false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255621505m/86889.jpg 86889 15 A.S. Byatt's stories simmer with a sensuality and passion that, like topiary trees in a formal garden, are pruned and trained into cultivated shapes while retaining the wild scent of the orchard. In "Crocodile Tears" a woman walks away from a personal tragedy, deserting those she loves to try to reconcile herself to a death for which she feels horribly responsible. Thrown together in Nîmes with another exiled mourner, a Norwegian full of northern folktales, she ricochets between a numbed calm and a reckless urge for self-destruction. Together they begin to assemble some kind of personal solace out of fragments of European history, fiction, and myth, and so come to terms with their guilt. "A Lamia in the Cevennes" is also set in France, where another isolated English exile struggles for self-knowledge amid the shards of history and folktale. "Cold" is itself a kind of latter-day fairy story of ice princesses and sighing suitors. These are stories steeped in light and color, full of glowing landscapes and sensuous delights. Their intricately woven skeins of literary allusion and keenly observed locations bewitch the reader. Yet the figures in Byatt's landscapes seem powerless to derive pleasure or solace from their surroundings, picking their lonely way through the brilliance, carrying with them burdens of painful memories they cannot shake off. <I>--Lisa Jardine, Amazon.co.uk</I> 241348 1998 Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice total:260|5:68|4:112|3:69|2:8|1:3| 260 1014 345 21 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Aug 12 13:05:34 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 17 19:00:07 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Feb 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 31 10:27:05 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 13 10:44:52 -0800 2009 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 06:14:23 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 06:27:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 21:29:54 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 21:31:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 19 19:27:14 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 11:01:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sat Jul 05 14:18:44 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 14:18:44 -0700 2008 A.S. Byatt. 'Crocodile Tears' was my favourite of the stories, where a woman flees the reality of her husband's death, travelling to live in the south of France where she hopes to find some respite...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Mon Sep 10 13:43:04 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 10 13:57:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Sun Sep 02 11:48:23 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 02 11:48:23 -0700 2007
I think this is my favorite Byatt -- because I love the story Cold -- in spite of being a reluctant fantasy, magical realism and so on reader, I was absolutely bowled over by Cold -- it was like reading all the fairy tales in childhood fairytale books but this was an ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Jun 20 08:41:42 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 10 19:36:09 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Fri Sep 25 11:31:12 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 11:31:33 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 06:56:15 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 23:55:59 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 14 11:14:46 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 15 21:24:51 -0800 2007 3 0 false true Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Thu Jan 31 22:39:08 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 31 22:39:08 -0800 2008
weird one where a woman whose husband dies in a museum (heart attack) and she just LEAVES then settles in a town in Italy or Spain and meets a man with a similar story.

8.5 of 10]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 07 08:33:12 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 08:38:29 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 13:05:39 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 13:08:40 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon Mar 24 08:31:27 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 24 08:33:02 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Fri Aug 03 17:10:54 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 17:11:30 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Fri May 30 13:14:32 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 14:16:16 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Fri Jun 29 08:08:16 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 29 08:09:08 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Sat Jan 19 16:48:56 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 16:49:29 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=86889