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Fresh Apples
Winner of the Dylan Thomas Award, this collection of short stories contains wry and defiant statements on the power and the beautiful transience of youth.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
171 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 1, 2015
171 pages
Published by Parthian Books (first published January 15th 2006)
Author: Rachel Trezise
Winner of the Dylan Thomas Award, Rachel Trezise's collection Fresh Apples unveiled truths relatable to most readers and relevant in today's interconnected social classes. Her stories employ connectedness of people in a time of universal social media. Trezise clearly conveys life and people’s insecurities and expectations on a level we can only define as common human interaction in a modern day world.
The first story, from which the collection receives its title, Fresh Apples, begins with the characters in the transience of youth. Not knowing their place in the world, but the characters define people with their own inherited misgivings until their place is unveiled. Trezise captures the reader with characters daring to become adults and observing life’s subtle disappointments. The author’s dark humor is evident as the sixteen year-old boy narrator observes, ‘I unwrapped the chocolate but it had already melted.’ The story continues with the narrator trying to, if not understand, at least to define, such words as: encumbrance, psychodrama, necromancy and pedophile, ending with him questioning, ‘I don’t know if I’m brave or just stupid.’
Fresh Apples is an ambitious collection of eleven stories covering a variety of voices. The story But Not Really is a struggle of a freshly divorced woman who without trouble manipulates town politics to gain her revenge. Trezise skillfully defines the protagonist in a few sentences: ‘Today was the first day of the rest of her life. (But not really.) Everyone knows you have to wait for the absolute.’
One of my favorite stories in the collection, Coney Island, where seventeen-year-old runaway, May meets Denny, twenty-nine and living the fast life only money can buy. He quickly signs on May as his girlfriend/money carrier. Within weeks of living together Denny sends May on a plane ride to the States where she stays in a hotel located near the pimps, the street dealers and the small cons of Coney Island. Denny often sounds like a pimp when he is dictating his business, as on the first page of the story: ‘… Don’t tells them anything. You’s on holiday. And put some make-up shit on so’s you look like a woman goin’ on holiday. They pick you up you’s a dead girl, May.’ May’s view of the world is from that of a working class childhood. Soon she sees money thrown about like waste while interacting in the hustles of Brighton beach, a true melting pot of Europe’s upperly-mobile immigrants.
A heartwarming story in the collection, Chickens, takes you through a waltz of growing up with grandparents during the time the mother is in prison. The narrator tells the reader near the beginning, ‘Gone away,’ is all they said, which inevitably meant that there was more to it. In the six and three quarter years I’d been alive, she had never ‘gone away.’ The story ends with the narrator reflecting on free will and personal responsibility.
The second to last story of the collection, Jigsaws, left me unsettled. I appreciated the narrator’s voice beginning from an infant, but the story didn’t truly resonate with me as well as the previous diverse voices compiled throughout. But I give the author kudos for attempting such a daring experiment.
It’s definitely a book of stories to have room for in your backpack. If you want to get maximum return, read them more than once and feel the characters with their thick Welsh dialect—the author does perfectly—become shadows of people you might have somewhat unknowingly encountered.
Rachel Trezise is a modern day author with a gift for relating to the common struggles of people. I anxiously await her new collection out this early summer.
Published by Parthian Books (first published January 15th 2006)
Author: Rachel Trezise
Winner of the Dylan Thomas Award, Rachel Trezise's collection Fresh Apples unveiled truths relatable to most readers and relevant in today's interconnected social classes. Her stories employ connectedness of people in a time of universal social media. Trezise clearly conveys life and people’s insecurities and expectations on a level we can only define as common human interaction in a modern day world.
The first story, from which the collection receives its title, Fresh Apples, begins with the characters in the transience of youth. Not knowing their place in the world, but the characters define people with their own inherited misgivings until their place is unveiled. Trezise captures the reader with characters daring to become adults and observing life’s subtle disappointments. The author’s dark humor is evident as the sixteen year-old boy narrator observes, ‘I unwrapped the chocolate but it had already melted.’ The story continues with the narrator trying to, if not understand, at least to define, such words as: encumbrance, psychodrama, necromancy and pedophile, ending with him questioning, ‘I don’t know if I’m brave or just stupid.’
Fresh Apples is an ambitious collection of eleven stories covering a variety of voices. The story But Not Really is a struggle of a freshly divorced woman who without trouble manipulates town politics to gain her revenge. Trezise skillfully defines the protagonist in a few sentences: ‘Today was the first day of the rest of her life. (But not really.) Everyone knows you have to wait for the absolute.’
