This weakness is worse than debilitating; it is turning me into a hollow man, all shell and no centre. I remember when Fanny was taking care of me during my convalescence at Wentworth Place, and the tone of her voice, and the philosophical musings she used to air: ‘Is there another Life? Shall i awake and find all this a dream? There must be, we cannot be created for this sort of suffering.’
Oh, Fanny, if only you knew! We are created for precisely this sort of suffering. In the end, it is all we are, these limped tide pools of self-consciousness between crashing waves of pain. We are destined and designed to bear our pain with us, hugging it tight to our bellies like the young Spartan thief hiding a wolf cub so it can eat away our insides. What other creature in God’s wide domain would carry the memory of you. Fanny, dust these nine hundred years, and allow it to eat away at him even as consumption does the same work with its effortless efficiency?
Glad i took the chance on this, while not as impressive as the first book it still left me breathless. Thanks to @Dr_Faustus for easing my concerns!
Part of my apparent quest to abuse the kindle unlimited subscription into absolute oblivion and read every book there as quickly as possible…
Quite liking this one as it’s a bit different, starts off looking like a mage academy series but skips that entirely, book starts with her just after graduating and completely skipping the mage mentor step and just winging it.
I have known about Dorothy Parker for most of my life. I know that she was a member of the “Algonquin Round Table,” that she contributed to the screenplays of many films I have seen, and that she is generally described as “a wit.”
But until now I have never actually read any of her writing.
I bought the book a couple of years ago at the Strand. It is from the Modern Library, published around 1960, but as far as I can tell the stories were written before 1940. When I told a friend about this book, he described Parker as “one of my favorites.”
So I was looking forward to reading some well-constructed, witty short stories. Something similar to P. G. Wodehouse, I imagined.
I was surprised to find that the stories were all bleak and depressing. There were multiple failed relationships, a few unwanted pregnancies and at least two abortions.
Well not all were depressing, I suppose. “Here We Are” was very funny.
The most interesting story was Glory in the Daytime. Interesting because it was written using what Hemingway called the Iceberg Theory — only a small portion of the story is visible to us. This was a story about a content middle-class wife, Mrs. Murdock, who has always admired theater performers. She gets an invitation from a member of her bridge club to join her the next day for tea. This bridge club member is a free-thinking artist, and she is also inviting another friend to tea who is a famous actress. When Mr. Murdock hears of this, he is grumpy and dismissive. She enthusiastically goes to the party. We realize the artist is clearly a lesbian, who is possibly a bit attracted to Mrs. Murdock. The famous actress is profoundly melodramatic and a very heavy drinker. After this brush with celebrity Mrs. Murdock is very happy to return to her home, and her husband is still grumpy and dismissive.
In the real world, there was a bizarre Congressional proposal in 1910 to import hippos and ranch them for meat. In this book, they did that in the 1850s, America had “hoppers” rather than cowboys, and it all went exactly as wrong as one might imagine. It’s a hoot, with some fun characters.
Picked this up in a charity shop.
Did 100 pages on day one, that’s how good it is.
Mind you, chapters are short, so easy to get greedy with it.
I read Erin Kelly’s He Said / She Said a few years ago and loved it.
Not finished this one yet, but proving to be up there with the best I’ve read this year.
I enjoyed both A Light From Uncommon Stars and Dreadnought. I’d sought both out specifically because I wanted to read about trans characters written by people who would really know their perspectives. I learn a lot through fiction
I get the hype! It’s really good - lean prose, full of interesting ideas and unique characters, and a riveting page turner of a plot. Also, unsettlingly scary!
I was hesitant because of, you know, the vampires, but so far at least it works and is actually really fucking cool!
