I've read far less in recent years than I would like. To help remedy this, I've set myself the modest target of reading nineteen books in 2019. When I finish one, a thumbnail review here will follow.
11/19: The Guardian Review Book of short stories edited by Lisa Allardice
The blurb: Alice Munro, mistress of the short form, describes a story as "a world seen in a quick glancing light". From caves in Pakistan to the underground tunnels of London's Piccadilly line, each of the stories collected here takes the reader into a very different world. And just as they roam across the globe, so they travel in time, from postwar London to contemporary Lagos. From a historical vignette about a 19th-century German artist, to a fable in which a book comes to life in a Chicago library, these stories explore the boundaries of imagined realities.
The narrators include dogs and children. Love affairs begin and end, friendships splinter and rekindle, mothers and children learn to let each other go. Whether it is the recent revolutionary uprisings in Egypt and Libya or one woman's lone battle with her electricity company on the south coast of England, they deal with battles big and small. Everyday triumphs and tragedies are briefly illuminated, the secret places of relationships laid bare. Melancholy or mischievous, elegant or experimental – together these tales showcase the variety and vibrancy of the modern short story.
The review: this collection of eleven short stories was a freebie with Saturday's Guardian some eight odd years ago, and has been on my "to read eventually" list ever since. I've lost count of the number of time I've slipped it into a rucksack for an overnight trip, train journey or long weekend away, thinking I'll get round to opening it at last... because at a slender 128 pages, this is a perfect book to travel with. But it's taken me until now to actually get stuck in and get it read... which probably tells you more about my life than it does about my love of a good short story or the quality of writing on offer here. For make no mistake, when the list of featured authors includes Margaret Atwood, Helen Simpson, Rose Tremain, Mohsin Hamed and Margaret Drabble, there is unquestionable quality to be had, free book or not.
That's not to say this book isn't without its problems. Firstly, I didn't buy it, it was a newspaper freebie, so right from the off I felt less invested in it - I had less motivation to read it, to like it. Secondly, there is no obvious theme to the stories contained herein, other than that they are contemporaneous - so it isn't ever going to be a go-to book for people who like short stories about X. And third, there is no stylistic commonality between the included authors, so it isn't going to appeal to readers who like stories in the manner of Blah Blah either... But on the flip-side, this variety, this true sampler approach is the book's strength. Because no two stories are alike, there is something for everyone.
Some stories stand out: An Idyll in Winter by William Trevor is one such, a delicate, honest tale of love, unrequited and otherwise. Cockfosters by Helen Simpson is another, with a simple plot device (following lost property to the end of a Tube line) and two very plausible protagonists. Equally, Rose Tremain's The Closing Door is, for so simple a tale, tremendously effective and emotional. For me, best of all is Trespassing by Margaret Drabble, which might have seemed timely in 2011 but seems positively prescient now. Oh, and Moths of the New World by the best-selling but oft-maligned Audrey Niffenegger should get a mention, simply for the idea of spirits living inside books. So when these stories are good, they're very good. And even when they're not good, they're still not bad.
As an aspiring writer, I must also mention the shortest story here, Terminator: Attack of the Drone by Mohsin Hamed; it's terrific, an object lesson in how to deliver a big story, and swallow the reader whole, in four short pages.
The bottom line: an uneven collection that has a little of something for everyone, perfectly bag-sized for a long train journey or an overnight hotel stay.
Since everything online is rated these days: ★★★★☆☆
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