Review: Granta’s “Going Back” (issue 111) revolves around memories – of one’s hometown, a former home, an ex-lover or friend, an idea once closely held. Some of the works are fictional while others are autobiographical. In this issue, there are several gems that I could go back time and again to read and not get tired of.
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Review: One suitcase, eight stories – each representing the bizarre events behind a certain item belonging to a Soviet émigré as well as depicting life in the USSR from the 1960s to 1980s.
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In so few words, Andrés Neuman made me laugh, sigh, frown and marvel with the multiple universes that he created in The Things We Don’t Do. The 35 stories are short with a new one appearing every few pages, sometimes even just one. While they all start on a clean slate, the emotional baggage, astute observation, or wry…
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Simple, beautiful prose by Truman Capote, presented in four short stories. While I was impressed with Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Christmas Memory is my favourite of the lot (even though I found it to be the saddest tale of the lot).
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Review: This trio of short stories packs a heady dose of surrealism and desire. Life and death is often contemplated alongside memories of women once loved or desired.
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What if you could be someone else yet retain your memory and thoughts? I recently bought a secondhand copy of Hanif Kureishi’s The Body at Nijinski. The eponymous novella, which kicks off this collection of short stories, revolves around Adam, a successful playwright in his 60s who has seen better days. Like most people of his age, he sees and feels the…
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After too much champagne and white wine earlier this week, I decided to take it easy last night. I was in bed at 8pm, reading Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman (published by Pushkin Press). I had started on this excellent collection of short stories in July, going back to it on and off over the…
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Angelina Hue 