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It's Beginning to Hurt: Stories

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 183 ratings · 41 reviews

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY BEST BOOKS OF 2009
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST FICTION OF 2009
LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOKS OF 2009
FAVORITE FICTION OF 2009 FROM THELOS ANGELES TIMES

James Lasdun's great gift is his instinct for the vertiginous moments when the essence of a life discloses itself. In sharply evoked settings that range from the wilds of northern Greece to the beaches of Cap...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published August 3rd 2010 by Picador (first published April 1st 2009)

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Apr 21, 2013 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: radio-4x, spring-2013, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, published-2009, fradio

Monday R4x

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Oct 19, 2009 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, literature

Lasdun is so revealing. Why is it that when one sees the innermost thoughts of a forty- or fifty-something man one feels slightly embarrassed, as though there were something pitiful about the conclusions they manage to align like a teetering stack of children's building blocks? Though writing from the United States, Lasdun always retains his essential Englishness, like, I might add, Netherland author Joseph O'Neill. These men, writing about the minds of men, bring out the voyeur in me.

But these...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Laura by: Bettie

Shelves: audio-books, british-literature, contemporary-fiction, short-stories, read-2013

From BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime:
Series of five enigmatic and psychologically gripping short stories by James Lasdun.

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Oct 03, 2012 Caroline Taggart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's difficult to give five stars to a collection of short stories, because that would suggest that there were no stories I liked more or less than the others. Having said that, this one probably rates 4.5. The title story, a mere two pages when the others are mostly 12-15, is particularly poignant. 'I'm in love with you,’ the mistress says matter-of-factly to her married lover as she is breaking off the relationship, ‘and it's beginning to hurt.’

Others I particularly liked include 'An Anxious M...more

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Aug 13, 2009 Lizzie Skurnick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. My LAT review:

In the literary realm, much attention is paid both to the dramatic windup and the brutal aftermath when a character's life goes off track. But not enough writers make time for an equally important psychic process: the unpleasant twinge that signals the great calamity to come. Such forebodings are the specialty of the poet and novelist James Lasdun, whose third book of stories, "It's Beginning to Hurt," shows us again and again that the world doesn't end with a bang but simply keels...more My LAT review:

In the literary realm, much attention is paid both to the dramatic windup and the brutal aftermath when a character's life goes off track. But not enough writers make time for an equally important psychic process: the unpleasant twinge that signals the great calamity to come. Such forebodings are the specialty of the poet and novelist James Lasdun, whose third book of stories, "It's Beginning to Hurt," shows us again and again that the world doesn't end with a bang but simply keels over with the merest tap.

Lasdun's characters are moneyed sophisticates whose problems, likely as not, unfold in the rarefied landscape of the sumptuous country house. There's the recent divorcée rusticated to her ex-husband's charming cottage; a Citroën-driving son who gets lost on the way to his father's wedding; a husband on vacation consumed with his wife's stock picks; a man so envious of his friend's sexual prowess on a trip to Greece that he realizes his marriage is over without actually cheating on his wife.

Given the proper soundtrack, most of these situations could fit smoothly into your average Hugh Grant romantic comedy. But Lasdun has his sights set on problems money has never been able to solve. Take "Peter Kahn's First Wife," a devastating story about a jewelry salesgirl who falls in love with the man who, on a near-yearly basis, has her try on his glittering purchases for a succession of wives. It sounds like a role built for Doris Day, but when the character finally decides to end her abusive marriage to pursue this passion, we are sobered by Lasdun's portrait of their failure to connect with each other, the willful blindness with which we stumble though our lives.

In "Caterpillars," Lasdun takes that idea a step further. A woman watches silently as her boyfriend cruelly berates his son on a hiking trip, then is unable to help when the child has a dangerous allergic reaction. Repulsed and fascinated by her mate's anger, the girlfriend tries to make sure the boy is safe. But Lasdun subtly lets us know that in fact her fruitless mission is -- and will thereafter be -- to save the father.

Like the settings of his stories, Lasdun's pointed prose is deceptively delicate, concealing a real sliver of malice beneath. In "The Half Sister," a guitar teacher observes that a woman's face is "very strange -- large and oval, with a propitiatory quality, like a salver on which certain curious, unrelated objects were being offered up for inspection." It's a startling image, even more so when we learn she really is being served up: as a candidate for a wife.

Or take "An Anxious Man," in which a man's worry over his wife's inheritance manifests itself in the fear that he has lost his wife and daughter. After they turn up, he flirts with another woman at a dinner with the neighbors. "She caught his eye, giving him a sly, unexpected smile. Then she placed the living lobsters on the grill. Joseph had never seen this done before. The sight of them convulsing and hissing over the red hot coals sent a reflexive shudder of horror through him, though a few minutes later he was happily eating his share."