One of my favorite stories in the collection, Coney Island, where seventeen-year-old runaway, May meets Denny, twenty-nine and living the fast life only money can buy. He quickly signs on May as his girlfriend/money carrier. Within weeks of living together Denny sends May on a plane ride to the States where she stays in a hotel located near the pimps, the street dealers and the small cons of Coney Island. Denny often sounds like a pimp when he is dictating his business, as on the first page of the story: ‘… Don’t tells them anything. You’s on holiday. And put some make-up shit on so’s you look like a woman goin’ on holiday. They pick you up you’s a dead girl, May.’ May’s view of the world is from that of a working class childhood. Soon she sees money thrown about like waste while interacting in the hustles of Brighton beach, a true melting pot of Europe’s upperly-mobile immigrants.
A heartwarming story in the collection, Chickens, takes you through a waltz of growing up with grandparents during the time the mother is in prison. The narrator tells the reader near the beginning, ‘Gone away,’ is all they said, which inevitably meant that there was more to it. In the six and three quarter years I’d been alive, she had never ‘gone away.’ The story ends with the narrator reflecting on free will and personal responsibility.
The second to last story of the collection, Jigsaws, left me unsettled. I appreciated the narrator’s voice beginning from an infant, but the story didn’t truly resonate with me as well as the previous diverse voices compiled throughout. But I give the author kudos for attempting such a daring experiment.
It’s definitely a book of stories to have room for in your backpack. If you want to get maximum return, read them more than once and feel the characters with their thick Welsh dialect—the author does perfectly—become shadows of people you might have somewhat unknowingly encountered.
Rachel Trezise is a modern day author with a gift for relating to the common struggles of people. I anxiously await her new collection out this early summer.
July 5, 2011
gritty and thought provoking, lots of short stories on variety of themes but in style only Rachel Trezise captures well - I like her writing though it is very raw and uncomfortable in places probably helps that I am Welsh and can relate too and picture alot of things/places she talks about! Loved the reference to Braccis cafes and Coney Island in Porthcawl...iconic S Wales!
October 12, 2017
This wasn't really my thing. I found all of the stories so depressing! However I did finish reading it.
December 17, 2022
For college 😅
September 28, 2011
my review's gone! I put one up yesterday, and now it's disappeared. I said this was a lively and dirty and druggy bunch of stories of Welsh youth, featuring alcoholic mothers and wayward daughters (eg one becomes a gun runner) mainly set in the Valleys but also stretching to New York (great description of a sheltered girl's experience of the streets of NY), Cornwall (or was it Devon?), London. I liked it a lot. I said something like that.
June 26, 2022
Qui sono narrate le vicende variegate di giovani donne impegnate nella vita di tutti i giorni , con gioia, problemi e svariate incomprensioni.
Ogni personaggio presente nel romanzo ha un elemento in comune con gli altri: voler cercare un punto di fuga dall'ambiente ormai monotono della Rhondda Valley Gallese.
Sfortunatamente nelle loro evasioni non mancheranno l'uso di droghe, la conoscenza della violenza, della criminalità ....alle quali si affiancheranno possibilita' di riscatto e ripresa.
"Giostre, puzzle e altre storie e' scritto con un linguaggio giovanile, fresco, limpido ed a tratti "esagerato" per evidenziare i punti cruciali di ogni situazione .
Spesso si ha un richiamo alla vita cinematografica e scenografica , che dona al panorama un che di spettacolare e teatrale .
Here the varied events of young women engaged in everyday life are narrated, with joy, problems and various misunderstandings. Each character in the novel has an element in common with the others: wanting to seek an escape point from the now monotonous environment of the Welsh Rhondda Valley. Unfortunately in their escapes there will be no lack of drug use, knowledge of violence, crime .... which will be accompanied by the possibility of redemption and recovery. "Rides, puzzles and other stories are written in a youthful, fresh, clear and at times" exaggerated "language to highlight the crucial points of each situation. Often there is a reference to cinematic and scenographic life, which gives the panorama something spectacular and theatrical.
Ogni personaggio presente nel romanzo ha un elemento in comune con gli altri: voler cercare un punto di fuga dall'ambiente ormai monotono della Rhondda Valley Gallese.
Sfortunatamente nelle loro evasioni non mancheranno l'uso di droghe, la conoscenza della violenza, della criminalità ....alle quali si affiancheranno possibilita' di riscatto e ripresa.
"Giostre, puzzle e altre storie e' scritto con un linguaggio giovanile, fresco, limpido ed a tratti "esagerato" per evidenziare i punti cruciali di ogni situazione .
Spesso si ha un richiamo alla vita cinematografica e scenografica , che dona al panorama un che di spettacolare e teatrale .
