeeze in a six page story at nap time, but you're guaranteed if you try to start that 500 page novel you've been meaning to read that just as it starts to get interesting your baby will wake up! This collection of crime stories is brought together under the title of Vengeance so, as you'd imagine, they are all to do with revenge and people getting or trying to get their own back. Full review...
Black Vodka by Deborah Levy
Black Vodka is a collection of ten previously published short pieces of writing by Deborah Levy, many first published in the early 2000s. The most recent is the piece from which this collection gains its title which has been shortlisted for the 2012 BBC International Short Story Award. As a compilation of her writing, obviously these were not written to appear together, but some clear themes emerge from the collection, namely a deeply disturbing look at the search for love, particularly amongst those on the edge of society Full review...
The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates
Many years ago, I stumbled across a Joyce Carol Oates story in a horror anthology. What I most remember about the story was how vividly the feelings the characters experienced were portrayed. Whilst the story itself was not exactly a horror story in the mould of Stephen King and James Herbert, it was very well presented. With this experience, I had high hopes of 'The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares' a brand new collection of short stories from Oates. Full review...
Unthology: No. 3 by Robin Jones and Ashley Stokes (Editors)
Unthank Books have brought out their third annual short story 'unthology'. (See what they did there?) The series is described as showcasing the unconventional, unpredictable and experimental which is correct as far as it goes. They omit words that I personally would have included; words like 'refreshing' and 'excitingly different' because, if I needed to be convinced about short stories (and, being a fan, I don't) they would be the clincher. Full review...
My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions by Tania Hershman
It's said that the art of short-story writing is totally different from that of novels as the writer only has ten or so pages to accomplish what others do in two to three hundred. Imagine, therefore, telling an entire story in prose conveying depth and meaning in fewer words than this review. It may be difficult but, apparently, not downright impossible as Tania Hershman has nailed it with honours. In fact her first collection The White Road was commended by the Orange Prize judges of 2009. Full review...
One Dog and His Man by Mike Henley
Oberon is a Labrador with a pedigree as long as your arm and One Dog and His Man is his story about what it's like living with the man he generously refers to as The Boss, about life in general and the ways of the world. Think of him as the canine equivalent of the parliamentary sketch writer, there to highlight the idiosyncrasies of human life and bring a gentle humour to situations which might otherwise be taken far too seriously. Before you wonder how this is possible - how a dog can write a book - let me remind you that dogs are very intelligent animals. After all, dogs and their humans might go to what are laughingly called 'dog training classes', but it's the humans who are trained, not the dogs. Full review...
Where Have You Been? by Joseph O'Connor
Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor has had quite a 2012. Earlier in the year he joined the ranks of such authors as Edna O'Brien, Roddy Doyle and Seamus Heaney when he became a recipient of the PEN award for his outstanding contribution to Irish literature. What could possibly top that for a sense of achievement? Well this, his first book of short stories in 20 years, must come pretty close to at least equalling it, amply illustrating the reasons for the panel's decision. Full review...
The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai
Anita Desai's The Artist of Disappearance is a collection of three novellas with several satisfying unifying features. All are set in modern day India, all involve some looking back in time and all three involve some consideration of the creative art - who it is for, what happens to it once it leaves the artist's control and who 'owns' it. Most of all, each one is beautifully written, with strong characters and evocative descriptions of personal loss. In terms of length each is relatively short - around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel that you've been engrossed in the story just as much as if you had read a novel of more conventional length. Full review...
