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The stories in this remarkable collection are vibrant and gripping. James Lasdun’s great gift is his unfailing psychological instinct for the vertiginous moments when the essence of a life discloses itself. With forensic skill he exposes his characters’ hidden desires and fears, drawing back the folds of their familiar self-delusions, their images of themselves, their habits and routines, to reveal their interior lives with brilliant clarity.
In sharply evoked settings that range from the wilds of Northern Greece to the beaches of Cape Cod, these intensely dramatic tales chart the metamorphoses of their characters as they fall prey to the full range of human passions. They rise to unexpected heights of decency, stumble into comic or tragic folly. They throw themselves open to lust, longing, and paranoia, but they are always recognizably mirrors of our own conflicted selves.
As James Wood has written, “James Lasdun seems to me to be one of the secret gardens of English writing . . . When we read him we know what language is for.” This collection of haunting, richly humane pieces is further proof of the powers of an enormously inventive writer.
In sharply evoked settings that range from the wilds of Northern Greece to the beaches of Cape Cod, these intensely dramatic tales chart the metamorphoses of their characters as they fall prey to the full range of human passions. They rise to unexpected heights of decency, stumble into comic or tragic folly. They throw themselves open to lust, longing, and paranoia, but they are always recognizably mirrors of our own conflicted selves.
As James Wood has written, “James Lasdun seems to me to be one of the secret gardens of English writing . . . When we read him we know what language is for.” This collection of haunting, richly humane pieces is further proof of the powers of an enormously inventive writer.
300 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
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420 people want to read
About the author
James Lasdun
47 books122 followersJames Lasdun was born in London and now lives in upstate New York. He has published two novels as well as several collections of short stories and poetry. He has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the Los Angeles Times, T. S. Eliot, and Forward prizes in poetry; and he was the winner of the inaugural U.K./BBC Short Story Prize. His nonfiction has been published in Harper’s Magazine, Granta, and the London Review of Books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
May 6, 2015
I am not a connoisseur of short stories. Novelettes are ok, but the short story itself is too fast for me. I appreciate a good plot well-worked out and character defined by key elements or dialogue, but for me there is no time to get to know the people, and that is what I like most about fiction. That said, I can see that these stories are technically perfect gems, well-written they tick all the boxes a short story should but nonetheless they go past so fast they fail to move me. Except one.
"Caterpillar", the last story, has a twist that neither the characters nor the reader can forsee, although it is inevitable.
I enjoyed that last story and there were others that were ok, so 3 stars. I liked it. But I didn't love the book at all.
"Caterpillar", the last story, has a twist that neither the characters nor the reader can forsee, although it is inevitable.
I enjoyed that last story and there were others that were ok, so 3 stars. I liked it. But I didn't love the book at all.
October 19, 2009
Lasdun is so revealing. Why is it that when one sees the innermost thoughts of a forty- or fifty-something man one feels slightly embarrassed, as though there were something pitiful about the conclusions they manage to align like a teetering stack of children's building blocks? Though writing from the United States, Lasdun always retains his essential Englishness, like, I might add, Netherland author Joseph O'Neill. These men, writing about the minds of men, bring out the voyeur in me.
But these men manipulate me, and I allow them to do so, because of their felicity with language. They can pull back a corner of the veil to reveal something true but which may not be wholly complete, and I will follow them there.
In this book, Lasdun reminds me of Cheever, talking as he does of cocktails among the monied working classes--not so wealthy as to be unafraid of losing it all--but sort of windmilling on the edge of losing their money, their house, their wives, their sanity. In Google's "Image Results for James Lasdun," the painting "After Ovid: New Metamorphoses" makes an appearance. It seems to show what I am trying to explain.
Lasdun's short stories are marvels of clarity and brevity. In one story Lasdun invites us to look in the mirror along with his main character:
But these men manipulate me, and I allow them to do so, because of their felicity with language. They can pull back a corner of the veil to reveal something true but which may not be wholly complete, and I will follow them there.
