Here ye, hear ye, hear ye! Amor Towles writes short stories that are perfection! Each story is compelling, has characters dropped in fully formed, hasHere ye, hear ye, hear ye! Amor Towles writes short stories that are perfection! Each story is compelling, has characters dropped in fully formed, has sublime prose, contains pitch perfect dialogue, is full of wit, elicits smiles and chuckles from this reader, and has an unexpected and absolutely perfect ending!
The Six Short Stories:
"The Line" is a seemingly simple parable of a couple who moves from the country to Moscow to New York City. It can be enjoyed at it's face value, an ambitious woman married to a simple, aimiable man who just happens to do the right thing at the right time. Or it can be viewed another way. The timeline is 1916 to 1929. Running parallel to Towels' story are the Russian Revolution (Pushkin and Irina move to the City), the Civil War and the famine of 1921 (the lack of food and medicines), the Kronshtadt Rebellion, Lenin's New Economic Policy (Pushkin and Petya's entrepreneurship), and the Great Breakup (Pushkin and Irina's leaving Russia and their personal breakup).
Told in Towles' unique style, he reminds us that we all have our roles to play, and they all have value. After all:
"The wisdom of the peasant is founded on one essential axiom: while wars may come and go, statesmen rise and fall, and popular attitudes wax and wane, when all is said and done a furrow remains a furrow."
"The Ballad of Timothy Touchett" is a delightful satire from beginning to end. A lot of the pleasure here comes from Towles' attention to detail. Poor Timothy aspires to be a great novelist, but "how could one expect to craft a novel of grace and significance" when nothing of any consequence has ever happened to one? Be careful, Timothy, of what you wish for.
"Hasta Luego" is a carefully crafted story told with wit and humor. Two men who meet standing in line about cancelled flights in LaGuardia Airport are exiled together to the Grand Hyatt Hotel when their rebooked flights don't take off until the following day. Jerry becomes enmeshed in Smitty's life. Towles reminds me of the importance of human connection and asks how much responsibility do we have for another human being?
"I Will Survive" is an artful impression of a marriage. What brings you joy? And what happens if your partner doesn't share your passion or you are reluctant to even share what that is?
A curse and a sublime classical music experience blend to make "The Bootlegger" an outstanding tale. Irony anyone?
"The DiDomenico Fragment" takes me inside the Skinner family, informs me about the Annunciation in European Renaissance art, generates laughs/snorts, provides a small dose of cynicism/snark, and leaves me perfectly satisfied.
The Novella:
Eve in Hollywood takes up half the real estate in the book. Part satire, part noir with a feminist twist, Towles' wit sparkles through his heroine Evelyn Ross. This novella picks up her story where Rules of Civility left off. There is also enough room here for some of Towles' philosophical musings on life and how to keep moving forward as well as thoughts on power and money.
Table for Two is a not to be missed collection whether you are a fan of Towles' novels, or not, for it is storytelling at its best.
These adjectives describe the exquisite fabric and this novella. The deceptively simple taleSilk - smooth, supple, lustrous, soft, delicate yet strong
These adjectives describe the exquisite fabric and this novella. The deceptively simple tale begs to be read slowly and with care or its meaning will slip through your hands. It is a tale of erotic obsession and deep and abiding love.
Set in 1861, the history is barely sketched in as a framework for this tale. The sections that repeat give a rhythm to this framework and add to the drama of the story. The prose is spare and pared down to the essential, like reading haiku. The prose changes in the letter of chapter 59; while still poetic, the writing is more fleshed out and evocative here.
There are no interior monologues, no author-given window into the characters. Anything the reader deduces will have to be teased out of the broad watercolor strokes with which this story is painted.
And what do Hervé Joncour and I come to realize by the end? Ah, you will have to read Silk if you wish to know.
Thank you again dear Jennifer for gifting loved books to me.
The List is a tasty snack in the Slough House series. A novella, it doesn't have the heft of the novels. Herron introduces a few new charact3. 5 Stars
The List is a tasty snack in the Slough House series. A novella, it doesn't have the heft of the novels. Herron introduces a few new characters and has written some fabulous scenes for Lady Di. Jackson Lamb is in the background here; and while I know he'd overshadow everyone in such a short piece, I find myself missing his larger than life presence in a bigger role. I'm eagerly looking forward to my next adventure with the Slough House gang.
There has been a good deal written already about this novella so I'll be brief. Keegan really understands children. She writes from the point of view oThere has been a good deal written already about this novella so I'll be brief. Keegan really understands children. She writes from the point of view of this little girl and nails it. Her minimalist style gets right to the heart of things and packs an emotional wallop. If you haven't yet done so, read this story!
