A Bowl of Cherries

by Shena Mackay

Twin brothers, Rex, a successful writer, and Stanley, a minor poet and dishwasher, are at the core of this tale of family love and deceit

Genres: Fiction, British Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh in 1944 and currently lives in London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and also Honorary Visiting Professor to the MA in Writing at Middlesex University.

Her novels include the black comedy Redhill Rococo (1986), winner of the Fawcett Society Book Prize; Dunedin (1992), which won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award; and the acclaimed The Orchard on Fire (1995) which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Her novel Heligoland (2003) was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread Novel Award.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

more books should be set in the surrey hills

[Featherbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shena Mackay is a remarkable writer, a joy to savor her descriptions, her involved tale of a couple of really nasty characters and women and children in dark situations, reflecting, I hope, the dated era of the book. I ordered more of her titles on Better World Books. How did I miss her? And Backlisted.fm made note of her in a 2016 broadcast on another old favorite, to Jane Gardam A Long Way from Verona.

One of many gems:

"Seamus ...studied the driver's profile. He put him at about forty-five; the cheek in view was as red and shiny as a ripe apple, hair like crinkled wheat sprang back from his polished forehead, the fingers on the wheel were as solid as well-washed carrots, soft corn silk fringed his upper lip, and his teeth, when he smiled, were as neat and even as two rows of young corn on the cob; a veritable harvest festival of a man."

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of it I enjoyed very much. Parts of it just left me cold and frustrated. Don't know whether I would recommend it to anyone or not.

[Ellie Ramsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

the ending omg🥹

[Judith Jung · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually like Shena Mackay’s books , but not this one. I don’t think it has aged well. Parts of it made me cringe. Julian was horrible to his wife but nobody seemed to care.

[Georgina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dreary tale of dreary people interspersed with sharp observation and the darkest of dark humour. A lot of slapping of faces, a lot of bad decisions, emotional torture, and low motives all set firmly in time and place. The angels are not very angelic and with one exception, the demons are not that bad - just very, very weak. The writing is good, with believable dialogue and strong characterisation, but I am not sure I would seek out more. If I came across another? Maybe.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've loved Shena Mackay's other books for their black humour and sly dissection of suburban life. A Bowl of Cherries has both of these elements in spades but a rather disappointing plot, and some characters who are not as fully developed as the might be. It was never less than enjoyable, but not as wholly satisfying as novels like The Orchard on Fire. C

[Janice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd read good things about Shena McKay's writing and will try another of her books, but abandoned this one a quarter of the way in. The characters were overdrawn and unrealistic. The melodramatic plot strained the limits of my credulity too far for me to continue.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the dark humor. Interesting story.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a period piece (of the late 70's or early 80's), Shena Mackay brings out the grubbiness of people's lives and faults - eccentric black humour.