I have always enjoyed Tessa Hadley stories. Nothing much happens in them, but her writing is terrific and I am always impressed with how acutely she observes people. She is especially adroit at depicting family relationships. This one is no exception.
A mother (92) and her sixty-something daughter have holed up together during Covid quarantine in the UK. Of course, we immediately sympathize with the daughter who has had the care of her mother thrust upon her. But as the story unwinds, the mother has had an exciting life with three husbands, multiple houses, trips to Europe, etc. And the daughter has lost her husband, her job and is casting about for a purpose, a new beginning if that is possible. She spends much of her time watching the caretaker of the elderly man next door, and actually claims to be her mother's caretaker rather than her daughter. These characters are drawn so well, you feel they must live next door to you.
Sometimes I wonder why I enjoy stories like this so much. Am I looking to find myself in the characters I read about instead of escaping into a story about something else entirely. What about you?
12 comments:
I'll usually take a story for what it's offering, if it strikes me right...I'm definitely interested in how the characters react to whatever situation they're facing, rather than escaping into the story too often, per se...though certainly good suspense/horror and adventure fiction often will offer a fair amount of quick changes to cope with! I've usually thought of fiction as having the opportunity to see inside the heads of the characters, or at least to have the potential of doing so or taking in how the author would interpret situations that, if encountered in life, I might interpret altogether differently. All this posited on good writing...I'm not too interested in what the Erich Segals (to use an easy if rather dated example) of the world have to say on much of anything.
You ask an interesting question, Patti, about why stories appeal to us. I sometimes think that it really does draw the reader in to find a character that really resonates, even if it's not exactly an escape.
Yeah for me I need a character with a discernible world view to find it interesting. He/she doesn't have to be like me but I need to find the character relatable.
I like quirky characters. They can be the complete opposite of what I think is admirable as long as they create a lot of surprises in the story.
I agree too. Sometimes a situation just hits you right as interesting and the characters surprise you by being more - or different - than expected. That makes a story more interesting to me, as in Nathan Englander's "What We Talk About WHen We Talk About Anne Frank."
I'm currently reading THE BOOK OF FORGOTTEN AUTHORS by CHristopher Fowler, which George reviewed recently. In his "Forgotten Rivals of Hilmes..." chapter, he says "Conan DOyle's style is incredibly easy to mimic, and the rules surrounding the structure of the stories mean that any professional writer with a mind to it can make a decent fist of producing them."
I guess he proved this to himself by writing some himself, and "The Adventure of Lucifer's Footprints" in his RED GLOVES< Volume 1, is a decent example, with it's "Hound of the Baskervilles" feel. It does sort of fit into his "horror" claim for the collection too.
I'm also enjoying Robert Edward Eckels' collection of con game stories, NEVER TRUST A PARTNER.
Characters like Holmes or Poirot or Maigret depended on a good plot to succeed though. Their quirkiness would grow tired without a talented plotter to put them in the action. But you do need something in a longer series. Bosch depends on his relationships with family and colleagues more than anything distinct about him.
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The above comment is spam.
I sent an email to you re: why no post today.
Whereas the reviews section of the short stories I'm doing today was just eaten by a bad interaction with Blogspot...so, my earlier than usual posting is less early than expected.
So, I'll post the Everything Else, and add the individual story, etc. reviews as I can get Bloggo to take them properly...thanks!
So mine's done for this week--
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2018/08/ffb-its-womans-world-stories-from.html
thanks again...
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I would have to think more about what appeals to me in short stories. In the last few months I have enjoyed many, many short stories of various types and only a few have I disliked, and that surprises me. Not that many of them correspond to my experiences at all, but I do think I look for some connection to my life in every story, even science fiction.
The story about the elderly mother and her daughter does sound interesting. And also, what you said about Bosch was thought provoking. Were you referring to the TV shows or the books? I need to read more of the books. I have a lot of them.
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