The Cusp of Something

by Jai Clare (Goodreads author)

book data

9 ratings, 4.67 average rating, 2 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		66%
4		33%
3		0%
2		0%
1		0%

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published

October 30th 2007 by Elastic Press

binding

Paperback, 200 pages

isbn

0955318130 (isbn13: 9780955318139)

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 33)

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04/17/09

Heather Fowler rated it:

bookshelves: people-i-know

A long-time fan of Jai Clare's fiction, I was first exposed to her stories in the 1990s--but I couldn't be more thrilled to see this collection of them on my shelf. When I got it in the mail recently, I had a Jai Clare-fest and felt like I greeted an old friend to see her work in such abundance in my hands. Her stories, much like Angela Carter's, have a racy erotic edge to them, a dangerous glimmer, and a satisfying gloss of the startlingly ephemeral. (Also, this book is a great length for a ...more

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12/13/07

Jim rated it:

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: People who like a bit of poetry in their prose

It is easy when you start reading through this book to think you're reading a book by someone else, and yet, at the same time, Jai Clare has obviously absorbed a great deal of literature from which she crafts her own stories. Some of these are very brief, no more than a couple of pages and feel like more like prose poems; others are set in foreign lands and have mythological undertones; still others deal with sexuality, both male and female, graphically: I noted Jeanette's Winterson's influence ...more It is easy when you start reading through this book to think you're reading a book by someone else, and yet, at the same time, Jai Clare has obviously absorbed a great deal of literature from which she crafts her own stories. Some of these are very brief, no more than a couple of pages and feel like more like prose poems; others are set in foreign lands and have mythological undertones; still others deal with sexuality, both male and female, graphically: I noted Jeanette's Winterson's influence and AL Kennedy, and even a touch of Nabokov and I'm sure there will be other writers I'm not as familiar with.

But she is not Winterson or Nabokov or any of the other writers that will doubtless spring to mind when you read through these short stories; she has her own voice (or voices, to be honest). Evocative is not necessarily derivative or imitative. There are stories about men, women and children; some are barely visible, pencil sketches if your like, others have depth, colour and character, a reality you might not expect a few words on a page to be able to convey. Not all make easy reading due to the subject matter (the rape at the end of 'Mad Angels', although not graphic, is disturbing), with others, it is her approach to the subject matter, refusing to spell everything out for her readers; this is especially evident in the short pieces. None of her characters seems particularly satisfied with their lives, from the wealthy competitive cousins in 'Ramblista' to the island-(and-bed)-hopping woman in 'More Moments of Sheer Joy'. Some of the stories are set in foreign locations which accentuate the alienation these individuals feel. They are all looking for something, a lost city, love, validation or answers to question they hardly know how to answer; in that respect she has a lot in common with AL Kennedy.

The collection is variable, at least in style. The quality is not. The problem with the collection – and this is a problem all editors face when compiling a short story or poetry anthology – is finding stories that work together and, to be blunt, not all of these do. The dark story 'Shallow Shore' in particular, although very good, seems a little out of place, but that's a small gripe.

As a first collection this is great. I would really like to see what she might do with a novel.

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