It's the ability to delude ourselves that Lasdun keeps coming back to, knowing it can lead only to a more horrible moment: when we realize that we should have noticed sooner how we were going wrong. (That's perhaps truly clearest in "The Old Man," where a fiancé has the dreadful realization that he's about to marry a murderer.) Most moving is the moment in the title story when a man recalls with despair his mistress dismissing him: "Marie never asked him to leave his family, and he had regarded this too as part of his luck. And then, abruptly, she had ended it. 'I'm in love with you,' she'd told him matter-of-factly, 'and it's beginning to hurt.' "

In this marvelous, masterful collection of such unexamined moments, that minor character is the only one who ever sees it coming.

Skurnick's memoir of teen reading, "Shelf Discovery," was published in July.

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times(less)

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Jan 29, 2011 Sterlingcindysu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great little short stories that pack a big impact in a few pages. (copied review) WSJ one best of 2009 This accomplished poet, novelist, and story writer's collection packs a devastating punch. Lasdun peels back the facades of middle-aged, middle-class types through their run-ins with cancer, infidelity and loss that lead them to deal with unexpectedly large and often ugly recognitions. The title story is less than three full pages, but generates near-boundless futility and regret as a businessm...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Lou Mattioli rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this book up for my wife at the library, but decided to give it a shot myself after it was left unread for weeks on the desk in my office. I thoroughly enjoyed the morally dispassionate narrative, offering a glimpse into the minds of typical men, without judging their thoughts or behavior. I do not wholly identify with these characters; however, many of their brilliantly articulated streams of neurotic thought have also flowed through my own mind on many occasions. I readily waded throu...more

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Jan 11, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: stories

The writing is extraordinary. Lasdun's novel "The Horned Man" was remarkably well-written, too, but here, in the short story form, he doesn't have to manage so long and detailed a plot, and the book is better as a result. Unlike a Carver story, for instance, most of these stories cover large spans of times in the characters' lives and have relatively little dialogue, and most of the stories' endings may be unconventional insofar as they don't provide much resolution and often stop in media res....more

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Aug 01, 2012 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's Beginning to Hurt. While rather short and located far in the back, the title story to this short story collection truly defines the book. A man secretly attends a funeral on his lunch break, while his wife calls him to bring home fish for dinner. Dealing with ordinary occurrences, Lasdun vividly brings to the forefront the ordinary emotions and passions that define and give meaning to life. Any reader will be able to relate to these emotions and feelings, knowing exactly how many of them ma...more

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Mar 17, 2011 Kasandra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

These grew on me, or maybe were just artfully arranged so that they consistently get better. Lasdun has great powers of observation and a succinct, intelligent way at times of describing the curious workings of the mind, but I thought too many of these stories were a bit "blah" or too predictable, on the other hand. My favorites were the title story (scathing, and very short but perfect), the supernaturally-tinged "Annals of the Honorary Secretary", "Cleanness", and "The Woman at the Window". It...more

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Oct 30, 2009 Kasa Cotugno rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-short-stories, awards-winners

Short story collections, like record albums, usually start with the strongest offering then tapering off, and often I have a problem finishing the book. Not so with this magnificent collection. Each is a gem, unsettling, disquieting, memorable. The eponymous story is a wisp only 3 pages long, but has more impact than other stories that ran double the length. The unifying quality in these stories is a moment of truth for middle aged, middle class people, faced with life changing decisions. If I h...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

