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What Becomes [Paperback]

A. L. Kennedy (Author)
2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Book Description

Publication Date: 5 Aug 2010

A.L. Kennedy's fifth collection of short stories show us exactly what becomes of the broken-hearted. Her characters are perfectly ordinary people - whose marriages founder; who sit on their own in a cinema watching a film with no soundtrack; who risk sex in a hotel with an anonymous stranger or who order a luxurious meal as their lives fall apart - but the stories she weaves around them are truly remarkable.

She reveals the sadness, violence, hurt and terror, but also the redemption and the love - and she does so with enormous human compassion and leaps of black humour.

From the winner of the Costa Book Award for Day.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (5 Aug 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 009949406X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099494065
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.4 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 325,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

"The hardest thing about the advent of a new collection of stories by A L Kennedy... is the search for synonyms for 'brilliant'. Her uncanny dialogue is as note-perfect as J D Salinger's her vision as astutely bleak as Alice Munro's, and her ability to summon up a society in a few strokes rivals William Trevor's" (Spectator )

"A first-rate collection" (Sunday Telegraph )

"A.L.Kennedy really dazzles, yet again, in her exceptional new collection" (Independent on Sunday )

"Kennedy's new stories continue the courageous anatomy of emotional pain that has always been at the centre of her writing. Sometimes stomach churning, bleak and humorous in turn, she is rightly viewed as one of the most brilliant and eccentric writers of her generation" (Ruth Scurr The Times )

"If you are at all interested in contemporary fiction, this is work you must not miss" (Richard Ford )

Review

‘AL Kennedy manages to convey an edgy modernity within relatively standard narrative forms … written with the tonal meticulousness of genuine literature’ - Financial Times, Lionel Shriver

‘achieves more powerful gut punches in its 217 pages than many novels manage in triple the length…Kennedy has produced another stunning, impressive and genuinely enjoyable collection, hard not to be charmed by’ - Scotland on Sunday, Claire Sawers

‘achingly intimate, acutely observed stories from the Costa Book Award winner’ - Woman & Home, Fanny Blake --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews

2.7 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
2.7 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Dark and depressing 3 Aug 2011
By Clive A. H. Still TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a very mixed bag of short stories, dark in content, depressing to read and not always clear in purpose. There are perhaps three or four which are of the standard one assoicates with this author but parts seem over-written (e.g. "blood ... large, symmetrically rounded drops indicative of low velocity and a perpendicular descent, and haloing every drop was a tiny flare of threads").

There are a few lines which will appeal to anyone who has dealt with children - the young boy, made to clean up before eating, "washing his hands with the air of a weary surgeon" or the mother who "wondered which of her threats they would remember, which would be useful and which scar".

The three most interesting stories are Marriage, which like a Roald Dahl story, holds its punch for the finale, As God Made Us, in which the author celebrates supportive male friendship, then twists the story savagely at the end and Another, the most optimistic of the twelve.
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars What becomes (of this book?!) 30 May 2011
By Hugh
Format:Paperback
I bought this book at the Edinburgh book festival 2010, and have only got round to reading it now, since lending it to my daughter first. My daughter keeps books for a VERY long time!

Anyway, having read through the first 3 stories, I am quite bored. It seems to be nothing more than a collection of observational descriptions, and leaves me quite dissatisfied. I wanted stories that made me think, made me feel something......a connection.

This book makes me feel that it is based on a series of writing prompts given by a high school teacher.
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11 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic varied stories 28 Aug 2009
By J. Thompson
Format:Hardcover
A great collection of short and varied stories that each revealed a great deal about the characters involved. Thoughtful and well rounded stories that are quick to read and easy to pick up.
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