|
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
by Peter Ho Davies
|
by Ken Follett
|
by R.J. Ellory
|
by Markus Zusak
|
by Mary Ann Shaffer
|
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Peter Ho Davies takes his title for this, his second collection of short stories, from EM Forster, writing on the "sad, strange irony" whereby children are not bound to parents as parents are to children-and "equal love" is never possible. Davies' dozen pieces all focus on this vexed parent-child bond but it is to his credit that we're never aware of his master plan. For among Davies's many talents is the ability to create each story in its own world, with its own tone, pace and style, its own reference points--even its own vocabulary. The opening, deeply moving account of a childless couple's alleged encounter with a UFO, for example, can signal its 1950s US setting with the quiet placing of just three, era-specific words: "conniption", "simonize" and "prophylactics". Entering the Chinese-American world, preparing one of their own for "The Next Life", forces a cross-cultural reconsideration of what death and "sonhood" mean.
By the end of this emotionally complex, thoughtful book, Forster's despondent certainty about unequal love seems a sweeping simplification. Although Davies's own background--Welsh-Chinese parentage, raised in Coventry, teaching in Michigan, resident in Cambridge--explains at least some of the range, it takes real talent to conjure the first-person of a young girl losing her milk teeth or an "unfit mother" recalling the smell of her stolen child's nappies. Davies won plaudits and prizes for his first collection, The Ugliest House in the World; Equal Love fully vindicates his early promise and should find him a whole host of new admirers.--Alan Stewart --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Drawing on the author's own cross-cultural inheritance, these stories range across a series of settings and backgrounds. From a Chinese son gambling with professional moumers to a mixed-race couple who experience a close encounter with an alien being, Ho Davies' characters share an instantly recognisable sense of displacement - these are children of one century, adults of the next - caught between debts to their parents and what they owe their offspring. Sharply observed and compassionate, Equal Love demonstrates the talent of a truly original writer, whose work has already earned comparison with that of Raymond Carver, James Joyce and V. S. Naipaul.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
HELEN IS TELLING the colonel about the ship now, and Henry, sitting stiffly on the sectional sofa beside his wife, can't look up. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
HELEN IS TELLING the colonel about the ship now, and Henry, sitting stiffly on the sectional sofa beside his wife, can't look up. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
77% buy the item featured on this page: Equal Love £6.99 |
 |
23% buy The Welsh Girl £4.71 |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
 |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. |