In this book, Lasdun reminds me of Cheever, talking as he does of cocktails among the monied working classes--not so wealthy as to be unafraid of losing it all--but sort of windmilling on the edge of losing their money, their house, their wives, their sanity. In Google's "Image Results for James Lasdun," the painting "After Ovid: New Metamorphoses" makes an appearance. It seems to show what I am trying to explain.
Lasdun's short stories are marvels of clarity and brevity. In one story Lasdun invites us to look in the mirror along with his main character:
He looked in the mirror, felt the familiar jolt at the disparity between his persistently youthful idea of his physical appearance and the image that confronted him. His hair lay thinly over his temples; his torso looked shapeless in the useful lightweight beige anorak he had brought along for the cooler evenings. An hors de combat jacket, Stewart had jokingly called it when he first saw Abel sporting it...He smiled wanly at himself. He looked middle-aged.
September 6, 2019
I have to admit that I've only read the story after which the book was named; a very visual, sad story that I thought was a BBC National Short Story Prize winner but turns out it was another in the book. I've just ordered the whole collection, so I'll give the rest a read in the near future
I read it a long time ago at the same time as I read A Tray of Ice Cubes by Gerard Woodward, which is a very strange and entertaining story about a man who gets pregnant.
You can read both online.
I read it a long time ago at the same time as I read A Tray of Ice Cubes by Gerard Woodward, which is a very strange and entertaining story about a man who gets pregnant.
You can read both online.
March 23, 2016
Alcuni di questi racconti non sono male, ma altri sono abbastanza inconcludenti e quasi lasciati in sospeso. In tutti vi è, comunque, un senso di sconfitta o di rassegnazione, la sensazione che la vita avrebbe potuto andare in un modo ben diverso, nonché meno deludente.
Si possono anche leggere, però se non lo fate non è che vi perdiate granché.
Si possono anche leggere, però se non lo fate non è che vi perdiate granché.
August 13, 2009
My LAT review:
In the literary realm, much attention is paid both to the dramatic windup and the brutal aftermath when a character's life goes off track. But not enough writers make time for an equally important psychic process: the unpleasant twinge that signals the great calamity to come. Such forebodings are the specialty of the poet and novelist James Lasdun, whose third book of stories, "It's Beginning to Hurt," shows us again and again that the world doesn't end with a bang but simply keels over with the merest tap.
Lasdun's characters are moneyed sophisticates whose problems, likely as not, unfold in the rarefied landscape of the sumptuous country house. There's the recent divorcée rusticated to her ex-husband's charming cottage; a Citroën-driving son who gets lost on the way to his father's wedding; a husband on vacation consumed with his wife's stock picks; a man so envious of his friend's sexual prowess on a trip to Greece that he realizes his marriage is over without actually cheating on his wife.
Given the proper soundtrack, most of these situations could fit smoothly into your average Hugh Grant romantic comedy. But Lasdun has his sights set on problems money has never been able to solve. Take "Peter Kahn's First Wife," a devastating story about a jewelry salesgirl who falls in love with the man who, on a near-yearly basis, has her try on his glittering purchases for a succession of wives. It sounds like a role built for Doris Day, but when the character finally decides to end her abusive marriage to pursue this passion, we are sobered by Lasdun's portrait of their failure to connect with each other, the willful blindness with which we stumble though our lives.
In "Caterpillars," Lasdun takes that idea a step further. A woman watches silently as her boyfriend cruelly berates his son on a hiking trip, then is unable to help when the child has a dangerous allergic reaction. Repulsed and fascinated by her mate's anger, the girlfriend tries to make sure the boy is safe. But Lasdun subtly lets us know that in fact her fruitless mission is -- and will thereafter be -- to save the father.
