Are They Funny, are They Dead?

by Marjorie-Ann Watts

I love these stories shrewdly observed and wickedly funny Salley Vickers A daughter s life is changed on discovering her adoptive father is in fact her true father; in her imagination, an elderly woman removes the blue mantle from a plaster statue of the Virgin Mary and is delighted to find black lace underneath; a senior academic, about to deliver a lecture to his students, is unsettled by memories of a passionate affair. These spare, elegant, disconcerting stories swerve between the long perspectives of memory and the abrupt questions of children running Where does the world go when I am dead Marjorie Ann Watts, the author of a series of books for children, brings to the ambiguities of adult relationships, and the fault-lines between generations, a rare and sharp-witted understanding of how the past remains forever embedded in the present .

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jenny Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb short story collection. Sometimes amusing, sometimes dark, often perplexing - thoroughly recommend.