Miranda France
Age Shall Not Weary Them
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories
By Penelope Lively
Fig Tree 197pp £14.99 order from our bookshop
Lively by name, lively by nature: if there is one quality that unites the fifteen stories in this new collection, it is the author’s curiosity about life. Most are told from a single, female point of view, with characters musing on relationships and the events that have shaped their lives so far. The protagonists tend to be educated women – writers, artists, a copy editor, a BBC employee, an academic, a researcher, a retired spy (the title story, featuring a purple swamp hen which is resident in one of the gardens of ancient Pompeii, is a colourful exception). They are the kind of women who get invited to spend weekends in the Cotswolds at the second homes of wealthier friends who work in the City. They are adept at considering details and working out connections. They are aware of the need to make difficult accommodations in a marriage.
Given their emotional articulacy, it is particularly enjoyable to watch these women get things wrong. In ‘Theory of Mind’, Harriet’s husband explains the meaning of this phrase, which describes ‘the brain’s
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'The trouble seems to be that we are not asked to read this author, reading being a thing of the past. We are asked to decode him.'
From the archive, Derek Mahon peruses the early short fiction of Thomas Pynchon.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/rock-n-roll-is-here-to-stay
'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553