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An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It
The twelve stories in this startling collection range over centuries and across the world.
There are stories about those who are lonely, or estranged, or out of time. There are hauntings, both literal and metaphorical; and acts of cruelty and neglect but also of penance.
Some stories concern themselves with the present, and the mundane circumstances in which people find themselves: a woman who feels stuck in her life imagines herself in different jobs - as a lighthouse keeper in Wales, or as a guard against polar bears in a research station in the Arctic.
Some stories concern themselves with the past: a sixteenth-century alchemist and doctor, whose arrogance blinds him to people's dissatisfaction with their lives until he experiences it himself.
Finally, in the title story, a sailor gives his account - violent, occasionally funny and certainly tragic - of the decline of the Great Auk.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
20 people are currently reading
807 people want to read
About the author
Jessie Greengrass
10 books181 followersJessie Greengrass was born in 1982. She studied philosophy in Cambridge and London, where she now lives with her partner and child. Her story collection, An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It, won the Edge Hill Prize 2016 and a Somerset Maugham Award, and she was shortlisted for the PFD/Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. Sight is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
September 4, 2017
To begin, I must just say that Jessie Greengrass' debut short story collection, An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It, has perhaps the best title which I have ever come across. It had been on my radar for quite some time before I spotted a copy and immediately picked it up, and whilst I was planning to read it on holiday, I simply could not resist reading it a couple of days after it was added to my shelves.
An Account... holds great promise, and as Greengrass was the winner of the Sunday Times' Young Writer of the Year Award, I was even more excited to begin. As soon as I started to read, I greatly admired Greengrass' use of vocabulary, and the way in which she shapes sentences, which is nothing short of beautiful. With each tale here she pulls one in and mesmerises; each act of violence, or point at which a creature is being hunted, or danger befalls the weak, then, comes as a sharp shock, which makes her stories all the more gripping.
There is a fantastic diversity within An Account...; each story leaps between different time periods and places, and whilst deliberately ordered to feel as varied as is possible, there is a marvellous cohesion to the collection. Thematically, there are some similarities; for instance, Greengrass writes quite extensively about exploration and travel, and is clearly intrigued by dystopias. Her use of both nature and wilderness, and the ideas of loneliness and being alone, build a coherence between each story. All of the perspectives which she uses, and voices which she crafts, have been sculpted beautifully and realistically.
One of Greengrass' real strengths is in capturing emotions. In the story entitled 'Winter, 2058', which deals with the aftermath of alien 'intrusions', she writes: '... there were times when I couldn't say for certain if it was fear that afflicted me or only the cold creeping into my bed. I became so afraid. At first the fear was nebulous, lacking an object, so that, while it spread like a film across all that I saw, still I couldn't have said what it was that I feared; but by the end of a week I was afraid of everything, of shadows and empty rooms and of the wind; of darkness and light, silence and noise; of spaces that were empty and those that were full. I was afraid of my hands reflected in the windowpane and my face in the mirror, and of my breath and the sound of my heart. And although I knew that somewhere I had an explanation for this fear, when I tried to recall if my thoughts slipped out from my grasp, spilling and dissolving, leaving only the fear swelling up to fill the space they left behind.'
An Account... is an intelligent and rather wonderful short story collection, from an already distinctive voice within the genre. It does not read at all like a debut; rather, it is incredibly accomplished, and there is not a weak story to be found. An Account... is hard to fault; it is rather an original collection of thought-provoking stories, and her work here makes me very excited to see what she will publish next.
An Account... holds great promise, and as Greengrass was the winner of the Sunday Times' Young Writer of the Year Award, I was even more excited to begin. As soon as I started to read, I greatly admired Greengrass' use of vocabulary, and the way in which she shapes sentences, which is nothing short of beautiful. With each tale here she pulls one in and mesmerises; each act of violence, or point at which a creature is being hunted, or danger befalls the weak, then, comes as a sharp shock, which makes her stories all the more gripping.
There is a fantastic diversity within An Account...; each story leaps between different time periods and places, and whilst deliberately ordered to feel as varied as is possible, there is a marvellous cohesion to the collection. Thematically, there are some similarities; for instance, Greengrass writes quite extensively about exploration and travel, and is clearly intrigued by dystopias. Her use of both nature and wilderness, and the ideas of loneliness and being alone, build a coherence between each story. All of the perspectives which she uses, and voices which she crafts, have been sculpted beautifully and realistically.
One of Greengrass' real strengths is in capturing emotions. In the story entitled 'Winter, 2058', which deals with the aftermath of alien 'intrusions', she writes: '... there were times when I couldn't say for certain if it was fear that afflicted me or only the cold creeping into my bed. I became so afraid. At first the fear was nebulous, lacking an object, so that, while it spread like a film across all that I saw, still I couldn't have said what it was that I feared; but by the end of a week I was afraid of everything, of shadows and empty rooms and of the wind; of darkness and light, silence and noise; of spaces that were empty and those that were full. I was afraid of my hands reflected in the windowpane and my face in the mirror, and of my breath and the sound of my heart. And although I knew that somewhere I had an explanation for this fear, when I tried to recall if my thoughts slipped out from my grasp, spilling and dissolving, leaving only the fear swelling up to fill the space they left behind.'
An Account... is an intelligent and rather wonderful short story collection, from an already distinctive voice within the genre. It does not read at all like a debut; rather, it is incredibly accomplished, and there is not a weak story to be found. An Account... is hard to fault; it is rather an original collection of thought-provoking stories, and her work here makes me very excited to see what she will publish next.
January 8, 2016
Originally posted at Eve's Alexandria (http://evesalexandria.typepad.com).
