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The Destiny of Nathalie X
by
William Boyd
This new collection of eleven stories by the author of The Blue Afternoon takes readers back in time from a contemporary Hollywood film shoot to World War I in Vienna, introducing an unforgettable cast of characters. Artful, witty, moving, The Destiny of Nathalie X is a confirmation of Boyd's standing as a master storyteller. 208 pp. Author tour. 15,000 print.
From the Hard...more
From the Hard...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
February 16th 2011
by Vintage
(first published 1995)
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An aspect of William Boyd’s writing that always seems close to the surface of his work is an examination of selfishness. At the very least, his characters fulfil their self-interest. One recalls how the events of The New Confessions or Any Human Heart unfold, how in both cases the central character’s aspirations are forever paramount, often to the detriment of those he proclaims to love. But it is probably in his short stories that this theme is best illustrated and his collection, The Tragedy O...more
Eight of these well-written stories by English writer William Boyd are straightforward narratives; the other three—including my favorite, the title story—are less conventional. Nine are set in Europe, the other two in Hollywood. Most involve male-female relationships. Some summaries:
*The Destiny of Nathalie X. A West African maker of cinema verité films wins a French prize and to shoot the sequel goes to Hollywood, where he is “discovered.” The action is seen through the eyes...more
*The Destiny of Nathalie X. A West African maker of cinema verité films wins a French prize and to shoot the sequel goes to Hollywood, where he is “discovered.” The action is seen through the eyes...more
A rather pointless collection of unremarkable stories that has taught me to avoid the works of William Boyd in future. He's everything I dislike in a writer -- an adherent of understatement, a low concept technician, obsessed with trivial domestic situations and petty character interaction, bland in the extreme, middle class and superfluous. And yet...
And yet there are occasional glimpses of a talent that is being suppressed and attenuated by a warped aesthetic of 'less is more'. At ...more
And yet there are occasional glimpses of a talent that is being suppressed and attenuated by a warped aesthetic of 'less is more'. At ...more
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Never finished. I like novels more than short stories, most of the time.
nothing inspired, nothing real memorable here. i do admire some of the more experimental or nontraditional narration in some of the stories such as the title story. but many times these devices jut add needless confusion.
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Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray,...more
More about William Boyd...
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray,...more
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