A new collection of stories from A. S. Byatt is always a winner, and this one takes an unexpected turn, bringing shivers as well as delights. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women walk into a forest, as they did when they were girls, confronting their fears and memories and the strange thing they saw in their childhood - or thought they saw - so long ago. A distinguished obstetrician and young woman artist find they have sharply contrasting ideas about body parts, birth and death; an innocent member of an evening class harbours unexpected view on 'raw material'. The stories in this marvellous collection are by turns funny, spooky, sparkling and haunting. The Little Black Book of Stories holds its secrets, adding a dark quality to Byatt's famous skill in mixing folk and fairy tale with everyday life. (20031208)
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These little stories by one of Britain's foremost grandes dames of the writing world are a delightful surprise, packing a much greater punch than many full-length novels... They are moving, thought-provoking, witty and shocking all at once (Sunday Telegraph )
A cabinet of curiosities... Glitteringly beautiful. Byatt is a vivid colourist (Sunday Times )
As ever, Byatt's language has the clear intensity of a poem (Daily Mail )
Byatt is the grande dame of British fiction... Those acquainted with her previous work will recognise her fascination with the supernatural, as well as the erudition and attention to detail that are trademarks of her style (Financial Times )
Each story resembles a novel in miniature-there is a unique, experimental feel to this engaging, unsettling collection that will not hinder the author's reputation as a literary giant (Scotland on Sunday )
A cabinet of curiosities... Glitteringly beautiful. Byatt is a vivid colourist (Sunday Times )
As ever, Byatt's language has the clear intensity of a poem (Daily Mail )
Byatt is the grande dame of British fiction... Those acquainted with her previous work will recognise her fascination with the supernatural, as well as the erudition and attention to detail that are trademarks of her style (Financial Times )
Each story resembles a novel in miniature-there is a unique, experimental feel to this engaging, unsettling collection that will not hinder the author's reputation as a literary giant (Scotland on Sunday )
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'The Little Black Book of Stories is a showcase of Byatt's talents - the ideal primer for anyone who has not yet discovered A. S. Byatt, and a delight for those who have' Daily Telegraph (20031208)
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
In these five short stories Byatt once again displays her talent for making the magical out of the mundane. Byatt takes a simple cloth and embroiders it until she has a tale woven richly with mythology and allegory, and strung with references classical and modern, literary and popular. Her well-structured stories are deceptively simple. You close the book feeling satisfied but something draws you back. When you look again, the focus of the stories seem to have shifted slightly and the different facets become apparent.
In The Thing in the Forest we discover that when something terrible happens to us at a young age it can become both more real and less real than anything else in our lives. The memory of the thing begins to mould the person we become and continues to shape our actions as an adult until, for better or worse, it leads us back to the source of our terror. " 'Sometimes I think that thing finished me off,' said Penny to Primrose".
Body Art takes us to that crossroads where modern art meets the base realities of the human body and science has to contend with human emotion.
A Stone Woman is about grief and transformation: a beautifully crafted fairytale, vibrant with colour and texture, with a setting that moves from the landscape of the flesh to the landscape of Norse mythology.
"There was fresh blood on the forget-me-nots and primroses in the carpet. It was not nice." Raw Material is about words. Why do we consider some subjects more worthy of our creative attention than others? Should creative writing be therapeutic? And what precisely is 'Real writing'? Set (as is much of Byatt's work) in a literary environment, where a lacklustre lecturer discusses these issues with the unmemorable members of his creative writing class, this story winds its way to a surprising end.
The Pink Ribbon takes us into the world of poor mad Mado and her suffering husband and carer James. When one day a beautiful young woman knocks on their door begging for sanctuary, James begins to feel that she knows a little too much about them both...
Format:Hardcover
I relished this book - it has been a first rate read. The five stories need to be treated as a unified entity, and read in sequence, as they lead the imagination into a very rich, superlatively crafted labyrinth of interweaving fable, symbolism, fantasy, folk tale, and good old fashioned story telling (the sort recounted to toddlers by indulgent and highly inventive grandmothers). Realise, too, that these are not adult versions of fairy tales - the work is more sophisticated.
Of course, readers will be captivated by the imagery in these fictional narratives. But you are also going to be surprised by the quality and originality of these pieces in wholly literary terms. The precise telling of the story, the wordcraft that has gone into the sentences and phrasing, is delicious (Byatt's fourth story directly stresses the importance of prose).
And there are the themes explored. Beyond the immediate motifs of childhood, maturity, aging, and so forth, Byatt sets one thinking about what it is to be "adult", what are the limits to conventional thinking?, and do things lies beyond the ordinary physical world? Even human mortality is queried in stories that show magic can be a metaphor for unexplainable processes. Byatt seems to agree with Hamlet, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of ..." Each story finds that something else is going on behind normality: appearances are utterly deceptive, as the men in the final two stories discover. And then there is the underlying pattern that has women acting as agents for transformation... but you need to read the stories for yourself to trace that thread.
Expect to keep mulling over the ideas raised within this book after you have put it down - it is a joy to read on every level. Of course, from readers' comments I had been anticipating a work like Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, but if there are generic similarities, Byatt is a strong writer who stands on her own. And where Carter reconfigures a series of received motifs from folk tales, consciously developing an established formula, Byatt invents her own forms.
If you enjoyed LILITH'S CAVE: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural and The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories, then this book is a must for you.
Of course, readers will be captivated by the imagery in these fictional narratives. But you are also going to be surprised by the quality and originality of these pieces in wholly literary terms. The precise telling of the story, the wordcraft that has gone into the sentences and phrasing, is delicious (Byatt's fourth story directly stresses the importance of prose).
And there are the themes explored. Beyond the immediate motifs of childhood, maturity, aging, and so forth, Byatt sets one thinking about what it is to be "adult", what are the limits to conventional thinking?, and do things lies beyond the ordinary physical world? Even human mortality is queried in stories that show magic can be a metaphor for unexplainable processes. Byatt seems to agree with Hamlet, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of ..." Each story finds that something else is going on behind normality: appearances are utterly deceptive, as the men in the final two stories discover. And then there is the underlying pattern that has women acting as agents for transformation... but you need to read the stories for yourself to trace that thread.
Expect to keep mulling over the ideas raised within this book after you have put it down - it is a joy to read on every level. Of course, from readers' comments I had been anticipating a work like Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, but if there are generic similarities, Byatt is a strong writer who stands on her own. And where Carter reconfigures a series of received motifs from folk tales, consciously developing an established formula, Byatt invents her own forms.
If you enjoyed LILITH'S CAVE: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural and The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories, then this book is a must for you.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By ramblerose
Format:Paperback
Of the stories in this book, the best, in my opinion, is the Stone Woman. It is an odd, captivating story. Byatt's meticulous, evocative descriptions of the properties of different stones turns the disquieting image of the woman's transformation into something beautiful and strangely natural. This tale feels almost like folklore or a fairy tale by the end.
The other stories in this collection not as enchanting, although I would have happily bought this for the Stone Woman alone.
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