Cosmic Latte

by Rachel Tresize

Migrants, immigrants, travellers, and holidaymakers feature in Dylan Thomas Prize-winner Rachel Trezise's second collection of short fiction: in eleven dazzling stories of lives lived on either side of boundaries, and on the fringes of society, is teeming with unforgettable characters whose dreams, yearnings and regrets are at once unique and universal. Orthodox Jewish teenager Levi, having been caught fishing pornography from a waste bin in a Brooklyn Park, is sent to reform school in Israel, his simple pious existence threatened when he meets moon-faced nymphomaniac Tzippy, resident of a nearby psychiatric hospital. Lonely seven-year-old third generation Northern Irish-Italian, Majella, finds solace in her collection of Barbie dolls when her father is murdered by terrorists and her mother is floored by grief, learning to deal with the horrors of the world through child's play. East German opera aficionado, Silke, faces a life-changing decision when she wakes to find her American lover, Michael, stranded on the opposite side of an impenetrable but hastily thrown-up wall. Here, deep tragedy rubs shoulders with sharp comedy as children come of age and adults come to terms.

Genres: Short Stories

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Othniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive collection of slice-of-life stories. The author has previously focused on contemporary South Wales, but here explores a number of times, places and voices. The prose style remains vivid and clinically elegant throughout.

[SGell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought she'd lost it with that title like but these are all mint stories, as good as anything she's done. One of our best.

[Tôpher Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly well written stories with wide ranging cosmopolitan characters and scenarios. They delve into lives with incisive acuteness. Trezise is simply one of the best writers Wales has.

[Clare · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because I'd heard good things about this writer. But it was just impossible to get into. The book tries to offer a perspective on new cultures but it is done so in a reductive and often patronising way. Cosmic Latte is a name given to the average colour of the universe. But ironically whatever perspective Trezise writes from she seems to use exactly the same pallid wash. I'm afraid this is very overrated.

[Alan]

recommended by Short Review. Plus I've met Rachel at a literary festival, and enjoyed her first book of stories Fresh Apples.