Like the settings of his stories, Lasdun's pointed prose is deceptively delicate, concealing a real sliver of malice beneath. In "The Half Sister," a guitar teacher observes that a woman's face is "very strange -- large and oval, with a propitiatory quality, like a salver on which certain curious, unrelated objects were being offered up for inspection." It's a startling image, even more so when we learn she really is being served up: as a candidate for a wife.
Or take "An Anxious Man," in which a man's worry over his wife's inheritance manifests itself in the fear that he has lost his wife and daughter. After they turn up, he flirts with another woman at a dinner with the neighbors. "She caught his eye, giving him a sly, unexpected smile. Then she placed the living lobsters on the grill. Joseph had never seen this done before. The sight of them convulsing and hissing over the red hot coals sent a reflexive shudder of horror through him, though a few minutes later he was happily eating his share."
It's the ability to delude ourselves that Lasdun keeps coming back to, knowing it can lead only to a more horrible moment: when we realize that we should have noticed sooner how we were going wrong. (That's perhaps truly clearest in "The Old Man," where a fiancé has the dreadful realization that he's about to marry a murderer.) Most moving is the moment in the title story when a man recalls with despair his mistress dismissing him: "Marie never asked him to leave his family, and he had regarded this too as part of his luck. And then, abruptly, she had ended it. 'I'm in love with you,' she'd told him matter-of-factly, 'and it's beginning to hurt.' "
In this marvelous, masterful collection of such unexamined moments, that minor character is the only one who ever sees it coming.
Skurnick's memoir of teen reading, "Shelf Discovery," was published in July.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
In the literary realm, much attention is paid both to the dramatic windup and the brutal aftermath when a character's life goes off track. But not enough writers make time for an equally important psychic process: the unpleasant twinge that signals the great calamity to come. Such forebodings are the specialty of the poet and novelist James Lasdun, whose third book of stories, "It's Beginning to Hurt," shows us again and again that the world doesn't end with a bang but simply keels over with the merest tap.
Lasdun's characters are moneyed sophisticates whose problems, likely as not, unfold in the rarefied landscape of the sumptuous country house. There's the recent divorcée rusticated to her ex-husband's charming cottage; a Citroën-driving son who gets lost on the way to his father's wedding; a husband on vacation consumed with his wife's stock picks; a man so envious of his friend's sexual prowess on a trip to Greece that he realizes his marriage is over without actually cheating on his wife.
Given the proper soundtrack, most of these situations could fit smoothly into your average Hugh Grant romantic comedy. But Lasdun has his sights set on problems money has never been able to solve. Take "Peter Kahn's First Wife," a devastating story about a jewelry salesgirl who falls in love with the man who, on a near-yearly basis, has her try on his glittering purchases for a succession of wives. It sounds like a role built for Doris Day, but when the character finally decides to end her abusive marriage to pursue this passion, we are sobered by Lasdun's portrait of their failure to connect with each other, the willful blindness with which we stumble though our lives.
In "Caterpillars," Lasdun takes that idea a step further. A woman watches silently as her boyfriend cruelly berates his son on a hiking trip, then is unable to help when the child has a dangerous allergic reaction. Repulsed and fascinated by her mate's anger, the girlfriend tries to make sure the boy is safe. But Lasdun subtly lets us know that in fact her fruitless mission is -- and will thereafter be -- to save the father.
Like the settings of his stories, Lasdun's pointed prose is deceptively delicate, concealing a real sliver of malice beneath. In "The Half Sister," a guitar teacher observes that a woman's face is "very strange -- large and oval, with a propitiatory quality, like a salver on which certain curious, unrelated objects were being offered up for inspection." It's a startling image, even more so when we learn she really is being served up: as a candidate for a wife.
Or take "An Anxious Man," in which a man's worry over his wife's inheritance manifests itself in the fear that he has lost his wife and daughter. After they turn up, he flirts with another woman at a dinner with the neighbors. "She caught his eye, giving him a sly, unexpected smile. Then she placed the living lobsters on the grill. Joseph had never seen this done before. The sight of them convulsing and hissing over the red hot coals sent a reflexive shudder of horror through him, though a few minutes later he was happily eating his share."