Here the varied events of young women engaged in everyday life are narrated, with joy, problems and various misunderstandings. Each character in the novel has an element in common with the others: wanting to seek an escape point from the now monotonous environment of the Welsh Rhondda Valley. Unfortunately in their escapes there will be no lack of drug use, knowledge of violence, crime .... which will be accompanied by the possibility of redemption and recovery. "Rides, puzzles and other stories are written in a youthful, fresh, clear and at times" exaggerated "language to highlight the crucial points of each situation. Often there is a reference to cinematic and scenographic life, which gives the panorama something spectacular and theatrical.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2020
She was happy to bolt the door closed again, swallowing her tobacco cough, as she heard Dan’s severe footsteps on the stairs. He had smaller feet than her but he used them like warnings. It was a trait he’d acquired at birth from her father-in-Law. The Hughes men used their bodies to make as much noise as a body possibly could. They bellowed when they spoke, stamped when they walked, snored and ground their teeth.
“He said he was coming back in the week.”
“I know babe, Gina said. She rubbed Ruth’s back with her clumsy, fatty hand. She’d never burped a baby.
“He’s not though doll. He’s dead.”
When the train came, the clackety-clack rhythm it made froze me to the spot: I just closed my eyes. When I opened them again the train had gone, gone right past me on the opposite track and splashed my legs with black oil. I don’t know now if I’m brave or just stupid. It isn’t easy to be sixteen, see, and it isn’t that easy to die.
“He said he was coming back in the week.”
“I know babe, Gina said. She rubbed Ruth’s back with her clumsy, fatty hand. She’d never burped a baby.
“He’s not though doll. He’s dead.”
When the train came, the clackety-clack rhythm it made froze me to the spot: I just closed my eyes. When I opened them again the train had gone, gone right past me on the opposite track and splashed my legs with black oil. I don’t know now if I’m brave or just stupid. It isn’t easy to be sixteen, see, and it isn’t that easy to die.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2022
A quick read for me. This book consists of 11 short stories set for the most part in Wales, with some branching further afield.
Contemporary and gritty in style, fuelled by drugs and drink and sex, (for the most part); these stories are quite depressing... and make me glad that I don't inhibit this world portrayed in these short stories.
Some of the characters seem happy in their world and some seem like they want to escape it.
I quite enjoy gritty, realistic writing and seeing where it leads - if there is a change in a character or if they come good in the end.
While I was reading this, I was thinking how some of these stories could have worked well as novels. I need to read more of her writing.
PS... read this if you enjoy Irvine Welsh!
Contemporary and gritty in style, fuelled by drugs and drink and sex, (for the most part); these stories are quite depressing... and make me glad that I don't inhibit this world portrayed in these short stories.
Some of the characters seem happy in their world and some seem like they want to escape it.
I quite enjoy gritty, realistic writing and seeing where it leads - if there is a change in a character or if they come good in the end.
While I was reading this, I was thinking how some of these stories could have worked well as novels. I need to read more of her writing.
PS... read this if you enjoy Irvine Welsh!
February 13, 2022
If you grew up a little odd, a little on the fringes, dysfunctional, this may stike a chord with you. Captures socio-economic problems of once booming towns. Set in South Wales but echoes of Northern England and the Midlands too. The grandchildren of the industrial boomers, not sure where the future is, let alone what it holds. Beautifully written by someone who appears to have lived every story, and made it through, just. Love, fear and the doldrums of life existing inbetween.
February 21, 2022
This was an interesting collection of short stories, mainly based in the south Wales valleys.
They split into two categories really - those who represented every day, gritty life in the valleys - and those who aspired to move on from valley life in various ways.
I enjoyed the latter as a good representation of what I know - and didn't enjoy the former very much as they didn't really speak to me at all.
They split into two categories really - those who represented every day, gritty life in the valleys - and those who aspired to move on from valley life in various ways.
I enjoyed the latter as a good representation of what I know - and didn't enjoy the former very much as they didn't really speak to me at all.
March 21, 2024
This collection of short stories was the subject of an online Hay Festival Book Club event. The cover calls it "Laugh-out-loud funny." The Dylan Thomas Prize winner gives so much more. It has hints of darkness and regret from the lives of young Welsh people in the lower strata of society. It is more poignant than funny.
December 18, 2024
Not really enjoyed these stories-I m from the Rhondda. Everything was made to be dreary and poor and cheap and yet there are lots of gems , gorgeous people, brave political souls who meet in the pubs and churches up and down the valley. We have much good news stories that have sprung from these deprived valleys - my family and I were one story. No I didn t rate this book - not for me.
May 26, 2025
I really wanted to like this but found it hard to follow the stories. It does feel like it was written by the narrator and reflects on a life I haven't experienced which might explain why I found it hard to connect to anyone in it.
February 22, 2023
Wales I just don’t get it
September 26, 2023
Stories 6, 8 and 10 are the best of the bunch.
