Company is such an apt title for this collection, because that is exactly what its stories give us: time in the company of its characters, v3.5 stars
Company is such an apt title for this collection, because that is exactly what its stories give us: time in the company of its characters, varied and interesting as they all are. Something about these slice-of-life stories feels like being at a family function, and I mean that in the best way possible: catching up with people you haven't heard from in a while, getting the 411 on who did what to whom, what happened with whom, who was wrong or right about what. There are old and young characters, brothers and sisters, mothers and daughters, aunts and cousins. Families offer so much narrative material to explore, and Company is a real testament to that. That there is a family tree in the beginning of this collection tells you all that you need to know about it. It's a collection rooted in this family tree, its interest in the ways its various branches relate to each other, in major and minor ways, directly and peripherally.
We find the characters of Company, too, in very specific moments in time: at a party to celebrate a new position as dean of a college, in the kitchen preparing food for an early Christmas dinner, at a mother's house to celebrate her birthday. And it is precisely the specificity of these moments, these carefully calibrated scenes, that allows us to get to know these characters well: how they position themselves with respect to the characters around them (ingratiating? antagonistic? wary?), how they present (or intend to present) themselves, what their priorities are, what they notice and don't notice. This is all made possible by Sanders's confident and perceptive writing, its wryness lending the stories both their sharp insight and their wit and sense of humour. And in a collection that is so centered around its characters, Sanders is able to embody the idiom of each of her characters so effectively. Some stories take only one character's point of view, while others with more ensemble casts move fluidly between each character's voice--throughout all the stories, though, each character feels distinctly like themselves.
Altogether, a great collection that I really enjoyed. My favourite stories were: "La Belle Hotentote," "Amicus Curiae," and "Birds of Paradise."...more
"Snakes" was brilliant, and I liked "Harvest" a lot, but the rest of the stories in this collection didnt leave much of an impression on me tbh. "Snakes" was brilliant, and I liked "Harvest" a lot, but the rest of the stories in this collection didnt leave much of an impression on me tbh. ...more
Loading...
