Granta 55: Children: Blind Bitter Happiness

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #55

by Ian Jack (Editor), Jayne Anne Phillips (Contributor), Allan Gurganus (Contributor)

Ah, the darling little ones. According to UN estimates there are now 1.7 billion of them under the age of sixteen, nearly a third of the world's population. In thirty years there will be 2.1 billion. We will go on making them.

This issue of Granta describes the rearing, loving, loathing and fearing of them, and evokes what it was like to be that lost personality in a vanished time, a child.

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Ian Jack is a British journalist and writer who has edited the Independent on Sunday and the literary magazine Granta and now writes regularly for The Guardian.

Reviews

[Red Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great series to stay abreast of current literature and the best upcoming writers.

In one particularly good story called Blind Bitter Happiness, here is how a woman is described - a full picture in just a few sentences: "Line any animal in a trap, she has gnawed at her own leg to get free - it's just that sometimes she has gnawed the wrong leg." "One of Sheila's virtues as a mother was to have stopped telling us, quite early on, that everything was going to be all right."

[Shannan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book introduced me to Joy Williams and her famous essay - The case against babies.