Who could resist the title of this short story collection? It promised something faintly grandiose, something amused and aware of it's own pomposity, something flush with character. Which is pretty much what Jessie Greengrass offers in her debut work: a deftly accomplished assembly of stories, written with a strange mix of gravitas and fun. I got what I came for, with stories about stranded Antarctic whalers befriending penguins; survivalists dreaming about finding the perfect cat video on Youtube; job-hunters fantasizing that about becoming polar bear hunters on Svalbard; and middle aged men waking up surrounded by dead people. There is a lot going on in this slim meticulously crafted collection.
An Account of the Decline... came out last July (this is one of those neglected Netgalley requests I was referring to in my New Year's Resolution post) from JM Originals, a new imprint of John Murray dedicated to "fresh and distinctive" writing. "Fresh and distinctive" being, I assume, a synonym for "niche", for writing that they wouldn't otherwise publish because of the risk. Debut short story collections are notoriously difficult to sell, and it's hardly surprising that Greengrass represented a bit of shot in the dark.
I think it's a measure of how much I enjoyed this collection that when I sat down to chose about my favourite story, I couldn't decide which to settle on. Instead, I'll say that I had two favourite types of story. First, the period pieces: the title story, plus "The Lonesome Southern Trials of Knut the Whaler" and "Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague", which together use the past to evoke hardship, arrogance, loneliness and ecological tragedy. Greengrass has a strangely antiquated writing style, dense with complex many-claused sentences, that suits the cadence of her settings. It's eight parts eloquence, one part humour and one part histrionics; it's a pleasure to read. Here she is, for example, musing on the causes of the dancing plagues in "Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague":
Might he not see how how after years of shuffling to misery's stolid ostinato one's life might, in the space between this breath and the next, become intolerable; how, desperate for escape, one might step out into the street and, in the lifting of the breeze, find a call to more rapid movement; how fierce joy might rise in equal parts with anger and despair to fill and feed itself; and how, having started, one could not stop, there being no way out but to return.
Second, the interiority pieces, by which I mean the stories which are told by anonymous first person narrators in hindsight about experiences from earlier times in their lives. "On Time Travel", "Other Jobs" and "The Politics of Minor Resistance", for example, each focus on people in moments of extremis, at a time of strain and self doubt, whether because of the death of a father, unemployment or psychological inertia. They are less stories and more excerpted clarifications about past selves, snapshots made from a distant emotional stillness. Some are incredibly beautiful - "On Time Travel", in which a grieving child dreams that it is possible to step through a door into the past, particularly so - while others find humour in the banal horror of, say, choosing the better of all evil desks for your shift at a soulless call centre. They don't have a plot really to speak of; they are more like confessional monologues, or emotional cluster bombs.
That said, some stories didn't quite deliver for me. "Winter, 2058", one of several sf pieces, seemed a build a lot of momentum only to dismiss the tension too quickly. The narrator recounts, at length, their experiences of observing phenomena at so-called 'intrusion sites' - wild places in England where time and space have started to go a bit woozy - generating a pleasurable sensation of unease, but this dissipates rather too rapidly and readily in the final paragraphs. "Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Forty Five Miles", in which a research student spends a lonely summer struggling with her thesis and missing her ambivalent boyfriend, resonated with me on one level - a very good evocation of what it feels like to struggle with a PhD - but felt rather flat and slight on another.
After a while the smooth accomplishment of Greengrass's tone, seductive as it is, starts to seem troubling. Each story is written with the same ornate, antiquarian style with little delineation from one narrator to the next. Whether they're recounting a trip to an aquarium aged nine or the extinction of a sea bird or the banality of job searching, each individual speaks with the same voice. It doesn't matter whether they're addressing you from the past, present or future. And, since all but three of stories are first-person narrations, this increasingly struck me as problematic. So that while I consider the couple of hours I spent with with these stories very well spent, I can't call them an unmitigated pleasure.
Who could resist the title of this short story collection? It promised something faintly grandiose, something amused and aware of it's own pomposity, something flush with character. Which is pretty much what Jessie Greengrass offers in her debut work: a deftly accomplished assembly of stories, written with a strange mix of gravitas and fun. I got what I came for, with stories about stranded Antarctic whalers befriending penguins; survivalists dreaming about finding the perfect cat video on Youtube; job-hunters fantasizing that about becoming polar bear hunters on Svalbard; and middle aged men waking up surrounded by dead people. There is a lot going on in this slim meticulously crafted collection.
An Account of the Decline... came out last July (this is one of those neglected Netgalley requests I was referring to in my New Year's Resolution post) from JM Originals, a new imprint of John Murray dedicated to "fresh and distinctive" writing. "Fresh and distinctive" being, I assume, a synonym for "niche", for writing that they wouldn't otherwise publish because of the risk. Debut short story collections are notoriously difficult to sell, and it's hardly surprising that Greengrass represented a bit of shot in the dark.
I think it's a measure of how much I enjoyed this collection that when I sat down to chose about my favourite story, I couldn't decide which to settle on. Instead, I'll say that I had two favourite types of story. First, the period pieces: the title story, plus "The Lonesome Southern Trials of Knut the Whaler" and "Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague", which together use the past to evoke hardship, arrogance, loneliness and ecological tragedy. Greengrass has a strangely antiquated writing style, dense with complex many-claused sentences, that suits the cadence of her settings. It's eight parts eloquence, one part humour and one part histrionics; it's a pleasure to read. Here she is, for example, musing on the causes of the dancing plagues in "Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague":
Might he not see how how after years of shuffling to misery's stolid ostinato one's life might, in the space between this breath and the next, become intolerable; how, desperate for escape, one might step out into the street and, in the lifting of the breeze, find a call to more rapid movement; how fierce joy might rise in equal parts with anger and despair to fill and feed itself; and how, having started, one could not stop, there being no way out but to return.
