A Death in the Family by James Agee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A modern classic, reminiscent of Faulkner and Eudora Welty. Told from the point of view of a 6-year-old boy. The story of a family's struggle to deal with the sudden and inexplicable death of a father and husband.

Seeing the world through the eyes of a child, particularly a tragedy such as this, for 310 pages can be a bit of a strain. While there is much to admire, I was glad to be finished with the book by the last page.

It should be noted that the book, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1958, was published after Agee's untimely death. He had yet to put the finishing polish to the manuscript, which was completed by others. I didn't find any problems with this, but readers should be aware of the fact.



View all my reviews

The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story by Philip Hensher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My daughter purchased this book for me as a Christmas present while she was in London with her husband. One of the things she likes about London is the bookstores. And they contain many books that would be difficult to find in bookstores – such as they are – in the States.

This volume contains 30 stories that were previously published between the years 1997 and 2017 by authors ranging from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, as the cover states. Among readers of literary fiction will at least be familiar with Zadie Smith. So, the book serves something like the purpose of Best American Short Story and the O'Henry Prize Story series.

One of the things I noticed about the stories is that there seems to be a darkness to them that I don't find with most American writers. Things, it seems, often in badly for the stoic Brits. (Foreshadowing Brexit?)

Another thing I noticed is that the sea plays a part in at least two of the stories. Although the United States has thousands of miles of shoreline, rivers seem to play a bigger part in American stories, while the sea rarely does, at least in contemporary fiction. In one of the stories, a pier collapses, and more than 60 people lose their lives. In another a father and son are traveling on an extremely large ferry, which rams a small sailing boat in an extremely dense fog.

Overall, the book is a nice addition to my collection of short story volumes and illustrates that the short story form is alive and well in Britain as it is in the U.S. even though readership is notably down in both countries.



View all my reviews