“But knowing that in twenty minutes you were going to legitimately succumb to anxiety was not very different from succumbing to it right now” (11).
“Then it was the light itself one became aware of, rather than the things in it” (12).
“She had changed out of the tissuey top into a sleeveless robe of flowing peach-colored linen, but Joseph had recognized her at once as the victor in the incident with the lobsters” (14).
“The ideal state of affairs, things seemed to imply, was a continual orgy. If yo...more “But knowing that in twenty minutes you were going to legitimately succumb to anxiety was not very different from succumbing to it right now” (11).
“Then it was the light itself one became aware of, rather than the things in it” (12).
“She had changed out of the tissuey top into a sleeveless robe of flowing peach-colored linen, but Joseph had recognized her at once as the victor in the incident with the lobsters” (14).
“The ideal state of affairs, things seemed to imply, was a continual orgy. If you weren’t desirable, then dye your hair, spend the day in a tanning salon, sign up at one of these gyms that flaunted their robotic, Lycra-clad members at passersby through vast street-level windows. Turn the inside of your head into your own private rock stadium…The steady convergence of mainstream commerce with what had once been marginal or underground was peculiarly dismaying. In the past, when you grew sick of one of these worlds, you could shift, mentally, into the other, but now they had consolidated, and there was nowhere to escape. The whole world, as he had read somewhere, was an underworld. If you described New York to even a liberal-minded person of fifty years ago, he would tell you the apocalypse must have come…
“But in the thick of these thoughts a sudden bewilderment seized him. Where did they come from? What was the basis, within him, for this indignation? On what rock of conviction was it founded? If you didn’t believe in God or the soul or the hereafter, then what was a human being if not merely living meat? And if that was so, then surely it was natural to want to be healthy, nubile, muscular, lusty…Better that than tainted meat, as he had become!” (58-59).
“Mrs. Knowles looked at him for a moment, saying nothing, but leaving him in no doubt that he had humiliated himself” (70).
“Privately, I had observed the events in the countries beyond what had once been the Iron Curtain with mixed feelings; it had been strangely unsettling to find myself somehow vindicated in the caution, the capacity for endless equivocation, the final attachment to comfort and prosperity that had delivered me to where I was today. It had felt like getting away with a crime, on the grounds that the crime had suddenly been made legal. ‘It’s all right,’ history had seemed to whisper complicitly in my ear, ‘you have nothing to be ashamed of…’ The peculiar economy of my conscience had apparently come to depend on the supposition of a universe violently opposed to my own” (125-126).
“ ‘As far as I can see, a nation is just an expression of the human inability to give a shit about the life or death of other humans beyond a fixed limit. Or put the other way round, it’s a way of organizing and instituting people’s apparently limitless desire to grind their heels in other people’s faces’” (127-128).
“The woman’s round, haggard face seemed to dilate in the gray air as though swelling on her own obscurely affronted rectitude” (179).
“Vindictiveness was rare in June’s experience, but she wasn’t after all, a complete stranger to it. She knew well the feeling of luxuriant, almost voluptuous destructiveness it released, over and above any justified punitive function it might serve” (179).
“He spread the menu before him like a general’s map, plotting his debauch on our inexperienced palates” (201).
“Since being with Craig, she had found that I was necessary to guard, rather carefully, what remained of her affection for her own species” (215).

(less)

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Jul 25, 2010 Reemawi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: collections

I can't say I didn't like this collection of short stories, but I also can't say I liked it fully either. James Lasdun is one of those writers who can capture a feeling so well in a sentence, that you can't help but keep rereading the sentence that felt like it was mocking you with its accuracy in revealing something about you to the whole world you thought only you were privy to, until that moment you saw it on the page.

The stories in this collection share one common theme, though they differ f...more I can't say I didn't like this collection of short stories, but I also can't say I liked it fully either. James Lasdun is one of those writers who can capture a feeling so well in a sentence, that you can't help but keep rereading the sentence that felt like it was mocking you with its accuracy in revealing something about you to the whole world you thought only you were privy to, until that moment you saw it on the page.

The stories in this collection share one common theme, though they differ from each other quite a bit. The stories do contain action, but they are very character-oriented, so much so that everything else seems to melt away in the background and we are nowhere but inside the protagonist's brain, watching him or her process what happens around them. Sometimes, as demonstrated in the stories "An Anxious Man," "The Woman at the Window," and the title story, "It's Beginning to Hurt," it seems as though there is no story, but rather just a vignette of a character and what's going on inside his or her head.

The problem with the stories in this collection is that many of them seem stunted, lacking in enough umph to make them leave an effect on the reader. I found myself feeling more of a connection with the language and writing, rather than the characters or stories. Some stories were more solid than others, but for the most part, it seemed that most of them were ideas that sounded great in Lasdun's head, but once he typed them onto the screen, they were a lot more difficult to convey than he originally thought, so he just sorta'...stopped trying to find satisfactory resolutions or even good endings to them and went with subpar ones that could be confused with open endings, but are too flimsy to qualify as such.

Some of the more solid stories, I felt, were "The Natural Order," "The Incalculable Life Gesture," "Cranley Meadows," "Totty," and "Peter Kahn's Third Wife." A handful were too stunted for me to have an accurate opinion of, and a couple, like "Oh, Death" and "Annals of the Honorary Secretary," were ones I couldn't get through and had to skip.

In the end, I feel safe in saying that with a mixed bag of good and bad stories from "It's Beginning to Hurt," this collection deserves a look, and the three stars I've given it.(less)

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May 16, 2010 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

James Lasdun’s newest short story collection, It’s Beginning to Hurt, offers an impressive array of captivating anecdotes. Most of these stories feature British or American protagonists living in New York or London, who, while rambling about middle age, find themselves in a bit of trouble.