Second, the interiority pieces, by which I mean the stories which are told by anonymous first person narrators in hindsight about experiences from earlier times in their lives. "On Time Travel", "Other Jobs" and "The Politics of Minor Resistance", for example, each focus on people in moments of extremis, at a time of strain and self doubt, whether because of the death of a father, unemployment or psychological inertia. They are less stories and more excerpted clarifications about past selves, snapshots made from a distant emotional stillness. Some are incredibly beautiful - "On Time Travel", in which a grieving child dreams that it is possible to step through a door into the past, particularly so - while others find humour in the banal horror of, say, choosing the better of all evil desks for your shift at a soulless call centre. They don't have a plot really to speak of; they are more like confessional monologues, or emotional cluster bombs.
That said, some stories didn't quite deliver for me. "Winter, 2058", one of several sf pieces, seemed a build a lot of momentum only to dismiss the tension too quickly. The narrator recounts, at length, their experiences of observing phenomena at so-called 'intrusion sites' - wild places in England where time and space have started to go a bit woozy - generating a pleasurable sensation of unease, but this dissipates rather too rapidly and readily in the final paragraphs. "Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Forty Five Miles", in which a research student spends a lonely summer struggling with her thesis and missing her ambivalent boyfriend, resonated with me on one level - a very good evocation of what it feels like to struggle with a PhD - but felt rather flat and slight on another.
After a while the smooth accomplishment of Greengrass's tone, seductive as it is, starts to seem troubling. Each story is written with the same ornate, antiquarian style with little delineation from one narrator to the next. Whether they're recounting a trip to an aquarium aged nine or the extinction of a sea bird or the banality of job searching, each individual speaks with the same voice. It doesn't matter whether they're addressing you from the past, present or future. And, since all but three of stories are first-person narrations, this increasingly struck me as problematic. So that while I consider the couple of hours I spent with with these stories very well spent, I can't call them an unmitigated pleasure.
October 9, 2017
One of the best short story collections I've ever read, no joke. An author to watch, mark my words. She is a true ARTIST, Emily Dickinson, Franz Kafka style. Greatly looking forward to her novel.
April 13, 2020
This book reminds me just how much I love short stories.
September 13, 2017
Ah, this was a delightful read. It didn’t blow me away but it did not disappoint in the least – I was pleasantly (and sometimes unpleasantly) entertained all the way through and Greengrass is a delightfully simplistic writer with a subtly poetic style. I am actually quite impressed with her ability to write great stories with no dialogue whatsoever. You would think it’d affect the pace and make it drag, but it doesn’t, and that is true for first and third person alike.
The title story was surprisingly brutal. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but it was probably something a little more conservationist than it turned out to be – yet, when I read it, it seemed like the only way to tell that story. Come to think of it, rather a large part of the stories were somewhat brutal in their subject matter. Dolphin is one, The Politics of Minor Resistance is another, and so is The Lonesome Southern Trials of Knut the Whaler, even though that one has a more beautiful poetic quality to it.
Many of her stories deal with the idea of imagining another life for yourself – are you wasting the one you have? Are you completely sure nothing better is out there for you? Couldn’t you become a better version of yourself in some other setting? I count at least four stories that are overtly dealing with this, and they are all agreed: constantly wishing for something else will get you nowhere. And I kind of like this message.
I don’t know which was my favourite. The Great Auk made quite an impact, but I enjoyed the peaceful resolution (despite its own initial uhappiness) of Scropton, Sudbury, Marchington, Uttoxeter, too – a nice note to end on, after all the harshness (and which also has an ingenious title, by the way).
/NK
The title story was surprisingly brutal. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but it was probably something a little more conservationist than it turned out to be – yet, when I read it, it seemed like the only way to tell that story. Come to think of it, rather a large part of the stories were somewhat brutal in their subject matter. Dolphin is one, The Politics of Minor Resistance is another, and so is The Lonesome Southern Trials of Knut the Whaler, even though that one has a more beautiful poetic quality to it.
Many of her stories deal with the idea of imagining another life for yourself – are you wasting the one you have? Are you completely sure nothing better is out there for you? Couldn’t you become a better version of yourself in some other setting? I count at least four stories that are overtly dealing with this, and they are all agreed: constantly wishing for something else will get you nowhere. And I kind of like this message.
I don’t know which was my favourite. The Great Auk made quite an impact, but I enjoyed the peaceful resolution (despite its own initial uhappiness) of Scropton, Sudbury, Marchington, Uttoxeter, too – a nice note to end on, after all the harshness (and which also has an ingenious title, by the way).
/NK
February 26, 2024
A collection of stories about solitary existence as far as I can tell.
Loneliness, the soft spaces between ‘reality’ and what it means to be a human being without an echo. Other reviewers have mentioned the uneven tone of these stories, an assessment I agree with. It feels like Greengrass is still trying to find herself, testing out the universe in every direction (up, down, and backwards) to see what voice suits her.
I liked the story of the fae cold spots in reality best. Also the one of the wandering wise man and the dancing plague. I did not like the title story at all. A good, if occasionally patchy collection.
Loneliness, the soft spaces between ‘reality’ and what it means to be a human being without an echo. Other reviewers have mentioned the uneven tone of these stories, an assessment I agree with. It feels like Greengrass is still trying to find herself, testing out the universe in every direction (up, down, and backwards) to see what voice suits her.
I liked the story of the fae cold spots in reality best. Also the one of the wandering wise man and the dancing plague. I did not like the title story at all. A good, if occasionally patchy collection.
