The latest book from last year s winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2008
The author of five previous novels, two books of non-fiction, and three collections of short stories, A.L. Kennedy's most recent book, Day, was the Costa Book of the Year. She has twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and has won many prizes including the Lannan Literary Award, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Encore Award and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. She lives in Glasgow and is a part-time lecturer in creative writing at Warwick University.
A bold new collection by relentlessly surprising Scottish author Kennedy (Day) finds her characters pinned somewhere between love and pain. In the title story, about a lone man's evening attending a smalltown cinema, the denouement comes very gradually, as it does frequently throughout, reflecting a kind of reluctant dawning of consciousness: the protagonist, a forensics expert traumatized by having seen so much carnage, has left his wife after the death of their young daughter, an event that has rendered them unable to stand the guilt and anger evoked by the other's presence. "Wasps" captures a young wife and mother as she is making a Sunday breakfast. This seemingly typical scene is frozen by the menace of the philandering husband's leaving for good and his icy treatment of his angry wife. "Saturday Teatime" depicts the panicked delayed memory shock experienced by a child listening to her father's abuse of her mother, while "Marriage" portrays the excruciating emotional and physical aftermath of a violent sexual encounter between a husband and wife. These stories are polished to perfection, full of very dark turns and exemplary of Kennedy's inventiveness. (Apr.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
Kennedy, winner of the 2007 Costa Award, here offers a dozen remarkable tales. In the title story, a man finds himself ignored at a movie theater, just as he is at home. In "Edinburgh," a man remembers his last, failed love affair and bitterly longs to leave his organic shop to be with the woman in question. "Confectioner's Gold" features Tom and his wife, Elaine, who splurge on a meal at a Japanese restaurant, though they have lost their American jobs and house and have returned to England to live with her mother. In "Marriage," what looks like a regular marital spat has darker underpinnings. Most of the stories in this collection are unrelievedly somber, but in "Another," the actor who takes on Barry Wescott's starring role in a popular children's show also captures the hearts of Barry's widow and daughter. Kennedy explores her characters by shifting through first-, second-, and third-person narrative, exposing their fallacies. Verdict Although comic in spots, this brilliant collection is finally very dark, painting a pretty bleak picture of human existence. Recommended for fans of stories by Margaret Atwood or Doris Lessing. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/09.]-Amy Ford, St. Mary's Cty. Lib., Lexington Park, MD Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