Flood's novella The Salt Fields is set in 1947 during the Great Migration. Minister, Carvall, Divinion, and Lanah are escaping Sou3.5 Stars rounded up
Flood's novella The Salt Fields is set in 1947 during the Great Migration. Minister, Carvall, Divinion, and Lanah are escaping South Carolina and their pasts; they are hoping for new possibilities and opportunities in New York. Though told in the first person from Minister's POV, Flood vividly creates the other main characters through their actions and dialogue. Flood puts me in that train car.
"The train rattled, metal jolting metal, as cinders and traces of coal streaked the windows--each flake the color of pepper, carrying its sharp scent throughout the coach; you had to blink through the fog of heat, noise, sweat, and conversation to maintain your bearings."
These are four people seated together with nothing in common except the color of their skin which binds them by the history of slavery and the ongoing lynchings and disrespect that is a way of life in the Jim Crow South. During the course of the trip, the characters get off the train during stops, sometimes for long periods of time. During these sections Flood slowly builds tension; and the characters, and I, experience discomfort."People disappear in the South, one way or another. In the Black sections it's rare when anyone goes searching for them . . ." This terror has become normalized in Flood's South.
Despite the brilliant writing, I am not totally satisfied. There are a couple of scenes, though vividly written, that I don't completely understand; it feels to me that Flood leaves out a crucial bit. Perhaps a few more pages might have made the difference. This work is a great debut novella and I will definitely read other work by this author.
The Salt Fields shines a light on hope and sets me wondering what happens next and it definitely resonates with what's happening in our world today.
“You lift one foot, put it in front of the other, and then repeat until you’re someplace else. Someplace you’d rather be. It’s about renewal.”...more
There are so many things to love about this novella.
One is Larson's vivid writing.
“Chicago. August. A brilliant day, hot, with a brutal staring sun poThere are so many things to love about this novella.
One is Larson's vivid writing.
“Chicago. August. A brilliant day, hot, with a brutal staring sun pouring down rays that were like molten rain. A day on which the very outlines of the buildings shuddered as if in protest at the heat. Quivering lines sprang up from baked pavements and wriggled along the shining car-tracks. The automobiles parked at the kerbs were a dancing blaze, and the glass of the shop-windows threw out a blinding radiance. Sharp particles of dust rose from the burning sidewalks, stinging the seared or dripping skins of wilting pedestrians. What small breeze there was seemed like the breath of a flame fanned by slow bellows.
Published in 1929 when there was a massive migration of southern rural African Americans to the northern cities, Passing asks some interesting questions about race. Is race inherent or genetic? Is race really binary, white or black? or is it more fluid? At what point does passing make you an outsider to the community? How is race constructed and performed? How does skin color factor into race?
Passing is a character driven story. Larson's protagonists are childhood neighbors who reconnect as adults through a chance meeting. Irene is a light-skinned middle class black woman, wife of a black doctor, and a volunteer with the Negro Welfare League. Claire is a light-skinned bi-racial woman passing as white, wife of a wealthy white racist. The story told in the third person from Irene's point of view depicts the evolution of their relationship-- one full of love, longing, and jealousy.
Larson's writing propelled me quickly through her story and totally surprised me with the ending.
Thank you to my GR friend James for nudging me to read this one before watching the Netflix movie....more
William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow is a work of autobiographical fiction. Maxwell weaves together two stories of grief and loss: a boy reactiWilliam Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow is a work of autobiographical fiction. Maxwell weaves together two stories of grief and loss: a boy reacting to the death of his mother from the flu in 1918 and the fictionalized murder-suicide involving the family of a boy the narrator becomes friends with for a short time. The narrator, as an adult, is looking back trying to piece together what he knows to make sense of the past and to assuage his guilt for not reaching out to help Cletus as he wished others had helped him when he was being bullied.
Maxwell's prose is sparse, each word carefully chosen; I can feel the restraint, as if all of the emotions are bubbling under the surface. This writing style, coupled with the intertwined storytelling, maintain the tension throughout the novella.
I appreciate how Maxwell uses the symbolism of the house under construction and of Alberto Giacometti's sculpture The Palace at 4 a.m. (another piece which I have admired at my beloved MoMA). https://www.moma.org/collection/works...
While this is mostly a sad story, there are moments of simplicity and lightness.
“Sometimes she [Aunt Jenny] goes out to work as a practical nurse, and comes home and sits by the kitchen table soaking her feet in a pan of hot water and Epsom salts. When she gets into bed and the springs creak under her weight, she groans with the pleasure of lying stretched out on an object that understands her so well.”"
I can so relate to this. After a few hours working in the yard there is nothing I like better than an Epsom salt soak in the tub. And my bed, I never sleep as well anywhere else. At the end of a long day, finding my spot is bliss.
This book has been on my list for quite a while. Thanks Albert and Mark for giving me the nudge to finally read it.
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