January 9, 2024
5/5
Extremely glad that i bought this volume, it’s been a great companion during a treacherous month :) a strong collection of stories that spanned so many different feelings, ages, experiences. The eponymous story doesn’t really give away what is to follow, which is truly a display of brilliance on behalf of Jessie Greengrass. cannot wait to get acquainted with her other works.
Extremely glad that i bought this volume, it’s been a great companion during a treacherous month :) a strong collection of stories that spanned so many different feelings, ages, experiences. The eponymous story doesn’t really give away what is to follow, which is truly a display of brilliance on behalf of Jessie Greengrass. cannot wait to get acquainted with her other works.
March 16, 2017
I have often found with short story collections that they all leave me feeling a little cold and wondering what the point of them was - there was none of that after reading this astonishing collection from Jessie Greengrass!
There are 12 stories contained and I only found 2 of them a little harder to get along with, but the others were such high quality and beautifully written that I often found myself nodding in agreement with sentiments, situations and messages gleaned from each story.
They are set in a variety of locations and bring up a number of subjects such as loneliness, grief, nature, childhoods, relationships - and I found that they made me think in different ways about the way I look at things.
The ones I struggled with were the ones about Theophrastus and Knut as I really didn't 'get' them but I will be re-reading them in the hope that maybe in a different frame of mind all will become clear!
Highly recommended!!
Thankyou to the publishers and BookBridgr for an ARC of this stunning book.
There are 12 stories contained and I only found 2 of them a little harder to get along with, but the others were such high quality and beautifully written that I often found myself nodding in agreement with sentiments, situations and messages gleaned from each story.
They are set in a variety of locations and bring up a number of subjects such as loneliness, grief, nature, childhoods, relationships - and I found that they made me think in different ways about the way I look at things.
The ones I struggled with were the ones about Theophrastus and Knut as I really didn't 'get' them but I will be re-reading them in the hope that maybe in a different frame of mind all will become clear!
Highly recommended!!
Thankyou to the publishers and BookBridgr for an ARC of this stunning book.
August 28, 2021
A bit disappointing. Overall rather depressing with very dodgy punctuation, which I’m not sure was an intentional stylistic decision.
October 9, 2021
not bad - the titular story was best and it came first so the rest felt a little underwhelming
March 27, 2017
A compelling, relevant and deeply thoughtful reading experience.
Short stories are my favourite type of fiction as they usually leave the reader to find meaning within each story and even continue it in their own minds way beyond the point the author finished writing. Jessie Greengrass has written twelve important and thought-provoking narratives on the past, present and the future. Each story contains a compelling story that is packed with subtext related to our planet, the way we treat it and the uncertainty of our future. (side note, I am going to shorten the title to 'The Account')
The title story follows a sailor and his ruthless harvesting of wildlife. It outlines the decline of an island that was rich with life and wonder until man arrives and takes what he pleases with no regard for the ecosystem. 'On Time Travel' is a story concerning time travel. A young girl is filled with grief for her father's passing and is focused on the past because she is unable to dwell on the discomfort of her unknown future. Each story makes the reader pause to contemplate an aspect of our existence. I related to quite a few of these stories, especially 'All The Other Jobs'. I thought for many years that I would just fall into a life that suited me and it took quite a few falls to realise that I need to work hard to get anywhere in life.
'Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague' is probably my favourite story title ever. The story highlights the fact that people can work all their lives but reputation is everything. 'The Account' is great food for thought, each story is entertaining, poignant and gives an insight to many different issues that are present in this modern day culture. I thought JG's written was accomplished and I can see why she is already winning awards. I loved the fact that she has included plenty of unusual and rarely used words. Words like abnegation, epiphenomena, eschatological, quixotic and nebulous to name a few.
Each story is vastly different but all connected by key themes like humanity, uncertainty, intrusion and lack of control. I recommend 'The Account' to readers who like to deeply contemplate what they have read. Those who like fewer words but more depth and meaning. I have given this book 4.5/5 stars because, though it is rather brief, it has stuck with me. I am always looking for books that make me think, consider and give me insights into topics that I don't take time to ponder day-to-day. 'The Account' is worth your time and money. Jessie Greengrass is going places and I can't wait to see what else she is capable of. (She is already working on her second book :D).
Short stories are my favourite type of fiction as they usually leave the reader to find meaning within each story and even continue it in their own minds way beyond the point the author finished writing. Jessie Greengrass has written twelve important and thought-provoking narratives on the past, present and the future. Each story contains a compelling story that is packed with subtext related to our planet, the way we treat it and the uncertainty of our future. (side note, I am going to shorten the title to 'The Account')
The title story follows a sailor and his ruthless harvesting of wildlife. It outlines the decline of an island that was rich with life and wonder until man arrives and takes what he pleases with no regard for the ecosystem. 'On Time Travel' is a story concerning time travel. A young girl is filled with grief for her father's passing and is focused on the past because she is unable to dwell on the discomfort of her unknown future. Each story makes the reader pause to contemplate an aspect of our existence. I related to quite a few of these stories, especially 'All The Other Jobs'. I thought for many years that I would just fall into a life that suited me and it took quite a few falls to realise that I need to work hard to get anywhere in life.
'Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague' is probably my favourite story title ever. The story highlights the fact that people can work all their lives but reputation is everything. 'The Account' is great food for thought, each story is entertaining, poignant and gives an insight to many different issues that are present in this modern day culture. I thought JG's written was accomplished and I can see why she is already winning awards. I loved the fact that she has included plenty of unusual and rarely used words. Words like abnegation, epiphenomena, eschatological, quixotic and nebulous to name a few.
