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Love Songs For the Shy and Cynical
The first love song in the world, as composed by a pig in the Garden of Eden…
The Devil, alarmed when his hobby of writing romantic fiction begins to upstage his day job…
A man finding love with someone who has an allergy to his happiness, another losing love altogether when his wife gives him back his heart in a Tupperware box…
By turns macabre and mo...more
The Devil, alarmed when his hobby of writing romantic fiction begins to upstage his day job…
A man finding love with someone who has an allergy to his happiness, another losing love altogether when his wife gives him back his heart in a Tupperware box…
By turns macabre and mo...more
Paperback, 230 pages
Published
2009
by Big Finish
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It has been around one -and-a-quarter years since I first heard of Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, when it won the Edge Hill Readers’ Prize. I didn’t really know who Rob Shearman was (I’ve learned since that, amongst many other things, he wrote the episode of Doctor Who that introduced the Daleks to the revived series); but seeing him speak at the BSFA AGM later in 2010 only increased my interest in reading his work. Now I’ve finally done so, and more fool me for taking this long.
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Robert Shearman returns with a thoughtful set of short stories about modern love. He has a unique voice that combines the macabre with notes of poignancy and humour. That comedy often comes from the rational way his absurd notions play out in a very English world of reserve and a desire to accommodate. He is well aware of the way that even the greatest dramas of our lives have mundane details written through them like the lettering in seaside rock. The Times Literary Supplement reviewer quoted a...more
This collection starts with 'Love Among the Lobelias', a very funny story involving the devil as a romantic fiction author. The next story, 'Roadkill' is touching, funny, creepy and ultimately ambiguous. 'Sweet Nothings', the story of a love-sick pig in the garden of Eden has everything I look for in a short story: tenderness, humour, originality and surprise. 'Pang' provides creepy/surreal/every-day contrasts and the grotesque ending is satisfying in a way that surprised me.
I read 'This C...more
I read 'This C...more
I wanted to like this book a bit more than I did. Some of the stories here are very inventive, some are very funny, some - ultimately - are very sad, yet - like Shearman's Tiny Deaths - I also found a lot of them very 'samey'. Especially in the conversational style of prose. Knowing Shearman started life as a playwright (well, perhaps not from birth but his writing life) is telling, because these would work very well as monologues (and having heard Shearman read from his most recent book - Every...more
86/100
Shearman's writing is lyrical, concise and moving. These stories are all about love, but none of them are soppy or clichéd. Almost all of them left me feeling a little haggard and sad, but in a good way. Love is many things, but straightforward is rarely one of them. Shearman's stories couldn't be described as straightforward either. One or two of them totally blew my mind, and I have no idea what they were about, but I know they were good and they were a lot cleverer than I am. ...more
Shearman's writing is lyrical, concise and moving. These stories are all about love, but none of them are soppy or clichéd. Almost all of them left me feeling a little haggard and sad, but in a good way. Love is many things, but straightforward is rarely one of them. Shearman's stories couldn't be described as straightforward either. One or two of them totally blew my mind, and I have no idea what they were about, but I know they were good and they were a lot cleverer than I am. ...more
A beautiful collection of short fiction from the exceedingly talented Rob Shearman who, it seems, can put barely a foot wrong. Funny, heartbreaking, playful, thought-provoking and sometimes just downright strange ... each and every one of these tales will linger with you long after you've finished them. Shearman is a writer who employs words with surgical skill. Highly, highly recommended, as is his previous collection, Tiny Deaths.
Okay so I got the book thanks to Mr Shearman's involvement with Doctor Who. I'm not ashamed and I'm sure Rob would be pleased that fans find their way to his writing in this fashion. Love Songs is a very readable collection, at times macabre and at times poignant but whatever the story you are compelled to keep reading. My favourite...One Last Love Song - which validates that age old idiom...always save the best until last!!!!
This book was a delight. The introduction nails it -- this books is light. Light in the touch of the author, light in the way a master artisan makes three strokes when a journeyman spends a night chiseling. And I agree with Shearman's own assessment that love requires short stories; each story is complete, thorough and not overburdened. I haven't enjoyed a short story collection as much, or have the stories remain in mind after finishing for a long time.
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I loved this book to bits; the conversational tone of it, the bizarre yet mundane events contained within... it's a book ABOUT love, but the stories aren't love stories, not in any traditional sense. Rob Shearman's voice comes through loud and clear here, making reading the book a strange kind of delight, like eating a box of chocolates with a guide sheet written in Swedish. You never know quite what you're gonna git!
I didn't like it as much as the first one, which would also have to do with the subject matter of love. And even though these are not your average love stories, and still full of interesting and pretty original ides (e.g. the trees), or idea you really hoped someone would take up for short stories (e.g. a person being allergic to happy people), this time around I felt like a lot of the twists and turn were rather predictable, more so than in Shearman's previous short story collection.
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Beautifully written collection of deceptively thinky short stories. Ruminations on love in its many forms. Gorgeous.
Marvellous... of course. I did not expect otherwise. I now want to make a small nation disappear.
I loved that there was a tiny story on the copyright information page. I loved other things about this collection too, but that most of all.
I bought this last Saturday at an event in Orlando and actually had several really nice chats with the author. He was also kind enough to sign the book for me. These short stories are deftly and gently written with razor-sharp edges of darkness and comedy. Absolutely brilliant.
I'm not the biggest fan of short fiction but I thought this book was marvellous
Just great! Rob Shearman again proves his talent for absolutely bonkers tales. Apart from talking pigs and disappearing countries there is also a fantastic meta story.
Read it, you'll love it!
Read it, you'll love it!
Good stuff - very "quirky", very British. Well worth a read.
It was alright, although some stories were stronger than others.
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