Customer Reviews

Lying in Bed

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my book of the year (so far). The characters all seem like people I know and I had to keep turning the pages to find out what fates awaited them all. Fantastic descriptions of heartaches and children and love affairs gone awry. Funny, gripping and genuinely moving, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys serious fiction that doesn't take itself too seriously.

I have just finished reading Polly Samson's Lying in Bed and I think that her stories are as good as any I've ever read. Margaret Atwood and Helen Simpson have always been my favourite short story writers and now I must add Polly Samson to the list. The way she treats sex and love is so well-observed and spikey that I had to keep reading passages aloud to my friends and I agree with the reviewers who compare her to Roald Dahl: there's always a sting in the tale. I recommend this book to anyone.

Samson's descriptions are a little "writing class". I think she still needs to learn how to make sure that the descriptions don't distract from the story. For example, one character was described as having eyes like mussels, and I took a 30 second break to think what she could possibly have meant by that...

however, the stories and the sentiments are brilliant. Quite biting, with bordering-on-macabre twists. Good fun to read, especially for women. I'm planning on reading her other two books on the strength of this.

I was so impressed by Polly Sampson's most recent book of short stories that I ordered the back catalogue. The first story in this book has an event so shocking I gasped out loud, well almost, on the bus. Don't miss it.

I very much liked this book. The stories are intelligent and rather quirky, and I was vaguely reminded of O. Henry more than once. I get the feeling that Polly Samson is sharing a good bit of herself in these stories, and after reading them, I would love to meet her.

A book of great stories with a twist. Dipped in an our while on holiday. A good read, but nothing exciting .

I actually threw this book accross the room because it annoyed me so much.

These short stories did absolutely nothing for me. Was this just an excercise for Polly Samson to show us what a 'weaver of words' she is? It is true to say that her grip of the English language is wide but does that mean we should all be ransacking thesaurus every few minutes.

Not one of these stories had a story to tell. There were no beginninings, middles or ends and I came away feeling cheated.

It took all I could muster to begin the last story 'Lucky' and I could have thrown my hands in the air and thanked god because here, finally was the real talent that Polly Samson had threatened to unveil from page one.

'Lucky' was beautifully written and captured me from the first line: You always look like Caesar in the bath.

If you buy Lying In Bed then skip straight to page 201 (hardback)because you won't be missing much before then.

As an end note, I also have to say that I have since read Out Of The Picture, Polly's second book and I would rate it as one of the top five books of all time. I would even suggest it as a Pulitzer Prize nominee.

Stick to the novels Polly.

The only story worth reading is the last one, "Lucky". It is completely unlike the others because it is obviously based on true events in her life. It is a wonderful story that reveals her gift, not for formulating stories, but for telling them. This story was the promise of literary greatness that was realized in her second book "Out of the Picture", also clearly based on actual events with slight modifications. She has a special talent, it's just not for writing fiction.