Each story is vastly different but all connected by key themes like humanity, uncertainty, intrusion and lack of control. I recommend 'The Account' to readers who like to deeply contemplate what they have read. Those who like fewer words but more depth and meaning. I have given this book 4.5/5 stars because, though it is rather brief, it has stuck with me. I am always looking for books that make me think, consider and give me insights into topics that I don't take time to ponder day-to-day. 'The Account' is worth your time and money. Jessie Greengrass is going places and I can't wait to see what else she is capable of. (She is already working on her second book :D).
November 9, 2015
An unusual mixture of historical, contemporary and dystopian short stories.
The Shore
by Sara Taylor is a better example of how to blend these three genres into one coherent book. A number of the first-person narratives feel like vague interior monologues, though there are some universal sentiments. When Greengrass picks one genre (but which will it be?) and sticks with it for the length of a whole book, she should have the time and space for the deep characterizations I thought were missing here. (By the by, you can’t beat this book’s title, can you?)
See my full review at The Bookbag.
See my full review at The Bookbag.
March 5, 2017
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this short story collection in exchange for an honest review.
If you've been following my reviews at all, you will be aware that I very rarely get along with short story collections, mostly because they tend to be very hit-and-miss. However, this was completely different for me.
Jessie Greengrass has the most literary writing style that I've read outside of classic literature and for the first time in a long time, I came across words that I didn't know. In that way, it can be quite a difficult read, something you really need to concentrate on. Saying that, the topics covered are ones that I really connected to. The title story was one of man's impact on the natural world and my favourite of the collection, 'All the Other Jobs', spoke of lack of motivation, the want of change and complacency.
Overall I would highly recommend this collection and although some stories don't stand out as much as others, I think that this is one of the most consistent collections that I have read.
If you've been following my reviews at all, you will be aware that I very rarely get along with short story collections, mostly because they tend to be very hit-and-miss. However, this was completely different for me.
Jessie Greengrass has the most literary writing style that I've read outside of classic literature and for the first time in a long time, I came across words that I didn't know. In that way, it can be quite a difficult read, something you really need to concentrate on. Saying that, the topics covered are ones that I really connected to. The title story was one of man's impact on the natural world and my favourite of the collection, 'All the Other Jobs', spoke of lack of motivation, the want of change and complacency.
Overall I would highly recommend this collection and although some stories don't stand out as much as others, I think that this is one of the most consistent collections that I have read.
May 16, 2018
Although there were many aspects of this book I enjoyed, overall I couldn’t shake the monotone of reading a collection of short stories written in the exact same eloquent but passive tone. This sameness would have been fine if the stories were all in third person, it would be felt as if there is just a storyteller recounting different events; but to have varied first person accounts that are written in exactly the same manner made every character sound the same which I found incredibly dull.
Most of the stories themselves are fantastic, and Greengrass’ written is definitely exceptional however this glaring flaw completely spoiled the book for me.
Most of the stories themselves are fantastic, and Greengrass’ written is definitely exceptional however this glaring flaw completely spoiled the book for me.
November 5, 2021
A very fine collection of short stories & surmises on human weakness by a young-ish writer with a skill with interior monologues that deserves wider recognition. Four of the 12 pieces were as stunning as any I have read this year...or indeed this milennium! The title story is bleak & depressing but I thought extraordinarily poignant. The final two stories...'The Comfort of Death' & 'Scropton,Sudbury,Marchington,Uttoxeter' are simply brilliant...musings & contemplations of lives unfulfilled & frustrated by society and individual frailities.
I would champion this book of great stories as a GCSE inclusion but fear that without wizards, zombies or fantasy heroines, it would end up as roll-ups for weed!
I would champion this book of great stories as a GCSE inclusion but fear that without wizards, zombies or fantasy heroines, it would end up as roll-ups for weed!
April 9, 2024
3.5
Surprisingly really quite enjoyed this! Stories around belonging, loneliness, humanity's relationship with nature, finding purpose, and the inability to return to the past.
While the stories were quite different they went together well and I would be interested in reading more from this author!
Surprisingly really quite enjoyed this! Stories around belonging, loneliness, humanity's relationship with nature, finding purpose, and the inability to return to the past.
While the stories were quite different they went together well and I would be interested in reading more from this author!
January 26, 2025
A guy I’m dating and I are read this book together please strike this from the record
December 24, 2023
This is a 3.5 for me. I really love Greengrass’ writing tone; it has a dreamlike, poetic quality that I enjoyed a lot. She maintains it pretty consistently throughout this collection, which sometimes made it feel like the different narrators were too similar in temperament. But when the tone worked, it REALLY landed for me.
My favourite stories were On Time Travel, All the Other Jobs, The Politics of Minor Resistance, and Scropton, Sudbury, Marchington, Uttoxeter. The first and last of these I found particularly moving and effective.
My favourite stories were On Time Travel, All the Other Jobs, The Politics of Minor Resistance, and Scropton, Sudbury, Marchington, Uttoxeter. The first and last of these I found particularly moving and effective.
January 29, 2022
If I was to sum this book up in one word, it would be 'uneven'. It feels like Jessie Greengrass is still testing the waters, trying different genres to sample, and it's okay and kind of expected in a debut short story collection, but the stories are just a little too different from one another, and they are forced to sit uncomfortably side by side. Greengrass tries contemplative contemporary fiction, historical fiction, dystopian fiction and others, and switching from these genres isn't done smoothly. Perhaps Greengrass could have split her debut into three sections: past, present and future, which would have made the stories a little more palatable.
