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Review
'Seven skilfully adrenalised stories, precise and sensual, in which the scent of violence is a constant.' -- Helen Simpson, Guardian Books of the Year >> 'Reaches a standard that makes award juries sit up and take note . . . Hall's voice is strong and distinctive even, in single, elevated passages, exquisite.' -- Lionel Shriver, Financial Times >> 'Shows her characteristic ability to cause disquiet ... Hall's sharply perceptive observations strike like slaps ... There is a deeply sensual element to her writing: it is visceral and instinctive ... It's like sinking into a Rothko painting. Language is used inventively. These are stimulating, unsettling stories... [they] intrigue and mesmerise.' -- Independent on Sunday >> 'Hall evokes her landscapes with bewitchingly vivid prose. Her writing is gutteral and visceral, and her characters are raw and sinewy ... Every one of the seven tales here delights and disturbs in equal measure. The Beautiful Indifference illustrates that short fiction is indeed a finely wrought art form, and Hall is an artist of considerable and concise skill. Each story is a gem, but together they form a collection of astonishingly sensuous power ... Hall is a writer of both rare vision and talent.' -- Sunday Times >> 'These stories constantly thwart one's dramatic expectations - and are all the more dramatic for it ... This prose, particularly when used to convey the bleakness of the Cumbrian landscape, is wonderful ... She does darkness so very well.' -- The Times >> 'Sarah Hall's four novels have already shown her to be a writer of extraordinary talents, whether in the rough magic of The Carhullan Army, about female resistance in a near-future police state, or the passionate intertwined narratives of art and identity that make up the Booker-longlisted How to Paint a Dead Man. With her first short-story collection, her writing takes another leap forward, into a landscape entirely her own ....The erotic charge of Hall's writing, its fierce physical power, coexists with her characters' sense of separation: each is a world entire, and they retain their depth, their mystery.' -- --Justine Jordan, Guardian
Book Description
A new collection of short stories by Booker-shortlisted author Sarah Hall.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the first book of Sarah Hall's I've read. It's a collection of seven stories, all from a female point of view and set mostly in the North West.
She is obviously a writer's writer.
Words are used precisely, carefully; now and then, over-preciously. She uses phrases like 'Benthic silence' and words like 'anomic'.
Her prose is serious, humourless, highly in tune with the natural world. Mink, dogs, horses, foxes, bees all feature heavily.
Her interests are in relationships, mostly between people like doctors, lawyers, academics, journalists and, I'm afraid to say, authors (though she does not write about work). The kind of people who go on holiday to slightly off beat places ( two of these stories are of the 'couple on trip get into trouble' ilk). This allows her to write sentences such as: 'She thought about the blue Arabia crockery they had seen in the antique market by the quay in Helsinki' and 'the air was heavy, greenly perfumed and the avian calls were loud and greasy.' (Greasy?)
These people's marriages have become loveless or mildly abusive. Her female protagonists run away from them or pay for the love they lack in plush hotels. It's hardly revolutionary, but it is exactly described.
Sex is an activity of the utmost earnestness: her protagonists suffer 'peculiar tearful euphoria in climax': 'the world before and after was incredibly vivid' she writes. 'The heat and the smell and closeness of him was peculiarly surrounding, amniotic. ' No one has the perfectly alright, occasional sex that sustains most relationships. Even the aged gypsy couple in the long, opening story, 'Butcher's Perfume' have unashamedly noisy couplings that turn the atmosphere 'gamier'.
The author writes little dialogue, much description. Hers are highly emotional but, thanks to her style, curiously bloodless worlds. No one watches TV or surfs the net or puts up a shelf or goes to the toilet. No one talks about politics or the state of the economy or The X-Factor. They hunt mink, order venison, swim naked in Finnish lakes.
These stories are compelling, beautifully rendered and have complex resolutions, but for me, are just a little artificial.
She is obviously a writer's writer.
Words are used precisely, carefully; now and then, over-preciously. She uses phrases like 'Benthic silence' and words like 'anomic'.
Her prose is serious, humourless, highly in tune with the natural world. Mink, dogs, horses, foxes, bees all feature heavily.
