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Amazon.co.uk Review
Byatt's stories simmer with a sensuality and passion which, like topiarian trees in a formal garden, are pruned and trained into cultivated shapes whilst retaining the wild scent of the orchard. In "Crocodile Tears" a woman walks away from a personal tragedy, deserting those she loves to try and reconcile herself to a death for which she feels horribly responsible. Thrown together in Nîmes with another exiled mourner, a Norwegian full of northern folktales, she ricochets between a numbed calm and a reckless urge for self-destruction. Together they begin to assemble some kind of personal solace out of fragments of European history, fiction and myth, and so come to terms with their guilt. "A Lamia in the Cevennes" is also set in France, where another isolated English exile struggles for self-knowledge amid the shards of history and folktale. "Cold" is itself a kind of latter-day fairy story of ice princesses and sighing suitors. These are stories steeped in light and colour, full of glowing landscapes and sensuous delights. Their intricately woven skeins of literary allusion and keenly observed locations bewitch the reader. Yet the figures in Byatt's landscapes seem powerless to derive pleasure or solace from their surroundings, picking their lonely way through the brilliance, carrying with them burdens of painful memories they cannot shake off. --Lisa Jardine
Product Description
In the same delectable format as the MATISSE STORIES and THE DJINN IN THE NIGHTINGALE'S EYE, this new collection deals with betrayal and loyalty, quests and longings, loneliness and passion - the mysterious absences at the heart of hte fullest lives. A scholar pursues an elusive biographer, stumbling upon buried fragments of distant lives; a woman walks out of her previous existence and encounters an ice-blond stranger from a secretive world; a schoolgirl draws a blood-filled picture of jael; a swimming pool reveals a beauteous monster in its depths. The settings range from the heart of Provence in summer to the cold forests of Scandinavia, form chalk-strewn classrooms to herbscented hillsides, from suburban streets to rocky wilds. a marvellous present for all A. S. Byatt fans, this magical collection is also the perfect introduction to one of our finest contemporary writers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This collection of six short stories, from an acknowledged master, cannot fail to delight. From the beautifully observed 'Crocodile Tears' right through to 'Christ in the House of Martha and Mary' each story is a tale well told. Elementals, although the latest, may not be the strongest of A. S. Byatt's short story collections. But it is still beyond anything that other writers are producing in this genre. To see how each story is crafted and to note the mastery of the English language is, of itself, a delight. This whole collection explains why Byatt writes and why we do not.
Format:Paperback
As with most collections of short stories, some of these were better than others. They were well-linked by the theme of isolation and the elemental focus of the stories and I thought the collection was a coherent one. The prose was beautiful, lyrical and evocative and I look forward to reading some of A. S. Byatt's longer works (I have Possession on my shelf) as I think that this will be even more evident when the author has a bit more breathing space. Although the stories are very well-written, I got the feeling that sometimes the short story medium was a little too constraining and Byatt strikes me as an expansive writer rather than a concise one.
'Cold' was probably my favourite story in the collection as it is a take on the fairytale, something which I particularly enjoy. Like Angela Carter, my favourite short story writer thus far, A. S. Byatt does this very well; I particularly enjoyed the stunning resolution. The descriptions are full of intricacy and wonder and, whereas Crocodile Tears felt very detached, emotions in this story are elemental, mercurial and often phrased as physical processes, making them seem even more powerful. I love that such a simple story can encompass such complicated themes and emotions.
'Cold' was probably my favourite story in the collection as it is a take on the fairytale, something which I particularly enjoy. Like Angela Carter, my favourite short story writer thus far, A. S. Byatt does this very well; I particularly enjoyed the stunning resolution. The descriptions are full of intricacy and wonder and, whereas Crocodile Tears felt very detached, emotions in this story are elemental, mercurial and often phrased as physical processes, making them seem even more powerful. I love that such a simple story can encompass such complicated themes and emotions.
4 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
At the behest of friends who swear by her books, I periodically return to A.S. Byatt to try and get a glimpse of what it is they find so enchanting in her work. After the weighty Babel Tower and Possession, this small volume of six stories seemed to offer a more painless approach. Once again, however, I have to confess that her dense and elaborate style, crammed full of classical and biblical references comes off the page as rather over-thought and contrived to me.
The first story, about a woman who literally runs away from her husband's death left me utterly unmoved and cold. Another story about a reclusive painter who encounters a mythical creature in his swimming pool also left me with a "so-what" emptiness. Yes, Byatt can create these dense sentences dripping with description, but it's all underpinned by a sense of ennui that I find tiresome. The longest and most conventional of the stories is a fairy tale about a princess with ice maiden blood falls in love with a desert prince, and sacrifices her health to be with him. In that context, Byatt's elaborate prose works a bit better and isn't so off-putting. However, my favorite tale is of the wife of an English businessman who gets lost in a giant Asian shopping mall. It's a funny and grotesque absurdist piece, and the only one where Byatt's style doesn't take precedence over the storytelling.
In any event, this little volume will likely appeal to Byatt's fans and do little to endear her to those-like me-who don't care for her style.
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