Faces

by Leigh Kennedy

It is hard to say how it started - all the unexplained little signs of a new baby about the house in 'The Silent Cradle' - but soon none of the O'Bannons could deny that there had been a highly irregular addition to the family. In 'Max Haunting' a middle-aged hippie, preserved almost intact from the Sixties, starts showing up on the doorsteps of his old friends and loves who, in acquiring jobs and furniture, have 'sold out' rather less than he thought. Hauntings of curious varieties continue in other the sort manufactured out of glass by a man who thinks his godly wife deserves a miracle; the visitation of a mother's cruelty into the mind of her daughter as she confronts the frustrations of coping with her own child; the specters of opportunities lost or spurned which nag to be laid, like ghosts. Elsewhere Leigh Kennedy considers the impulse of cannibalism in a future world whose greed has induced ecological upheaval, and the phenomenon of speaking in tongues as investigated by a sociology professor. She views the world through the eyes of a victim of seizures and of a primatologist whose devotion to apes has gone a bit too far.

Genres: Science Fiction

145 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Linus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the work of Leigh Kennedy, an author I only recently got to know through the excellent Outlaw Bookseller on YouTube. She was married to Christopher Priest, which naturally raised my expectations of her work. Faces is a collection of her short stories spanning different genres, from science fiction to horror to mainstream fiction. The focus is on character study and the protagonists' relationships with their loved ones. There is a small cast of characters in each story, all of whom I found engaging. Some are exceptional, some less so, but they are all worth reading!

The Silent Cradle: It is hard to say how it started — all the little, inexplicable signs of a new baby around the house — but soon, none of the O'Bannons could deny the highly irregular addition to their family. It's emphatic and moving, and it reads like a story that Ray Bradbury would approve of! 4/5

Max Haunting: An ageing hippie, seemingly unchanged since the 1960s, starts showing up on the doorsteps of his old friends and lovers. Having acquired jobs and conventional furniture, they have 'sold out' to a lesser extent than he expected. It's a rather mundane story about settling into ordinary lives, except that Max, the hippie, wanders around the world like a ghost from the past. 2.5/5

Tuning: A washed-up pianist ponders his untapped potential, which occasionally shines through. The moral of the story is that you should be content with the small joys in an otherwise ordinary life, they can mean a lot! 3.5/5

Window Jesus: A loving husband takes it upon himself to manufacture a miracle for his deeply religious–and credulous–wife. Clever! 3.5/5

River Baby: A young mother, herself an abused child, commits brutal violence after having many thoughts about killing her daughter. It's terrifying, but somehow it's an inevitable result of never having experienced love before. 3/5

The Fisherman: A childless couple struggles with their life as the man find a dead child in a lake while fishing. Why did they decide against children? Now, it is too late. 2.5/5

Belling Martha: This is a grim story of cannibalism set in a post-apocalyptic future world that has been devastated by human greed and ecological upheaval. After some good but not entirely convincing stories, here is a science fiction story at last! 4/5

Greek: In this story, Kennedy introduces us to the academic world, where a sociology professor investigates the phenomenon of speaking in tongues. Despite its clunkiness, the story seems to suggest that magic (or God?) still exists within us, despite our efforts to 'sweep out the enchantment and curiosity'. 3/5

Petit Mal: Wow! This is the shortest story in the collection, and these are often the best. Here, we follow a first-person narrative of a young man or woman (I am not quite sure tbh) whose perception of time begins to progress in abrupt stop-motion. He/she suffers seizure after seizure and time jumps in larger and larger steps. Kennedy tells the story in very short, precise fragments. Initially, the first-person narrator does not feel any panic, but more and more distance enters his/her life. But that changes the more we read. Fantastic! 5/5

Her Furry Face: Lastly, the title story. Kennedy shows us the world through the eyes of a primatologist whose devotion to orangutans has gone too far. In a school for apes, the orangutan Annie learns to communicate using sign language, and she is also able to read and write. She even sends her writing to the media. She and the other apes appear to become increasingly human, and Douglas, the primatologist, begins to see her as more than an ape. The relationship between Annie and Douglas grows closer and closer, with terrible consequences. 'Her Furry Face' is a disturbing read, but also a perfect character study of another species which blurs the lines between animal and human. 5/5

[Felicia Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating bundle of fantasy fiction short stories.