The News From Ireland, Tin Man and The Comforters

Although William Trevor is called one of the greatest ever short story writer, I find the format is like a snack rather than a meal, instantly forgettable. I just cannot keep them in my memory for any length of time. Many of the twelve here are quite harrowing, another reason why I only read one a week.

Sometimes you want to hear a lot more than the twenty pages. "Her Mother's Daughter" being one such story. However, Trevor's prose is as superb as ever: "As a vacuum-cleaner sucks in whatever it touches, he had drawn her into a world that was not her own; she had existed on territory where it was natural to be blind - where it was natural, too, she must dutifully console a husband as he was not a success professionally". And instead of the usual "to make ends meet", he writes "And he knew that ends had to be made to meet".
Although William Trevor is called one of the greatest ever short story writer, I find the format is like a snack rather than a meal, instantly forgettable. I just cannot keep them in my memory for any length of time. Many of the twelve here are quite harrowing, another reason why I only read one a week.

Sometimes you want to hear a lot more than the twenty pages. "Her Mother's Daughter" being one such story. However, Trevor's prose is as superb as ever: "As a vacuum-cleaner sucks in whatever it touches, he had drawn her into a world that was not her own; she had existed on territory where it was natural to be blind - where it was natural, too, she must dutifully console a husband as he was not a success professionally". And instead of the usual "to make ends meet", he writes "And he knew that ends had to be made to meet".
Although William Trevor is called one of the greatest ever short story writer, I find the format is like a snack rather than a meal, instantly forgettable. I just cannot keep them in my memory for any length of time. Many of the twelve here are quite harrowing, another reason why I only read one a week.

Sometimes you want to hear a lot more than the twenty pages. "Her Mother's Daughter" being one such story. However, Trevor's prose is as superb as ever: "As a vacuum-cleaner sucks in whatever it touches, he had drawn her into a world that was not her own; she had existed on territory where it was natural to be blind - where it was natural, too, she must dutifully console a husband as he was not a success professionally". And instead of the usual "to make ends meet", he writes "And he knew that ends had to be made to meet".

After loving Trevor's novel "Felicia's Journey", I am sticking to more of those and have "The Children of Dynmouth" on order and "Fools of Fortune" on my reading list.

It is not unusual to hear the phrase "there were three people in this marriage", but Sarah Winman's third novel describes a love affair that involves the boyhood friends Ellis and Michael with Annie who loves them both in different ways. The author deals with the subject with great sensitivity, simple but powerful prose and a story that draws you closely into the lives of the three main characters. How can the writing be so simple and at the same time be quite spine tingling.

There is a secondary relationship between Ellis and his 76 year old father's partner Carol. Fraught and distant to begin with, but over the years they become enormously fond of each other. This was a brilliant little sideshow. The book contains many switches in time and only just keeps things together. This was my first book by this author but will not be my last.

Muriel Spark's first novel is less satisfying than her other four books I have read. The first half was fine, well up to the standard of her later novels. Her idiosyncratic writing is a pleasure, full of wit and fun.
"For one who demands much of life, there is always a certain amount of experience to be discarded as soon as one discovers it's fruitlessness". 

And later "Well, Georgina hasn't changed. Still the psychological thug she always was".

However, the second half becomes a rambling mess, the two main characters from the first almost completely disappear and those that remain are annoying and of little interest. We lose any kind of plot and the aspects of religion (Catholicism) are woven in a boring jumble. I guess as a first attempt at the type of writing for which Spark became famous, it wasn't bad.