It's the ability to delude ourselves that Lasdun keeps coming back to, knowing it can lead only to a more horrible moment: when we realize that we should have noticed sooner how we were going wrong. (That's perhaps truly clearest in "The Old Man," where a fiancé has the dreadful realization that he's about to marry a murderer.) Most moving is the moment in the title story when a man recalls with despair his mistress dismissing him: "Marie never asked him to leave his family, and he had regarded this too as part of his luck. And then, abruptly, she had ended it. 'I'm in love with you,' she'd told him matter-of-factly, 'and it's beginning to hurt.' "
In this marvelous, masterful collection of such unexamined moments, that minor character is the only one who ever sees it coming.
Skurnick's memoir of teen reading, "Shelf Discovery," was published in July.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 14, 2022
One of our best writers
October 3, 2012
It's difficult to give five stars to a collection of short stories, because that would suggest that there were no stories I liked more or less than the others. Having said that, this one probably rates 4.5. The title story, a mere two pages when the others are mostly 12-15, is particularly poignant. 'I'm in love with you,’ the mistress says matter-of-factly to her married lover as she is breaking off the relationship, ‘and it's beginning to hurt.’
Others I particularly liked include 'An Anxious Man', winner of the BBC National Short Story Award, about a man who has plenty to worry about, from the dodgy state of the stock market to his little daughter's sleepover with some new neighbours; 'Peter Kahn’s Third Wife', a wine merchant chequered romantic career seen through the eyes of the assistant in the jeweller’s shop where he buys engagement rings; and ‘Cranley Meadows’, which raises the heart-rending question of what to do when you find you are pregnant with a child (or in this case two) you can't afford to bring up.
Highly recommended
Others I particularly liked include 'An Anxious Man', winner of the BBC National Short Story Award, about a man who has plenty to worry about, from the dodgy state of the stock market to his little daughter's sleepover with some new neighbours; 'Peter Kahn’s Third Wife', a wine merchant chequered romantic career seen through the eyes of the assistant in the jeweller’s shop where he buys engagement rings; and ‘Cranley Meadows’, which raises the heart-rending question of what to do when you find you are pregnant with a child (or in this case two) you can't afford to bring up.
Highly recommended
March 6, 2014
Monday R4x
April 19, 2013
From BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime:
Series of five enigmatic and psychologically gripping short stories by James Lasdun.
Series of five enigmatic and psychologically gripping short stories by James Lasdun.
July 9, 2018
i enjoyed this collection a lot! i felt so many different intense and heavy emotions.
an anxious man 5/5 - i liked this story bc i could relate so hard to the main characters thought process and anxieties, it made me feel sad tho bc being trapped in all those thoughts is hard
the natural order 0/5 - i don’t like anything about cheating, knowing how that feels to have happen, and reading from the perspective of someone having thoughts of doing it really shook me up. no one should cheat, or want to, it’s sad and wrong and cruel.
the incalculable life gesture 5/5 - holy fk this was the most relatable thing i’ve read in awhile. like depressingly so. i understand way too well how it is to be infected by someone else’s attitude or demeanor even when you’re trying to hard to be better and grow as a person, to want to see the good in things finally after being brought so low.
the half sister 0/5 - this story didn’t have any depth at all and didn’t really sit well with me. just felt like the definition of selfish.
