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Reader Reviews | |
Review by Ben Macnair (310121) Rating (8/10) Review
by Ben Macnair In The Current Climate looks at the effect on a workforce during a recession, and the sudden interruption of security officers escorting office manager Elaine from the office. A takeover has changed the dynamic of the office, and whatever Elaine has been up to, no good can ever come of it. Debts examines the impact an unwelcome envelope can have, and during an uncomfortable family gathering, things quickly escalate, until an agreement of sorts is reached. In Escape Artist a struggling actor is offered an exciting, lucrative opportunity, but has to weigh up the cost and toll it will take up in the rest of her life. The title story, Live Show, Drink Included is about a couple, enjoying a trip to London, and finding a show that doesn’t live up to anyone’s expectations of the theatre. Saucers of Secrets is set in a book publisher, and a lowly worker has a book, and an author foisted on her by management. The story looks at the love of literature, and story-telling, whilst also intricately weaving in other elements of human behaviour. Stranger is a very short story that examines what happens when two strangers meet on the top deck of a bus. Visitors looks at the unfulfilled life of Hazel, a single mother who named her son Brando, and looks to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton for guidance in her downtrodden life. On The Way to the Church is a story about a couple travelling, only to be waylaid by a friend’s record collection. Emotionally, the last story in the collection, Into the Valley packs the biggest punch. Grace is dying, and as her daughter in law visits her in the last week of her life, we see a lifetime of love, tender caring and regret unfolding. The stories are all well written and hang together very well as a collection. There is pathos, and humour here, as the stories examine the pleasures and pains of life in new and increasingly unusual ways. |
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