Out of the stories, the one sharing its name with the collection's title was my favourite. I found it to be very atmospheric, full of vivid imagery and I was filled with a desire to travel back in time to see these doomed birds. The point of view the story is told from, a merchant/hunter who helped to end the species, is an unusual one and his lack of guilt and justification of his actions lingered in my memory for a while. All the Other Jobs is another standout story, which is about the narrator surfing on the internet and imagining herself working strange jobs, very different to her current occupation. I found it to be relatable and an elegant account of daydreaming.
Unfortunately these were the only stories I liked. I upped the rating from one star on account of the strength of these two stories. So many of these stories were just too overwritten and after a while hurt my eyes because of the run-on paragraphs and pages of text blocks. Greengrass can do contemplation, but in most of the stories she does it just too much, almost grinding the pace to a halt.
Out of the stories, the one sharing its name with the collection's title was my favourite. I found it to be very atmospheric, full of vivid imagery and I was filled with a desire to travel back in time to see these doomed birds. The point of view the story is told from, a merchant/hunter who helped to end the species, is an unusual one and his lack of guilt and justification of his actions lingered in my memory for a while. All the Other Jobs is another standout story, which is about the narrator surfing on the internet and imagining herself working strange jobs, very different to her current occupation. I found it to be relatable and an elegant account of daydreaming.
Unfortunately these were the only stories I liked. I upped the rating from one star on account of the strength of these two stories. So many of these stories were just too overwritten and after a while hurt my eyes because of the run-on paragraphs and pages of text blocks. Greengrass can do contemplation, but in most of the stories she does it just too much, almost grinding the pace to a halt.
September 20, 2016
This is Jessie Greengrass’ debut book that won this year’s Edge Hill Short Story Prize which is the only UK award that recognizes excellence in a published short story collection. There is something beautifully mesmerising about this author’s distinctive voice which is at once highly intelligent and deeply emotional. The characters in these twelve stories often find themselves at odds with the life they’ve ended up with producing feelings of estrangement and loneliness. The breadth of imagination used in creating these oftentimes surprising stories tales them utterly mesmerizing. They span great swaths of time and place from a sailor who hunts a group of birds on a remote rock to extinction to a dystopian future where the narrator is sequestered in an underground bunker to a smelly misogynist in the 1500s who witnesses a peculiar plague. Yet, there are also stories set in very recognizable and relatable situations such as a narrator stuck working in an impersonal call centre, a girl caught in the middle of her parents’ bitter separation and a lovesick student unable to focus on her thesis. The unashamedly long-titled “An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It” is a daring and diverse collection that makes a big impact!
Read my full review of An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It by Jessie Greengrass on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It by Jessie Greengrass on LonesomeReader
October 15, 2017
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk According to One Who Saw It is the first short story collection by Sunday Times award winning author Jessie Greengrass, whose debut novel is due in the next year or so. The title story I recently heard her read at a short story evening, and is certainly one of my favourites of the collection. Greengrass has a very strong voice, which comes through in all her stories. Her prose is beautiful, thoughtful and considered, but never overwrought. While "Dolphin" blends trips to the aquarium with complex familial struggles, "All the Other Jobs" plays into those daydreams of slipping off into another life that I know many of us have had. I'm very much looking forward to seeing more from her in the future.
January 24, 2021
Yet another recommendation from A Good Read on Radio 4, thank you again Harriet! A collection of short stories, or essays, but really short stories, but written as if they were essays? I’ll go with that.
Jessie Greengrass is a delight to read, and seems to have an eye for a title as well. From the opening account of the decline of a great ocean bird by someone who hunted it to extinction, these are serious subjects and musings, but bought elegantly and deftly to the page.
I’m not always a short story fan, they either finish as I’m getting into them, or for some reason I generally find them dark, like they are a spot of light in a dark room, and the light never gets any bigger. But at the same time after so much fiction I crave something different, and I have been struggling to find non-fiction that interests me recently, hence a divergence of books to read, such as Birds, Art, Life, Death by Kyo Maclear, or Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie and this. Now this is fiction, but I’m not sure how to describe it, it all feels very real.
On Time Travel is a fascinating look at a young girls dreams of time travel, clouded by the death of her father, which she plays down but you feel is never far from the service. Winter 2058 touches on science fiction, but very much grounded in the earth, and makes it slightly darker for that, it’s something that would feel at home in a Murakami story, yet written in a completely different manner. The Politics of Minor Resistance is a detailed, unflattering look at a job in a call centre, that seems mostly normal, but also seems, just ever so slightly otherwordly. While all of the material could be considered serious, there is some dark humour injected as well, never for the sake of it, but Greengrass’s narrators are expert storytellers.
My favourite in the collection is The Lonesome Southern Trials of Knut the Whaler, who finally achieves his dream of becoming a Captain when he is the last surviving member of his ship with no hope of rescue, accompanied on the final march of his former captain by a grieving penguin.
The Decline of the Great Auk is a truly beautiful collection of short stories, they are mostly sad stories, yet never becoming overbearing or too much. Greengrass writes very matter of fact so even when the story is set in the future or in an alternative present, it reads as if it’s perfectly normal and engages you to the point where everything else outside the page dissolves.
(blog review here)
Jessie Greengrass is a delight to read, and seems to have an eye for a title as well. From the opening account of the decline of a great ocean bird by someone who hunted it to extinction, these are serious subjects and musings, but bought elegantly and deftly to the page.
I’m not always a short story fan, they either finish as I’m getting into them, or for some reason I generally find them dark, like they are a spot of light in a dark room, and the light never gets any bigger. But at the same time after so much fiction I crave something different, and I have been struggling to find non-fiction that interests me recently, hence a divergence of books to read, such as Birds, Art, Life, Death by Kyo Maclear, or Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie and this. Now this is fiction, but I’m not sure how to describe it, it all feels very real.
