This is a fairly long story from Sally Rooney's forthcoming novel, INTERMEZZO.
A chess prodigy of 22 travels from town to town playing chess with ten local chess players at a time. In one town, he and the somewhat older woman escorting him to the event become romantically involved. We learn something of both of them. For instance, he thinks of himself on the decline as a chess player already. But mostly this is a setup for her forthcoming novel. I listened to her read it on their website, but I came away thinking it was not very satisfying as a short story. Although it did show her writing to great advantage. And I guess I was interested enough to put the book on hold at the library. I very much admired NORMAL PEOPLE.
7 comments:
That's interesting that she seems to be using the story as a setup for something else, Patti. Hmm.... I'm not sure if I'd go for that, either, although I am glad you thought it was well-written.
Your review last week (or the week before?) prompted me to get a volume of Somerset Maugham's 3-volume Collected Short Stories from the library and read "A Friend in Need." Wow, you're right. Dark. I've read Maugham's ASHENDEN spy stories and at least one other collection, but I don't mind revisiting this. (I've already read all of his plays.) Also reading the fourth Philip K. Dick collection, while waiting for the fifth from the library. And there is THE STARK HOUSE ANTHOLOGY, which George recommended a few weeks ago. So...no shortage of stories here.
Ever since I read that one, others show up on my feed. Odd, that. But they are dark. You can see why from the documentary on him.
In the '70s I read quite a bit about Maugham. Let's just say, he was not an admirable person. I read several books by his nephew Robin Maugham, including travel books, and they were quite interesting, particularly his autobiography, ESCAPE FROM THE SHADOWS. Like his uncle, he was gay, but he was open about it. He wrote THE SERVANT, which was later turned into the acclaimed film with Dirk Bogarde.
Mine's up for this week! https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2024/08/short-story-wednesday-angels-and-saints.html
So, Patti, the story is more excerpt from her novel, or does it have the feel of a story that was expanded or combined with other short fiction to make the novel? In SF circles, the latter is sometimes referred to as a "fix-up", and certainly other sorts of work were published similarly, such as PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, which incorporates previously published fiction from THE PARTISAN REVIEW, ESQUIRE and NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW (IIRC, should Go Look).
I will read this short story or excerpt to see what Rooney's writing is like. Not sure if I would like her novels or not.
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