Some grapple with disease, others with infidelity. In one story, a man falls into a heaping pool of garbage-filled mud and in another a fanatical (and egotistical) environmentalist receives his comeuppance.

Howe...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Austin Storm rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Scattered review, as always.

I don't usually enjoy short story collections. Most short stories are too long, and often short stories (along with poetry) are safe route - authors staying in the sheltered, insular world of the academy.

But I did enjoy these surgical little stories. Lasdun is very accomplished. He writes about liminal moments, before or after the revelation - infidelity, divorce, revenge, murder, or abortion.

His tone is dispassionate, and the characters sometimes follow in dispassion...more

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Dec 11, 2009 James rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I concur with John, Sara, and Isa's reviews of this collection. The technical prowess, craft, and detail of the story telling is evident. I also like the subject matter and characters. However, the lack of emotion coming off the page such as a story like "Anxious Man" where the opening dialogue immediately captures the reader but in the end its almost like the author walked away from the keyboard then came back without the emotional intensity to wrap it up. This unfortunately happens many times...more

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Oct 16, 2009 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, read-in-2009

excellent, biting stories, one called 'An Anxious Man' and I thought the whole collection could be called that for these pieces are all about things that go wrong, could go wrong, little moments that reveal a lot, futures uncertain and weird events causing things to go awry. For example a man in his best finery on his way to his father's wedding in France gets lost and has to call at a farm to ask his way and falls in pig shit on his way back to the car.

The stories are mainly set among the coun...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Deanna Newton rated it 5 of 5 stars

This collection of short stories exceeded my expectations. Lasdun's insight into human emotions and personalities is impeccable. Even more incredible is how he describes people and events--a lifetime of loves and fears--in only a few short pages. Each story left an impression on me days after reading. Now that's a good writer.

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Nov 15, 2009 John Seyfarth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who enjoy short stories

The sixteen stories in this volume are technically proficient narratives involving people whose actions are usually, but not always, logical and believable. Most of the characters lack passion, and the stories are clinical descriptions of events that often appear to belong to another realm.

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Sep 12, 2009 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sarah by: Time Out New York

I felt like these stories were decent up to a point, but tended to run out of gas around what should've been the climax. The protagonists were all pretty dislikable, too. A blurb on the back called it unflinching, but really I just found it sort of unpleasant.

"Caterpillars" was the best, though it also disgusted me.

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Mar 11, 2012 Marianna Monaco rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

James Lasdun was born in London, now lives in upstate New York.
His stories take place in England and in the US.
Some stories, the Old Man, for example, have a surprising twist at the end.
Some stories have stayed with me for days. It's Beginning to Hurt is one of them.

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May 25, 2010 Sue Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Picked it up after reading one of his stories in the O. Henry best book. It's a hard one to rate. A couple of the stories are stunning, some are OK but didn't blow me away, and others are just perfectly competent but elicit a kind of "so what" response. But that's a danger of short story collections, generally.

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Aug 19, 2009 Isa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was so dead-on in its description of the anxieties of daily life -- in social life, at work, and in relationships -- that it was unfailingly interesting. But it failed to hit the mark on an emotional level, in part because so many of these short stories didn't resolve the tension they introduce. To me, even difficult times in our personal lives have redeeming qualities and light moments. This book seemed to lack just those. I'd be interested to see what comes next from this author, tho...more

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Jul 27, 2011 John Pappas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What is it about Brits and failure? Failure to communicate, failure to try, failure to choose wisely, failure to love...these stories are painful and heartwrenching for what they say and do not say.

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Jan 18, 2010 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The best collection of short stories I've read in recent memory. If you're looking for a book to read, check this one out. All his characters are richly developed and realistic.

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Nov 05, 2009 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love short stories. I have a special affinity for short stories that have no closure. I really liked the way these stories just kind of trailed off...

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Mar 10, 2010 Seth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this collection of sharp, well-written stories captures that special moment in people's lives when shit really starts to fall apart, their bad decisions catch up to them and they realize too late how ethereal life is.

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Nov 14, 2009 Louie Verile JR. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

killed this in a few days... a few stories don't seem to go anywhere but a few of them are worth reading. Definitely not a waste of time by any means

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Aug 14, 2011 Renie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So-so short stories. So-so writing.

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Apr 01, 2013 Jean Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quietly brilliant.

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About James Lasdun

James Lasdun was born in London and now lives in upstate New York. He has published two novels as well as several collections of short stories and poetry. He has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the Los Angeles Times, T. S. Eliot, and Forward prizes in poetry; and he was the winner of the inaugural U.K./BBC Short Story Prize. His nonfiction has been published in Harpe...more

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