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Roof Whirl Away: Stories [Paperback]

Tom Saunders (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 180 pages
  • Publisher: Petton Books (15 Sep 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 095228135X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0952281351
  • Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 14.2 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,976,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Tom Saunders Page
Tom Saunders
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Product Description

From the Publisher

This is Tom Saunders' second collection of stories. It follows on from his well-received 2004 debut Brother, What Strange Place is This?

As we have come to expect, the stories in this book are both varied and stylish, with a whole range of vivid characters caught in moments of reverie, indecision and drama. The transformative power of art is examined in Bonny Craigallan. Shame and the political process come together in The Great House of Easement. A 19th century naturalist's final journey becomes the basis for the poignant Lasting. Sex and love and those moments where the two fail to coincide find a place in Insect Etiquette.

Those who love the endangered species known as the short story will find much to enjoy in these pages. Small worlds can be satisfying worlds and all the more pure for their concision. Lovers of good writing, whatever their preference, will, I am sure, find great pleasures here.

Tom Saunders began writing in his mid-thirties while taking a degree in English at Kingston Polytechnic. He later went on to do the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where his tutors were Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter. Many of his stories have been published in magazines and on the Internet. In 1995 he was an award winner in the Ian St James international short story competition.

Raised on London's not-so-wild western edge he now lives in rural Oxfordshire.

Customer Reviews

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4.9 out of 5 stars
7 reviews
4.9 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fine writing - not to be missed! 22 Dec 2008
By Mary McCluskey
Format:Paperback
The many admirers of Tom Saunders' debut collection of short stories, Brother, What Strange Place is This? will be delighted to discover this second collection. Roof Whirl Away again displays this writer's considerable talent and ability to engage and entertain. He is a master of the short story form. The stories range from the expertly crafted intensity of the title story to the raunchy tale of La Hooters McDade, the central character in Big.

Saunders is a lyrical writer who never loses clarity or focus. He is also a shrewd observer of the human condition. His characters are both intriguing and believable, often caught at a moment that will define or change their lives. Each story offers something new, something different, an insight, a visual that will stay in the memory.

Treat yourself, or buy this collection for someone who loves fine writing. Not to be missed.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterly Collection 13 Dec 2008
By Christine Bartram
Format:Paperback
For a masterclass in the technique and art of the short story, look no further than this collection.

Follow up to Saunders' `Brother What Strange Place is This?' (2004) these 26 short stories, often very funny, are loaded with powerful, sometimes dazzling, sometimes haunting imagery. The poetry of Saunders writing impresses. In `Sunburst Guitar' as a well-loved guitar is removed from its velvet-lined case the `blue plush gave up the Hofner with a disapproving sigh, a breath of wax polish and oiled steel.' In `Bonny Craigellan' the killer in prison turns artist, his painting of B Wing from the prison garden his favourite, `Summer grew up all around me....The cellblock wall, with its ash grey stones and steel-barred windows, loomed through a landscape...of rosebushes, of fruit trees. A prediction, I like to think, of the day when nature decides to take the place back, trees punching blue holes in the roof and wild flowers showing bright in the rubble.' Memorable stuff.

The characters won't leave you in a hurry either. They are mostly recognisable as those we've met, or feel we know: the young Betsy, determined to celebrate the sale of her first painting; the well-endowed La Hooters McDade; the fading old man Tilston. Saunders has a real understanding of people `on the edge' whether of society, of a breakdown, a break-up, or on the brink of death itself. The stories are very much their stories and even if you don't feel you know the type of character at the beginning of each story the unique poetic images Saunders uses to describe them will ensure you remember them, as you will this collection, for a very long time indeed.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Collection of Short Stories 26 Nov 2008
By Andrew Morton
Format:Paperback
It is difficult to do justice to these stories in a brief review, partly because the subject matter is so diverse and partly because Saunders shows dazzling virtuosity in his technique. These are stories that can easily be compared with the best of our generation. This quality of work can only come from a writer who is dedicated to the genre and has taken its exploration beyond conventional limits. But having spoken of the diversity of these twenty six stories, detectable themes unify the collection, especially to do with loyalty and betrayal; for this reason, very different stories, taken together, seem to form some kind of a creative whole. Often we find characters in a disturbed or disturbing psychological state, and here the writer employs the full range of irony to surprise and delight the reader. (They are often very funny.) If this all sounds a little intimidating, the style is reassuringly clear and engaging, somehow harking back to the classic tradition of the short story, so no matter how strange the themes and situations, the reader feels at home in them straight away. Tom Saunders' new collection underlines how unjustly underrated the short story is today in the eyes of publishers. As a lecturer in English and a sometime published writer of short stories, I am full of admiration. You will have to go a long way to find better writing than this.
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