xh’s Reviews > The Hurly Burly and Other Stories: Essential British Short Stories by an English Master > Status Update
xh
is 49% done
finished “the higgler” and was surprised by how much of a miss it was for me given that the other stories were amazing. in 6 parts i got nothing but blatant (and predictable) misfortune. he has shown that he writes tragedy and irony really well so all of this just felt too on the nose for me. also kinda lost my appetite at the rigor mortis scene. for once, too, the female characters are totally flat. not good.
— Feb 11, 2024 10:33AM
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xh’s Previous Updates
xh
is 99% done
“fifty pounds” was the perfect story to wrap up the whole book. every single theme across the book was summarised in this story.
my fav quotes from this story:
“It was better to part so, better from such a figure than from an abject scarecrow, even though both were the same inside.”
“Lally sighed: he was stupid.”
— Aug 25, 2024 04:02AM
my fav quotes from this story:
“It was better to part so, better from such a figure than from an abject scarecrow, even though both were the same inside.”
“Lally sighed: he was stupid.”
xh
is 93% done
i enjoyed “the watercress girl”… who else can write a toxic relationship this beautifully lmao…
— Aug 25, 2024 03:33AM
xh
is 84% done
“the hurly burly”… i don’t even know what to say. it’s excellent. (also very relatable)
— Aug 24, 2024 09:48PM
xh
is 80% done
finished “a little boy lost” and omfg it is tragic. i have to say the stories are getting more complex and better but not in a way that i can explain.
— Aug 24, 2024 09:19PM
xh
is 77% done
“ninepenny flute” was very different from the rest - first person POV and not about love. i think it’s great. it spoke obliquely about the cruelty of people… i need some days to gather my thoughts about this one. the story is in what’s not said. again, it’s about working class life, which is always about giving up.
— Aug 20, 2024 11:36AM
xh
is 73% done
“olivia and camillia” was so good 😭 coppard nailed the description of a homoerotic toxic female friendship, and my favourite quote is “I suspect him, just as I suspect the man who quotes Plato to me”. nice to know softbois existed in the 1920s.
— Aug 19, 2024 08:30AM
xh
is 64% done
just finished “ring the bells of heaven” and omg while it was meandering i did really enjoy it. the whole wanting you can’t have, and when you’ve gotten it, it never stays and you can’t truly relish it. this dude writes stories of working class people incredibly well.
— Aug 19, 2024 07:41AM
xh
is 51% done
finished “dusky ruth”. i never thought i’d be so floored by a description of jesus christ. too long for me to post here so go read it. very short but good, haha another loser man who never gets closer to a woman because he has to reckon with her eMotIoNs 🙄
— Feb 19, 2024 04:25AM
xh
is 37% done
finished “luxury”, i love it so much. resonated so well with this struggling grad student. “That was the worst of poverty, not what it made you endure, but what it made you want to endure.” ugh the banana scene was just so good. so so good. that’s five for five.
— Jan 22, 2024 08:44AM