On Time Travel is a fascinating look at a young girls dreams of time travel, clouded by the death of her father, which she plays down but you feel is never far from the service. Winter 2058 touches on science fiction, but very much grounded in the earth, and makes it slightly darker for that, it’s something that would feel at home in a Murakami story, yet written in a completely different manner. The Politics of Minor Resistance is a detailed, unflattering look at a job in a call centre, that seems mostly normal, but also seems, just ever so slightly otherwordly. While all of the material could be considered serious, there is some dark humour injected as well, never for the sake of it, but Greengrass’s narrators are expert storytellers.
My favourite in the collection is The Lonesome Southern Trials of Knut the Whaler, who finally achieves his dream of becoming a Captain when he is the last surviving member of his ship with no hope of rescue, accompanied on the final march of his former captain by a grieving penguin.
The Decline of the Great Auk is a truly beautiful collection of short stories, they are mostly sad stories, yet never becoming overbearing or too much. Greengrass writes very matter of fact so even when the story is set in the future or in an alternative present, it reads as if it’s perfectly normal and engages you to the point where everything else outside the page dissolves.
(blog review here)
January 20, 2025
“Here is the truth: we blamed the birds for what we did to them. There was something in their passivity that enraged us. We hated how they didn’t run away.” An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It, the short story collection from Jessie Greengrass, is as varied in its temporal settings as its geographical ones, moving in + out of both with expert ease, all unified by the intense and intensely realised psychology of their different narrators. “It is his belief that all things are connected, and in them an echo of God. This echo he strives to hear.” The stories are concerned with species extinction at the hands of men; time travel + digital “alternate-life fantasies”; the looseness of memory; life underground, small rebellions in a call centre; personal + interpersonal unravelling; trauma at the aquarium and the visiting dead. These are some of the events that transpire, but the triumph of Greengrass’ writing is in its dark interior spaces, its lyrical flow. My favourite story, ‘Theophrastus and the Dancing Plague’, incorporated my elliptical obsession, the famed Strasbourg dancing plague, in fittingly electric prose. “The theory was, the dancing was a sort of fever and you had to break it: whip the dancers up and spur them on and if they looked like flagging beat them until the crisis came, but the crisis didn’t come.”
March 15, 2017
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It, by Jessie Greengrass, is a collection of twelve short stories exploring the psychological impact of pivotal experiences on each protagonist. Consideration is given to why the characters acted as they did in the situations presented, and how this has affected their subsequent development. The tone is measured and piercingly honest, acknowledging that lives, particularly within close relationships, do not always mirror the oft vaunted loyalties and care expected to be publicly portrayed.
The title story is an account of thoughtless, wanton destruction, told factually and with acceptance of misconduct. The reasoning given makes no attempt at justification. This is personal reportage rather than an entreaty for absolution.
In On Time Travel the narrator notes that the death of a parent caused grief due to resultant change but also relief as family life had been strained. The reactions of others caused greater ongoing issues than the loss itself.
In The Comfort of the Dead a husband ponders if he ever really knew what his wife desired. He assumed she was content as he had never dwelt on her complaints. His quiet, self-contained routine served him well. If this caused others to drift away he harbours few regrets.
Some Kind of Safety considers how life would be for those who fled to safety underground due to the threat of armaggedon. Unable to know what was happening above, would they risk contamination to put an end to a fractious incarceration?
The tales include lives made endurable through alternate-life fantasies, or by declining to acknowledge how others likely felt. There are reflections on the aspirations that enable continuation in a less than perfect reality. Life is coped with by creating personal fictions.
Characters retreat from life when control is wrested from them only to find that the world keeps turning and the experience has changed them too. They must find ways to face loneliness and quiet fears. Elements from their past shape what they are today.
There are stories set in the past and also the future. The human psyche seems little changed. A melancholy shadow pervades yet there remain glimmers of hopeful anticipation.
The author writes with a flowing acuity, crafting spare, consummate sentences. This collection showcases an intense new talent. It is also a terrific read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, John Murray.
The title story is an account of thoughtless, wanton destruction, told factually and with acceptance of misconduct. The reasoning given makes no attempt at justification. This is personal reportage rather than an entreaty for absolution.
In On Time Travel the narrator notes that the death of a parent caused grief due to resultant change but also relief as family life had been strained. The reactions of others caused greater ongoing issues than the loss itself.
In The Comfort of the Dead a husband ponders if he ever really knew what his wife desired. He assumed she was content as he had never dwelt on her complaints. His quiet, self-contained routine served him well. If this caused others to drift away he harbours few regrets.
Some Kind of Safety considers how life would be for those who fled to safety underground due to the threat of armaggedon. Unable to know what was happening above, would they risk contamination to put an end to a fractious incarceration?
The tales include lives made endurable through alternate-life fantasies, or by declining to acknowledge how others likely felt. There are reflections on the aspirations that enable continuation in a less than perfect reality. Life is coped with by creating personal fictions.
Characters retreat from life when control is wrested from them only to find that the world keeps turning and the experience has changed them too. They must find ways to face loneliness and quiet fears. Elements from their past shape what they are today.
There are stories set in the past and also the future. The human psyche seems little changed. A melancholy shadow pervades yet there remain glimmers of hopeful anticipation.
The author writes with a flowing acuity, crafting spare, consummate sentences. This collection showcases an intense new talent. It is also a terrific read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, John Murray.