the old man 5/5 - wow this was fked up for how short and not detailed it was, the sentences flowed so well in this story though, but i got such an impending sense of dread at the end, like a lot of control and manipulation is in the works and i’m almost glad i won’t have to witness the avalanche on this man’s life
annals of the honorary secretary 5/5 - wow this was really good, i wish there was a whole book about this concept because it had my attention like crazy, now i wish i knew anything similar to this so i could read it
cleanness 5/5 - this was well written and i was enjoying it a lot but then it got kind of... strange in a way that needed redemption... or maybe explanation is a better word, that it didn’t receive because of the short length. i definitely understand conflicting mommy issues tho
the woman at the window 5/5 - uh wow wtf? this was a major manipulation story, makes you wonder about the authenticity of things when some people are just making life a huge game
a bourgeois story 5/5 - i don’t know a lot about politics and things so this one probably went over my head entirely but it was written in a way that made me wish i understood, my ex would have understood bc they’re so passionate about the topics mentioned so maybe i’ll have them explain it to me if they’ll read it
oh, death 10/5 - wow jesus this is my favorite by far at this moment, i wish this was an entire novel. this gave me so many different emotions and by the end i had tears in my eyes. i loved this so much. it started so small and built to enormous lengths in such a few short pages, i saw entire lives play out and i want more. this could be an entire coming of age novel
cranley meadows 5/5 - this was so hopelessly sad from both perspectives. i felt for them. made my heart ache
totty 5/5 - oh wow this story speaks volumes about the way women are treated and what’s expected of them, the power men think they have over them. her plan was sooo good i got so excited when that was revealed!! then she chose the other route ugh...
peter kahn’s third wife 5/5 - this was... intense. fixation and mental illness are a sad and scary thing. longing and fantasy can be dangerous. this story sort of broke my heart.
lime pickle 10/5 - wow this is another favorite and one that should be a full novel!! this touched me. this spoke to me. i felt this in my heart. i loved the way it ended so much but i wish it wasn’t over.
it’s beginning to hurt 5/5 - i’m in love with you and it’s beginning to hurt.
caterpillars 4/5 - uh this is some fked up story about karma or something lol
an anxious man 5/5 - i liked this story bc i could relate so hard to the main characters thought process and anxieties, it made me feel sad tho bc being trapped in all those thoughts is hard
the natural order 0/5 - i don’t like anything about cheating, knowing how that feels to have happen, and reading from the perspective of someone having thoughts of doing it really shook me up. no one should cheat, or want to, it’s sad and wrong and cruel.
the incalculable life gesture 5/5 - holy fk this was the most relatable thing i’ve read in awhile. like depressingly so. i understand way too well how it is to be infected by someone else’s attitude or demeanor even when you’re trying to hard to be better and grow as a person, to want to see the good in things finally after being brought so low.
the half sister 0/5 - this story didn’t have any depth at all and didn’t really sit well with me. just felt like the definition of selfish.
the old man 5/5 - wow this was fked up for how short and not detailed it was, the sentences flowed so well in this story though, but i got such an impending sense of dread at the end, like a lot of control and manipulation is in the works and i’m almost glad i won’t have to witness the avalanche on this man’s life
annals of the honorary secretary 5/5 - wow this was really good, i wish there was a whole book about this concept because it had my attention like crazy, now i wish i knew anything similar to this so i could read it
cleanness 5/5 - this was well written and i was enjoying it a lot but then it got kind of... strange in a way that needed redemption... or maybe explanation is a better word, that it didn’t receive because of the short length. i definitely understand conflicting mommy issues tho
the woman at the window 5/5 - uh wow wtf? this was a major manipulation story, makes you wonder about the authenticity of things when some people are just making life a huge game
a bourgeois story 5/5 - i don’t know a lot about politics and things so this one probably went over my head entirely but it was written in a way that made me wish i understood, my ex would have understood bc they’re so passionate about the topics mentioned so maybe i’ll have them explain it to me if they’ll read it
oh, death 10/5 - wow jesus this is my favorite by far at this moment, i wish this was an entire novel. this gave me so many different emotions and by the end i had tears in my eyes. i loved this so much. it started so small and built to enormous lengths in such a few short pages, i saw entire lives play out and i want more. this could be an entire coming of age novel
cranley meadows 5/5 - this was so hopelessly sad from both perspectives. i felt for them. made my heart ache
totty 5/5 - oh wow this story speaks volumes about the way women are treated and what’s expected of them, the power men think they have over them. her plan was sooo good i got so excited when that was revealed!! then she chose the other route ugh...
peter kahn’s third wife 5/5 - this was... intense. fixation and mental illness are a sad and scary thing. longing and fantasy can be dangerous. this story sort of broke my heart.
lime pickle 10/5 - wow this is another favorite and one that should be a full novel!! this touched me. this spoke to me. i felt this in my heart. i loved the way it ended so much but i wish it wasn’t over.
it’s beginning to hurt 5/5 - i’m in love with you and it’s beginning to hurt.
caterpillars 4/5 - uh this is some fked up story about karma or something lol
October 1, 2019
To begin with, let me say that the two books that I have read by Lasdun have turned me into a fan; now I would like to read them all. Here is a collection of wonderfully written stories that are full of insight and seasoned with dry, biting humor. The author can take fairly ordinary situations and, using his remarkable powers of description, make them appear revealing and scintillating. His characters are for the most part middle class Brits and Americans, many struggling with some sort of disconcerting romantic situation. Not all the stories had a major effect on me, but the few that did I will remember and think about again, as I did with his novel "The Horned Man."
The stories in the second half of the collection are especially potent. In "A Bourgeois Story" a successful lawyer goes to meet his old college buddy, a left-wing activist, for drinks in the latter's seedy London neighborhood. Lasdun uses details (such as references to classic leftist literature and the comparison of the main character to a type of ant) to great effect. In "Oh, Death" another bourgeois character gets to compare his life with that of his neighbor, a blue collar outdoorsman who somehow connects with a vitality that the main character does not. In "Totty" a recently divorced woman who is known for her randy behavior has moved to a rural area. There she encounters an arrogant surgeon and his sweet son, both of whom develop an interest in her. In "Lime Pickle" a man revisits an exciting evening in his 18th year when he was taken out by his girlfriend's father and his girlfriend, and then takes an unsentimental look at the same characters some 20 years later. "Caterpillars" is an ironic tale that displays Lasdun's ability to portray foreboding through detail. In this one an uptight tree hugger takes abusive action when he sees some people behaving in what he believes is an un-environmental fashion, and ends up hurting his own son as a result. In the earlier part of the book I especially liked "The Half Sister" even though I did not fully comprehend the ending. I loved the portrayal of the somewhat sour guitar teacher, trying to cling to his solitude and turning his nose up at the kindness of his well-to-do employer. Issues of class and sex are often lurking around in Lasdun stories.
So how can I join Lasdun's fan club? I better be careful though, since he was the victim of stalking by an obsessed female, something he wrote an entire book about. Maybe I will try that one next. It appears to be his most popular effort to date.
The stories in the second half of the collection are especially potent. In "A Bourgeois Story" a successful lawyer goes to meet his old college buddy, a left-wing activist, for drinks in the latter's seedy London neighborhood. Lasdun uses details (such as references to classic leftist literature and the comparison of the main character to a type of ant) to great effect. In "Oh, Death" another bourgeois character gets to compare his life with that of his neighbor, a blue collar outdoorsman who somehow connects with a vitality that the main character does not. In "Totty" a recently divorced woman who is known for her randy behavior has moved to a rural area. There she encounters an arrogant surgeon and his sweet son, both of whom develop an interest in her. In "Lime Pickle" a man revisits an exciting evening in his 18th year when he was taken out by his girlfriend's father and his girlfriend, and then takes an unsentimental look at the same characters some 20 years later. "Caterpillars" is an ironic tale that displays Lasdun's ability to portray foreboding through detail. In this one an uptight tree hugger takes abusive action when he sees some people behaving in what he believes is an un-environmental fashion, and ends up hurting his own son as a result. In the earlier part of the book I especially liked "The Half Sister" even though I did not fully comprehend the ending. I loved the portrayal of the somewhat sour guitar teacher, trying to cling to his solitude and turning his nose up at the kindness of his well-to-do employer. Issues of class and sex are often lurking around in Lasdun stories.
So how can I join Lasdun's fan club? I better be careful though, since he was the victim of stalking by an obsessed female, something he wrote an entire book about. Maybe I will try that one next. It appears to be his most popular effort to date.
December 11, 2009
I concur with John, Sara, and Isa's reviews of this collection. The technical prowess, craft, and detail of the story telling is evident. I also like the subject matter and characters. However, the lack of emotion coming off the page such as a story like "Anxious Man" where the opening dialogue immediately captures the reader but in the end its almost like the author walked away from the keyboard then came back without the emotional intensity to wrap it up. This unfortunately happens many times throughout and most stories just left me indifferent and not memorable.
I did like "Cleanness' and the transformational as well as imaginative ending. My favorites are "Totty", "Peter Kahn's Third Wife", and "Caterpillars". The vision of each is seen through from beginning to end and the objectives as well as emotions of the characters resonated.
It's rare that I plop down over twenty US dollars for a new hardbound these days but I still come from a place where I want to support talented people and creators of good writing. However, I suggest waiting for the paper back to hit the shelves or even going to the local library.
I did like "Cleanness' and the transformational as well as imaginative ending. My favorites are "Totty", "Peter Kahn's Third Wife", and "Caterpillars". The vision of each is seen through from beginning to end and the objectives as well as emotions of the characters resonated.
It's rare that I plop down over twenty US dollars for a new hardbound these days but I still come from a place where I want to support talented people and creators of good writing. However, I suggest waiting for the paper back to hit the shelves or even going to the local library.
January 12, 2010
The writing is extraordinary. Lasdun's novel "The Horned Man" was remarkably well-written, too, but here, in the short story form, he doesn't have to manage so long and detailed a plot, and the book is better as a result. Unlike a Carver story, for instance, most of these stories cover large spans of times in the characters' lives and have relatively little dialogue, and most of the stories' endings may be unconventional insofar as they don't provide much resolution and often stop in media res. But the stories succeed overall and, if anything, make the reader consider what a short story can/should do.
I was struck by Lasdun's sentences more than anything else, such as the details of the stories themselves. He's able to render facial gestures, thoughts, memories, feelings, etc., with a precision and creativity that left me, a sometime writer, both amazed and jealous. (Bastard!) This may be closer to 3.5 than 4 for me, but the writing forces me to round up.
I would certainly recommend this collection to those interested in the short story. I first came across this book in The Atlantic's best books of 2009.
I was struck by Lasdun's sentences more than anything else, such as the details of the stories themselves. He's able to render facial gestures, thoughts, memories, feelings, etc., with a precision and creativity that left me, a sometime writer, both amazed and jealous. (Bastard!) This may be closer to 3.5 than 4 for me, but the writing forces me to round up.
I would certainly recommend this collection to those interested in the short story. I first came across this book in The Atlantic's best books of 2009.
April 14, 2014
Great collection of short stories. Most of them are around 15 pages long, which sounds like a lame reason to like something but actually made them perfect for bedtime reading. They are economically told and Lasdun has a great skill for releasing unexpected information quietly. For the most part they are not heavy on plot points but through small happenings you see truth of character. His observations really chimed with me. Here's a line from the last story in the collection, 'Caterpillars', about Caitlin's relationship with the bullish Craig: 'But he had engulfed her somehow; taken up residence in her imagination like some large, dense, intractable problem that had been given her to solve.' I'll be buying something else by Lasdun soon.
January 18, 2015
Finished the stories in Its Beginning to Hurt. At first, they seemed like variations on a single story but about midway through, there was a bit more variety.
I liked the very Jamesian Annals of the Honorary Secretary and Oh Death, not Jamesian at all.
I liked the very Jamesian Annals of the Honorary Secretary and Oh Death, not Jamesian at all.
