short stories
More things in heaven and earth …
Well, the more I read on in the book I mentioned last week – A Twist of the Knife by Peter James – not only did I find I understood the structure of the stories, and even enjoyed a few (!), but I learned something new about the author.
Peter James is usually acclaimed for his crime writing and famous for his principal character, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace (currently back on our small screens, on ITV, with a 17-episode series, called simply Grace). But I’ve now discovered he – James not DS Grace – spent a long time doing in-depth research into the paranormal for his spooky novels written in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Twist of the Knife includes both fact and fiction arising from that phase, some of it distinctly disturbing. The research involved interviewing people who had experienced inexplicable things as well as professionals engaged in dealing with supposed hauntings, and he’s used their accounts to good effect in his own writing. Who knew?!
Perhaps it was worth persisting with this strange book after all! But it’s definitely not one to retain on my own bookshelves.
Whirlwind weeks
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks: travelling, visiting stately homes …
… attending a conference, preparing sundry talks and articles, dealing with an ongoing difficult situation, celebrating a milestone birthday, even trying my hand at curling!
So a book of short stories slotted in in spare moments nicely: Peter James‘ A Twist of the Knife bought for £1 in a charity shop.
Short stories largely remain a mystery to me and I’m still struggling to analyse the key components that make them work. Big sigh. I am trying, honestly I am. And for the first time I understood the structure of a small number of these stories. Perhaps there is hope …!
Rankin short stories
Best selling Scottish author Ian Rankin began his life as a writer with short stories, and he still tends to write short stories in between full length books to try to get the big characters out of his head and system. It’s a format he likes; a good discipline experimenting with narrative voices, structure and economy with words. There’s no place for fat on a story: it has to be lean and fit.
But I have to confess the essence of a good short story eludes me. What exactly constitutes ‘pared back’? I’m not sure. I remember being mystified by that part of my writing course. When it works perfectly I can see what’s needed, but much of the time I just don’t get it.
However, there’s a lot going on in our house right now so I wanted something I could dip into. These stories, spanning a decade or more of Rankin’s illustrious writing career, just filled the spaces in between appointments and activities.
The tales in Beggars Banquet are crime stories and cleverly constructed with devious plots – indeed several have won prestigious prizes. These ones have been collected from magazines, radio and journals.
The best ones for me were the Detective Inspector John Rebus tales – probably because I know his backstory so he comes as a rounded fully-fledged character. I especially appreciated his take on politics: His attitude had always been: don’t vote, it only encourages them. And I can still enjoy those occasional sparkling sentences. My favourite this time was:
The tenement stairwell smelt of deep-fried tomcat.
But I’m in no rush to repeat the exercise any time soon. Give me a 600 page doorstopper that drags me in, engages my emotions, keeps me guessing and turns the pages without effort.