The Comet and Other Stories

by Sonya Moor

A circus performer dreams of a life more ordinary. An artist’s model steps out of pose. An international stateswoman lets down her hair. And a young mother nurtures bloodlust.

The female protagonists of these short stories emerge from master artworks, newsreels, mother-in-law jokes, music videos... Whether setting out from Greenwich Village backstreets, Paris pavements or Home Counties lawns, they make their choices, weighing risk against opportunity, as they set about the messy business of becoming themselves.

By turns tender, playful, provocative and poignant, these are stories of people ready to disrupt, subvert, reinvent and transcend the boundaries of their worlds.

Paperback

First published October 24, 2023

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sonya Moor is a French and British writer living in Paris. I first encountered her work in Confingo Magazine, which published the title short story ‘The Comet’ in its Spring 2021 issue. Confingo Press is noted, inter alia, for its list of stylish and unusual arts-linked non-fiction and fiction. Sonya Moor’s collection 'The Comet And Other Stories' sits beautifully amongst the list, as the collection’s platform is of ekphrasis - writing descriptive of art. Its stories are inspired by a wide range of art-based sources. As the author says in her introduction, the inspiration derives ‘from visual to musical, to comedic and criminal’. The stories ‘present female protagonists inspired by representations of females’.
A writer’s proposition to write ‘ekphrastic’ stories could lead a potential reader to suppose that they might present themselves as a technical exercise, rather than as engaging human stories. This is not the case with the stories here. Moor has chosen art works that ‘spoke’ to her. The technical achievement in this collection is significant, but the outcome is extraordinary for its emotional resonance. The reader experiences moments of meditation and realisation. ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ is inspired by a religious education poster. During a child’s experience of holding her friend’s hamster, she realises her power of life and death over the tiny creature. She is able to see the alternative outcomes.
Other stories are complex, like a labyrinthine hall of mirrors where one sees directly and in reflection. Ekphrasis direct and indirect. 'Lettre à Simone' uses the conceit of a writer writing to the protagonist who is the subject of a photograph by Robert Capa, 'Shaved Woman of Chartres', which shows a woman punished for collaboration in WW2. It is both shocking and tender as a feminist reading of the events that formed the woman who ended up simultaneously as a traitor and mother. The conceit of the letter form allows the author to present ideas of the way women and women’s bodies are treated in society and art media.
‘Three Weddings’ is inspired by the film 'My Fair Lady', which was itself a modern take on the story of Pygmalion. Here, a father’s obsession with his beautiful daughter, Galatea, is visited over a number of years at three family weddings from the perspective of an older cousin. ‘Feeding is Forbidden’, prompted by the domestically-framed character, Jane, from the 'Tarzan' films of the 1930s and 40s, is narrated from the perspective of a Paris mother living in a block of flats with her husband. The story takes an unexpected direction when an elderly Chinese lady upstairs is enchanted by the couple’s baby daughter.
Each story in 'The Comet And Other Stories' has its own originality, and the book is full of surprises, often unsettling and provoking of a reader’s response. Altogether brilliant stuff!

[David Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an impressively assured debut collection, so much so that it seems impossible that it isn't the mid-career work of an established writer. Like the make-up artist in the title story, Sonya Moor makes every brush stroke precise towards an immaculate textual maquillage - every detail carefully chosen, matched to context.
There is a unity to the collection, based on Moor's interest in ekphrastic concerns, but variety within that approach: artists and works portrayed directly, within a narrative framework, such as the Picasso-based "Young Girl With a Flower Basket"; artists addressed directly as in a fan latter, as with "In Conversation With Ana Mendieta"; the subject of a work addressed, as in the figure photographed by Capa as The Shaved Woman of Chartres in post-war France, in "Lettre a Simone".
Other stories gain their inspiration from other arts - music, even the circus. But each story is a beautifully detailed and articulated world in itself. No surprise that that title story was picked up for Best British Short Stories 2022 (Salt).
You should snap up this collection now; there's no doubt in my mind that we will be hearing much more from - and about - Sonya Moor when the reviewing community get round to noticing her.