March 5, 2024
Just quite depressing.
August 22, 2024
What a gust of fresh air! Rachel's writing style is as charming as captivating. Guess I need more, it's been a long time since an author captured my attention with such a force. Diolch yn fawr.
April 23, 2012
Rachel Trezise's collection of short stories "Fresh Apples" is refreshing, brutally honest and very relevant in today's society.The stories change between being so touching and really getting to you, and then leaving you cold and indifferent.
Personally I preferred her semi autobiography "In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl", as it was more detailed and you really got to know the characters involved. However, "Fresh Apples" is still a great read, though I did feel that I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters in the short stories, though that might also have a lot to do with the fact, that I'm from a completely different social setting than the working class, Welsh environment filled with alcohol and drugs that Rachel Trezise is writing about.
Rachel Trezise is such a young writer, but she's got an amazing talent and a very unique way of writing and I would definitely recommend her work.
Personally I preferred her semi autobiography "In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl", as it was more detailed and you really got to know the characters involved. However, "Fresh Apples" is still a great read, though I did feel that I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters in the short stories, though that might also have a lot to do with the fact, that I'm from a completely different social setting than the working class, Welsh environment filled with alcohol and drugs that Rachel Trezise is writing about.
Rachel Trezise is such a young writer, but she's got an amazing talent and a very unique way of writing and I would definitely recommend her work.
January 28, 2020
Not as fresh as I had hoped. Set in the post-industrial South Wales valleys, the stories are predictably about empty lives of cheap plastic, bad make-up, drugs, drink, and take-away food – because everyone knows that’s what the Valleys are like. Urban desolation with a Welsh accent.
Rachel Trezise is Rhondda-born, so perhaps she is right and the stereotype is true...but she doesn’t half drive it home. And the stories themselves are neither innovative nor well-conceived. You read one and wonder quite what the author was aiming to achieve that’s different or interesting. On the cover the admirable Peter Florence suggests they are “laugh-out-loud funny”, proving that humour is an odd thing and not always transferable. A couple of the stories – “But Not Really” and “Chickens” – work quite well as straightforward anecdotes, but I found the rest rather empty and repetitive. Well, maybe that’s what it’s all about...
Rachel Trezise is Rhondda-born, so perhaps she is right and the stereotype is true...but she doesn’t half drive it home. And the stories themselves are neither innovative nor well-conceived. You read one and wonder quite what the author was aiming to achieve that’s different or interesting. On the cover the admirable Peter Florence suggests they are “laugh-out-loud funny”, proving that humour is an odd thing and not always transferable. A couple of the stories – “But Not Really” and “Chickens” – work quite well as straightforward anecdotes, but I found the rest rather empty and repetitive. Well, maybe that’s what it’s all about...
October 26, 2008
This is my first foray into urban Welsh fiction. The characters in these stories are often in poverty, moving around in a drug-filled haze, and caught in the vagaries of youth and love. It's a short book - only 170 pages - but the stories stay with you after you've put the book down. I especially liked the stories about the young mother to be haunted by the ghost on the stairs, the almost romance of the subway riders, the unexpected truth of "Te amo" uttered in childhood, and the unexpected escape after a chance reunion.
December 6, 2008
A collection of short stories from recent Dylan Thomas Prize winner Rachel Trezise, most set in the Welsh Valleys. It's an odd thing when I can thoroughly enjoy a book but also find myself thinking "Hmm. i could do this."
Which is probably simply to say I haven't yet submitted enough of my short stories out to have an editor say "oh, no you can't." Good stuff anyways; being set in the Welsh Valleys its all bad drugs and farming and underage sex; I showed Keiran a three-sentence bit on Paedophilia and he nods . . . ". . . so, this is set in the Valleys then?"
Which is probably simply to say I haven't yet submitted enough of my short stories out to have an editor say "oh, no you can't." Good stuff anyways; being set in the Welsh Valleys its all bad drugs and farming and underage sex; I showed Keiran a three-sentence bit on Paedophilia and he nods . . . ". . . so, this is set in the Valleys then?"
October 17, 2013
A frank, original and indubitably relevant collection of Rachel Trezise's short stories. These stories raise eyebrows, induce grimaces and provoke chuckles. Favourites from this were Chickens, A Little Boy and Jigsaw.
February 17, 2015
Eleven gritty, and occasionally uncomfortable, urban Welsh tales reflecting the wretchedness of youth. Only for the characters in two stories-Valley Lines, and Jigsaws, was I left feeling any kind of hope for. The others portrayed an acceptance of their lot.
April 9, 2008
This book is excellent! As fresh as the title suggests. I love the way Rachel writes and found I was easily lost in some of these short stories. Loved it!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews