Rounds

by Wyl Menmuir

Genres: Short Stories

12 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

About the author

Wyl Menmuir is an award-winning author based in Cornwall. His 2016 debut novel, The Many was longlisted for the Man-Booker Award and was an Observer Best Fiction of the year pick. His second novel Fox Fires was published in 2021 and his short fiction has been published by Nightjar Press, Kneehigh Theatre and National Trust Books and appeared in Best British Short Stories. Wyl's first full-length non fiction book, The Draw of the Sea, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors and is published in 2022. A former journalist, Wyl has written for Radio 4’s Open Book, The Guardian and The Observer, and the journal Elementum. He is co-creator of the Cornish writing centre, The Writers’ Block and lectures in creative writing at Falmouth University.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menmuir's first published work since his Booker-longlisted debut The Many, Rounds is a short story which reminded me very much of Alison Moore's work. (Appropriately, the praise quoted on the cover comes from Moore herself.) A 19-year-old girl, Alice, is moving into her first rented house, a place she has misgivings about before she even steps over the threshold. There's the ugly carpet, the pink bathroom that makes her feel nauseous, the stack of old newspapers the letting agent told her they'd remove. As she sits in her dad's car outside, she's distracted by the sight of a little girl on a bike – smiling, she thinks, with 'satiated ferocity', a phrase she recalls from a poem read at school.

Rounds is full of atmosphere; it's one of those stories that feels like it sits a little way outside reality, yet it would be difficult to say why. It also folds the very real horror of anxiety and panic attacks into a tale that may, or may very well not, be about an evil presence. I've read the last page three times, and each time I've had a different idea about what actually happened. This small story packs enough of a punch to merit re-reading and analysis; I'm looking forward to reading more of Menmuir's short stories in future.

(I read this along with another Nightjar Press chapbook, Fury by DB Waters, which is reviewed here. The stories are excellent companions to each other.)

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[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

19 year old Alice taking occupation of her own home for the first time, an empty-edgeside abode, taken there by her Dad in his car with a £50 loan to tide her over and then her finding some 50p pieces for the meter. Waking dreams and hemmed voile and used newspapers already there, items to be shown the door. And a glimpse of a small girl on a bicycle or two girls on bicycles in the street…
As I read towards the end of this work I was utterly confident that the ending would make the whole thing worth reading. I was not wrong, even though it was not until the story’s very last word that such confidence was fulfilled. Like opening a glove compartment in an old car from your past. Or simply shutting it?