So, so far two short story collections this year and I loved them both--the first by Tove Jansson and then the most recent stories by the inimitable Elizabeth Taylor. How to follow up after two such remarkable women writers? I could (happily) read more stories by either woman. But I have so many other collections to choose from. Here are the books I grabbed that were closest at hand and seem a reasonable length:
By the Light of the Silvery Moon edited by Ruth Petrie. This collection was compiled in honor of the 10th birthday of of the Silver Moon Women's Bookshop (sadly now defunct). This collection contains stories by a nice variety of women writers-from Elizabeth Jolley, to Lisa Alther, Liza Cody, to Shena Mackay to Hanan al-Shaykh.
A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories by Elizabeth Harrower. Harrower is an Australian writer and this collection has stories published in journals in the 1960s and 1970s. I read her story "Alice" in the New Yorker last year and was hoping to try more of her work and voila, here is the collection!
What's It Like Out? and Nobody's Business by Penelope Gilliatt. I want to try something by Gilliatt this year and what better introduction to a writer's work than by reading a few short stories? Also, I am hoping to read more Viragos (and Persephones, too), because I love the books both presses publish. I so enjoyed Elizabeth Taylor and I want something like her work, but some other view of the world. Anthony Burgess called her "highly intelligent, economical, poignant, highly contemporary."
The China Factory by Mary Costello. I have heard many good things about her and this collection. "Her prose is subtle, strong, and lyrical, while her knowledge of human nature yields memorable characters. Common themes in these stories are the shock of loneliness, the inability of people to communicate with honesty, the effects of shame, the fear of self-disclosure, and the strain of infidelity and cruelties on relationships. Through variations in style, using both male and female points of view, she depicts modern Irish lifestyles." (Booklist).
Dimanche and Other Stories by Irene Nemirovsky. I have read a few of her shorter works and one or two stories, but I seem to be collecting her books without making much of a dent in that particular pile. " Written between 1934 and 1942, these ten gem-like stories mine the same terrain of Némirovsky's Suite Francaise: a keen eye for the details of social class; the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives; the manners and mannerisms of the French bourgeoisie; questions of religion and personal identity. Moving from the drawing rooms of pre-war Paris to the lives of men and women in wartime France, here we find the beautiful work of a writer at the height of her tragically short career." I have the lovely Persephone Books edition.
Strangers by Antonia White. I have already read two of White's novels this year and would be happy to further read some of her short stories, which I suspect will be thematically similar to the Clara Batchelor quartet. "With uncompromising clarity, in her careful, delicate prose, antonia White looks at the pains and joys of growing up, of falling in and out of love, the borderlands between love and loneliness, sanity and madness, belief and the loss of faith."
The Rendezvous and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier. I have read quite a few of her short stories and I think I must own nearly all her books. She is an excellent short story writer and I recognize a few in this collection I have read before, but I am always happy to revisit her work. It has been far too long since I have read her, too.
How to choose! Of course part of the pleasure of picking a new book is comparing and contrasting and dipping into the books and seeing which clicks at the moment. And with stories you truly don't know what treats you are in store for. I only hope whichever I decide on will be as stunningly good as both Elizabeth Taylor and Tove Jansson's writing. Check back Sunday (or Monday . . .depending on how well organized I am this coming weekend) to see which will end up in my reading pile.
So many to choose from! Looking forward to finding out which one you went with :)
Posted by: Stefanie | April 21, 2016 at 12:59 PM
I have been doing really well with short story collections this year, but I own so many it gets a bit overwhelming!
Posted by: Kailana | April 21, 2016 at 03:51 PM
I don't know how you'll choose, they all sound inriguing! I expect you'll have an enjoyable time of picking each one up, reading a few lines (pages?) and then seeing which one resonates the most. A true bookish pleasure.
Posted by: Kathy | April 23, 2016 at 07:42 AM
You have an interesting set of collections to choose from!
I have read the Costello and Du Maurier collections and I am pretty sure that I have one or other of the Gilliatt collections and the Nemirovsky volume too!
I seem to do the same with the latter as you - I have quite a collection of her writing but have only read a couple of short stories and half of Suite Francaise.
Definitely must do better!
Posted by: LizF | April 25, 2016 at 06:22 AM
I think I must have started about half those books looking for just the right fit. I had set aside the Costello thinking I wanted something other than Irish lit, but in the end it is the one I chose!
Posted by: Danielle | April 26, 2016 at 07:05 AM
Me, too. I have piles of them and they all sound good but it is really hard choosing just one. I have only read two collections so far, I think. But I at least am reading at least one story a week. However, my New Yorker reading has been sadly behind. I am not sure if I can even catch up now. A story a day until I do?
Posted by: Danielle | April 26, 2016 at 07:07 AM
Part of the fun really is choosing. I love being able to open the book and read a passage here or there--start the first story and see how it grabs me. Of course too many choices can be sort of bad, too--like sensory overload. Often I have thought about it while reading/finishing a book and then automatically pick whatever has been on my mind. Hopefully the Costello, which I am reading, will prove be be as good as it sounds.
Posted by: Danielle | April 26, 2016 at 07:10 AM
I think I started Suite Francaise when it came out in cloth and borrowed it from the library--but typical library problem--couldn't renew it as it had such a long line of people. Now I own it, and it sits unopened. I have read a smattering and like her work, but I only ever seem to collect it. I hate it when I do that, and I do it a lot! I have been trying this year to pick up more of those authors I 'mean to read' but then ignore, and it has sort of been working. I have read loads of du Maurier. I think this collection has some of her lesser known or not as 'strong' stories, so I hemmed and hawed when I nearly had decided on it. I tend to do that--rather than going on my own instinct will read an Amazon review and let that sway me. You never quite know about those Amazon reviews! I don't often really trust them, but see, they still sway me.
Posted by: Danielle | April 26, 2016 at 07:14 AM