Her interests are in relationships, mostly between people like doctors, lawyers, academics, journalists and, I'm afraid to say, authors (though she does not write about work). The kind of people who go on holiday to slightly off beat places ( two of these stories are of the 'couple on trip get into trouble' ilk). This allows her to write sentences such as: 'She thought about the blue Arabia crockery they had seen in the antique market by the quay in Helsinki' and 'the air was heavy, greenly perfumed and the avian calls were loud and greasy.' (Greasy?)
These people's marriages have become loveless or mildly abusive. Her female protagonists run away from them or pay for the love they lack in plush hotels. It's hardly revolutionary, but it is exactly described.
Sex is an activity of the utmost earnestness: her protagonists suffer 'peculiar tearful euphoria in climax': 'the world before and after was incredibly vivid' she writes. 'The heat and the smell and closeness of him was peculiarly surrounding, amniotic. ' No one has the perfectly alright, occasional sex that sustains most relationships. Even the aged gypsy couple in the long, opening story, 'Butcher's Perfume' have unashamedly noisy couplings that turn the atmosphere 'gamier'.
The author writes little dialogue, much description. Hers are highly emotional but, thanks to her style, curiously bloodless worlds. No one watches TV or surfs the net or puts up a shelf or goes to the toilet. No one talks about politics or the state of the economy or The X-Factor. They hunt mink, order venison, swim naked in Finnish lakes.
These stories are compelling, beautifully rendered and have complex resolutions, but for me, are just a little artificial.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read all of Hall's work, I can say this is her best yet, and the reviews from all the major broadsheets seem to agree. These stories tell of human relationships and place them in such wonderful, real settings. The language is beautiful - as Lionel Shriver said in the FT - you find that every word you have to look up is well worth the effort. When reading Hall's work I always find myself marvelling at how she finds these words and uses language so beautifully. Here evocations of places that I know, including the Finnish countryside so well rendered in Vuotjärvi, make the reader feel great emotion, and feel that you are there.
For me the stand out piece is the Vuotjärvi as the tension builds and builds to a nearly unbearable degree by the end.
There are all types of characters in these stories, from the utterly un-posh in Butcher's Perfume, for example, to some slightly more middle class figuers in some of the other stories. It is part of Hall's amazing artistry that she can deal with rough people and rough settings with such amazing artistry. I don't feel that it matters that characters in these stories are not watching 'the X-Factor', these are stories about all types of people that are told with love, skill, precision and artistry.
When I recommend Hall's work to friends, as I frequently do, I always tell them that here is a writer who is a true artist, not someone just writing some story. Buy this book!
For me the stand out piece is the Vuotjärvi as the tension builds and builds to a nearly unbearable degree by the end.
There are all types of characters in these stories, from the utterly un-posh in Butcher's Perfume, for example, to some slightly more middle class figuers in some of the other stories. It is part of Hall's amazing artistry that she can deal with rough people and rough settings with such amazing artistry. I don't feel that it matters that characters in these stories are not watching 'the X-Factor', these are stories about all types of people that are told with love, skill, precision and artistry.
When I recommend Hall's work to friends, as I frequently do, I always tell them that here is a writer who is a true artist, not someone just writing some story. Buy this book!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found it hard to put this book down. It is beautifully, precisely written in an almost poetic style: the author is not afraid to search for and use words that we won't have come across before if they convey her meaning better. Each story plays out in the interior world of the protagonist, which is why, I suppose, another reviewer sees them as 'artificial'. I wouldn't agree that they are 'bloodless' though - blood features in several of the tales, as it happens, along with mortality and sex. All the stories look at how we relate to our physicality, and most are strongly rooted in the natural world. They all feel very visceral, and because of that have a very powerful, sometimes shocking effect. The cover blurb reckons they are erotic, but that's a bit misleading. This is brave writing - the author isn't afraid to write about taboo or frightening things. I won't forget these stories. I already want to read them again, to devour the language. It's an original, unusual collection, and ought to win prizes!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Beautiful Indifference-Sarah Hall
Some critics have panned this book-but for me the stories were fascinating and so well written. Sarah Hall's style is scholarly and she uses language thoughtfully and to great... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. C. R. J. Castell
Subtle and haunting
Sarah Hall is one of those authors who can climb inside the skin of their characters and write their stories from an internal viewpoint. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
Dark, Evocative and Compelling
This book is a collection on seven short stories, each set in a different place, each featuring the viewpoint of a different woman at a key stage of her life, and each conjuring up... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Robert Lomas
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