I like Lily Kings' writing style very much. It is very straightforward. That doesn't imply however that I always get her point on first read. My favorite story in this collection was called "When in the Dordogne" and concerns the summer a fourteen year old is left in the care of two college students when his parents take a trip to try and heal the father's health. The boy, a late child in his parents' marriage, gets more attention from the two older boys than he does from his parents. They discover he has a crush on a girl and help him pursue her-to a good end. The boy has such a good time, he imagines his parents never returning. "I can look back on that time now as if rereading a book I was too young for the first time around. I see how in love Grant was with Ed, how Ed knew and needed it even if he couldn't return it, how Ed was nursing a badly broken heart."
The last paragraph, the one after this one, is a real keeper for a romantic.
Two more favorites were about a grouchy bookstore owner who finds a way out of his sadness and a young mother who finds the will and confidence to write through a magical intervention. I really enjoyed this collection.
8 comments:
Sounds good. Yet another author I haven't read.
Currently reading three collections:
Roddy Doyle, Bullfighting. I like his writing but so far I'd recommend the new collection, Life Without Children over this one (not that it's bad).
William Brittain, The Man Who Solved Mysteries. This is the second (with a third to come) collection of his stories to be published by Crippen & Landru, and contains all 25 of the Mr. Strang stories that weren't in the first collection (The Man Who Read Mysteries). Leonard Strang is an older science teacher at a high school, but also a sharp observer who solves mysteries (not murders), mostly school-related. I'm enjoying this one quite a bit.
Hank Davis, ed., In Space No One Can Hear You Scream is, as the title would suggest, horror type stories set in space. Some of the authors are Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Sheckley, and James H. Schmitz. A particularly creepy tale is George R> R. Martin's "Sandkings."
Jeff - yes, “Sandkings” is really creepy.
Enjoyed THE COMMITMENTS and maybe another one from that trilogy. Have never read his stories.
Everything sounds promising. "Sandkings" is one of the better Martin stories, to be sure. I would read Brittain's stories in AHMM best-of anthologies, I believe.
I think I've read a single King story somewhere, but can't pull the title. These days, I'm doing well to recognize a name. Sounds promising.
Who's exhausted?
This collection sounds so good I want to rush out and buy it. But I really am trying not to add to my short story book collection until I have read some of the ones I have now. One strategy is to put it on a list for the annual book sale and then if it doesn't show up there in a year or two, look for a copy.
I am trying like heck not to go to the book sale this year. Half the books will be ones I donated. But it is a terrific community for great books. EUPHORIA was a popular King novel( not the TV show).
Thanks for mentioning Euphoria, Patti. One description says it is based on a time in anthropologist Margaret Mead's life. In college I took several anthropology courses and read a lot of books by and about Mead. This one is definitely going on the wish list.
Post a Comment