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What Members Thought
The ends meet in this amazing collection of short stories, which are both horrifying yet occasionally so bizarrely funny that they make me vaguely uncomfortable in my own reactions. Mantel writes clear, precise prose with fresh (and sometimes freaky) images that make it impossible not to finish a story once started. My paperback has the addition of a new story called "The School of English" that is worth seeking out if your edition does not contain it.
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I find that I'm usually disappointed in short story collections from well known novelists. Which I guess makes sense. It's like expecting a Chopin symphony to have the same brilliance as his solo piano pieces. But in reverse. I also find that my reviews rarely make as much sense on the screen as they did in my head. Oh well.
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So, unlike a lot of people, I'm not mad about Mantel, even though I do think she's a good writer. I didn't necessarily love the stories here (although the title selection is really fine), but Mantel's writing style is such that her pieces are always interesting to read. Most of the stories here, as has already been mentioned by other GRers, are less than the sum of their parts. Either they end abruptly, they're not necessarily filled out enough to be a short story, and a couple of them just aren
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Aug 17, 2014
Erin
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Aug 29, 2023
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