January 10, 2021
This is a brilliant collection of stories, I love Jessie Greengrass’ style, it is very elegant and lyrical. Many of these stories take the form of monologues or accounts of lives across many time periods and places. The opening story is particularly good, told from the point of view of a sailor who was involved in hunting the Great Auk to extinction and almost trying to come up with excuses for this and explores the human capacity for cruelty and violence that could be applied to many things not just this incident. There are stories set in the future, stories told from the perspective of a child whose parents do not have a good relationship (Dolphin), an alchemist, a woman who is thinking about all the jobs she would like to have to try to ‘fix’ herself and her life. Loneliness and isolation in many ways is a running theme in these stories whether it is the loneliness of a child who has experienced grief, a woman who did not fit in at a grammar school because her parents were greengrocers and she was ashamed of this, people hiding from a potential apocalyptic event and a woman working a strange job in remote places. The writing is brilliant and emotive, highly recommended.
September 2, 2025
What appealed to me in the first place was that the title of the collection concerned great auks. I did thereby expect an environmental note, which as I had progressed through the stories was unfortunately and disappointingly in complete want. However, present in its stead were the keen insights of human psyche and philosophical imagination, which I did not anticipate, yet found profoundly precious. I was blown away by her mutually understandable introspection of characters. Her stories were told in a seemingly objective enough voice, yet so moving still that they would resemble a confession, or a plea of sort. To write stories like these is an act of kindness, not just to us readers, for we are comforted in our shared human experience, but to you the writer, too.
It's rare that I have come across a collection of short stories too many of those short stories I am fond. The introspections at times were indeed sluggish, I must admit, so much so that I felt frustrated thinking: 'How longer? When is this to end?' Yet, it was all worth it, reading this book.
It's rare that I have come across a collection of short stories too many of those short stories I am fond. The introspections at times were indeed sluggish, I must admit, so much so that I felt frustrated thinking: 'How longer? When is this to end?' Yet, it was all worth it, reading this book.
May 28, 2017
I was lucky enough to hear Jessie Greengrass read the title story at a recent event and while that was a treat, the story holds up just as well on the page, as does the collection
Along with that piece, 'Dolphin' and 'The Comfort Of The Dead' were probably my personal favourites but there are no duds. Maybe 'Winter, 2058' & 'Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Forty Five Miles' would be the lesser ones, for me.
Often the characters are intelligent and thoughtful but trapped in their own loops. Sometimes they are emotionally blind. Isolation, either geographic or emotional is the dominant recurring motif topic and is dealt with creatively, sensitively and identifiably.
The stories move in time and location. Some are astutely observed modern life, while others are fantastic to varying degrees. The balance that has been pulled off is that there is a certain sensibility to them all but not a sameness.
August 13, 2025
“If there is such a thing as original sin then I think that this is how it comes upon us, it settles over us in moments of carelessness, and this is why we are taught to act decently as children, to be good and to be polite, because not to do so is to court that instant when one becomes other than one wants to be.”
this book is raw mundaneness. it splits open the little surface of (un)common things in life and exposes deeply how, and sometimes why, it kinda made us feel the way it is. the title chapter was a great start, but i kinda drag along the way until i found my next fav chapter, yes, the last two. i guess they're my bribe to not letting me vote 3 stars eventually. sooo many sentences i absorbed deeply and sometimes it aches. what a quick cozy read.
“Things could take their course. We have no way of knowing. All we can do is pick, one way or the other, and then behave as if the way we chose was right.”
this book is raw mundaneness. it splits open the little surface of (un)common things in life and exposes deeply how, and sometimes why, it kinda made us feel the way it is. the title chapter was a great start, but i kinda drag along the way until i found my next fav chapter, yes, the last two. i guess they're my bribe to not letting me vote 3 stars eventually. sooo many sentences i absorbed deeply and sometimes it aches. what a quick cozy read.
“Things could take their course. We have no way of knowing. All we can do is pick, one way or the other, and then behave as if the way we chose was right.”
September 25, 2018
What a compelling and original short story collection.
Haunting and lyrical, these stories delve into the depths of loneliness, uncertainty, fear, regret and failure with a precision that is both cerebral and eloquent.
The characters that people these unusual vignettes are all uncertain of their place in the world or unhappy with it and yearn for something else, be it forgiveness, clarity or acceptance. They are all isolated in some way, either geographically, emotionally, psychologically and their plight made poignant with their sharply keen almost existential awareness of it.
The first and title story is superb; I immediately had to re-read it to absorb all its significance. The writing flows so fluidly and smooth, as to almost disguise the shattering truths at the centre of each story,
which leaves for a strong after effect.
Beguiling, compelling, surprising.
Haunting and lyrical, these stories delve into the depths of loneliness, uncertainty, fear, regret and failure with a precision that is both cerebral and eloquent.
The characters that people these unusual vignettes are all uncertain of their place in the world or unhappy with it and yearn for something else, be it forgiveness, clarity or acceptance. They are all isolated in some way, either geographically, emotionally, psychologically and their plight made poignant with their sharply keen almost existential awareness of it.
The first and title story is superb; I immediately had to re-read it to absorb all its significance. The writing flows so fluidly and smooth, as to almost disguise the shattering truths at the centre of each story,
which leaves for a strong after effect.
Beguiling, compelling, surprising.
February 18, 2019
Plenty of the narrators share a suave, sub-claused style - e.g. "Nor did the severity of the winters deter me. They would be hard, I knew; not casually hard, as the tedium of January in southern England is hard, with its mud and drizzle and skies like sodden newsprint, but a force in opposition, a way of being rather than a backdrop; and consequently their survival would confer the certainty of great courage, persistence and inner strength". Several are loners escaping from grief or bereavement by fantasising or staying in remote places, though we're told that "While all of these putative new lives involved escape, to claim this as their function is a reduction of their appeal to the obvious and trite. They represented I think not so much a running away as a sloughing off". At the end they can't always re-enter the world they retreated from. "Dolphin" is my favourite piece.
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