Reviewed by N.J. Cooper
Hermione Lee gives detailed synopses of all Stoppard’s plays, even the least significant, setting each one in the context of his life and ideas, as well as other work being produced at the time, some of which inspired him or gave him ideas. She shows how hard he worked to create the opportunities that came his way. Anyone hoping for a career in the theatre (or as any kind of writer) would do well to read each page of this long life to understand what he or she is undertaking [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by Alison Burns
In ‘Flowers in Water’, Sweeney makes a whole story out of a man’s devotion to making invisible films. When he watches these with his estranged daughter, you believe that they are seeing the same things. In ‘The Woman Whose Child Was A Very Old Man’, a revolutionary and perfectly effective solution to childcare is suggested. The married couple in ‘The Chair’ develop a routine that helps them to deal with their anger (Doris Lessing would have loved this one) [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by Lesley Glaister
Hannah Mole is brave, well-meaning, optimistic and warm-hearted as well as being gloriously, humanely and realistically flawed. Hannah is nearing forty and hardly a beauty, having sallow skin, ‘a satirical nose’ and a questionable wardrobe. She’s one of the class of women, who, having no husband or home of her own, is forced to move from situation to situation, the predicament of so many women of her class: ‘A sad multitude … with carefully pleasant faces, hiding their ailments, lowering their ages and thankfully accepting less than they earned’ [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by Alison Burns
Kara is shaping up to be a most appealing character: strong, observant, conflicted, lonely. Her mother and grandmother (‘Nana’) don’t get on, partly perhaps because Eloise herself got pregnant at 17 – a fate Eloise is determined to spare her daughter. Nana spends her time when she’s not at church obsessively cooking and vacuuming; when her obstinate husband (Kara’s grandfather) turns up, she ignores him and refuses to feed him. Everybody else shouts and screams, while food is forced upon them [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by Elizabeth Hilliard Selka
Blasted Things is a clever title. It references explosions on the battlefield, relevant to the field hospital setting and personnel, but the phrase is also a slang expression of dismissal which one might use referring to any object or possession or garment which is in the way or a nuisance or unfit for purpose. In her PTSD distress, Clementine herself feels detached, dislocated and unfit for the life to which she has returned, a life in which it is men who ostensibly call the shots and shape the narrative [Read more...] in Reviews
Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner
The gift of Hamid’s father’s ashes in a peppermint tin, which the son must carry around in his pocket – Hamid has been tasked with taking them back to Iran for burial – is but one of the bitter notes of humour and lingering symbols to be found in this melancholy but fully-fleshed portrait of inescapable taint. Hamid’s account of becoming the man he is offers no exculpation. Instead his ashy vision wraps all the characters in a cloak of greater or lesser complicity, misfortune and corruption [Read more...] in Reviews