January 19, 2010
The best collection of short stories I've read in recent memory. If you're looking for a book to read, check this one out. All his characters are richly developed and realistic.
January 27, 2010
Now I need a new collection of Shorts. Any suggestions out there?
January 11, 2011
It was one of the best collection of short stories that I read for a long time.
May 9, 2020
Lasdun's collection probably would've bored me to tears if I read it ten years ago, but that's because I wouldn't have been mature enough to appreciate it. These are, in some ways, quiet stories about middle age, so they're going to appeal most to readers who've experienced failed marriages, death, infidelity, aging. Lasdun is the guy Sting sings about, an Englishman in New York, so the majority of these stories are set in upstate New York, the city itself, or in England. The author, who is also a poet, writes beautifully but is never showy, and he has the poet's gift of concision. Lasdun knows when to end a story, which is a unique skill. In fact, the title story, reminiscent of Hemingway, clocks in at two pages. It is one of the best short-shorts I've stumbled across. Lasdun draws the tension out of everyday occurrences, such as stock market losses, accompanying a womanizing coworker on a road trip, intractable siblings, awkward matchmaking. In some ways, these stories are miniature domestic dramas, but that isn't to say that Lasdun fails to show his range as a writer. His story, "Annals of the Honorary Secretary," with its subtle magic realism, reminded me most of a Steven Millhauser story. Lasdun seems aware of the stories that will illicit the strongest response from the reader and saves those for the end of the collection. In "Cleanness," a man falls in some mud in his rented tux on his way to his father's wedding, creating a cringe-worthy spectacle when he finally arrives. In "The Woman at the Window," the title character lures an unsuspecting Londoner into her New York City apartment. In "A Bourgeois Story," a radical leftist manages to belittle and ultimately dismiss his old college friend, who is now a bourgeois attorney. And in "Oh, Death," one of the main characters is killed in the course of a tree trimming operation. Lasdun writes about class and striving for social standing in a way few other writers do. Often, material objects, such as jewelry, assume symbolic significance. The men in these stories often have roving eyes but are just as often diminished by their indiscretions. Women are written knowingly and with respect. The final story, "Caterpillars," is also one of the strongest. In it, an environmentalist seeks to sabotage a tour group and is then forced to ask for their help to save his son. It's a pleasure to come across a great collection like this one and to stumble across it at a time in my life when I can best appreciate it.
May 5, 2021
El libro contiene 16 relatos con diferentes historias en cada uno de ellos.
A pesar de tener solo 275 páginas, la lectura se me hizo muy lenta. No lograba engancharme del todo con las historias, aunque hubo algunas que me gustaron bastante.
Cabe resaltar que más allá de que los relatos en sí no me llamaron tanto la atención, la forma de escribir que tiene el autor sí me gusto.
No recomendaría el libro ya que no fue lo que yo esperaba.
A pesar de tener solo 275 páginas, la lectura se me hizo muy lenta. No lograba engancharme del todo con las historias, aunque hubo algunas que me gustaron bastante.
Cabe resaltar que más allá de que los relatos en sí no me llamaron tanto la atención, la forma de escribir que tiene el autor sí me gusto.
No recomendaría el libro ya que no fue lo que yo esperaba.
February 24, 2021
Achingly beautiful read.
September 18, 2023
may have read this for class, but i think analyzing it truly made these short stories seem even better
November 1, 2024
Was fine, wasn’t amazing, but was good.
June 26, 2011
“But knowing that in twenty minutes you were going to legitimately succumb to anxiety was not very different from succumbing to it right now” (11).
“Then it was the light itself one became aware of, rather than the things in it” (12).
“She had changed out of the tissuey top into a sleeveless robe of flowing peach-colored linen, but Joseph had recognized her at once as the victor in the incident with the lobsters” (14).
“The ideal state of affairs, things seemed to imply, was a continual orgy. If you weren’t desirable, then dye your hair, spend the day in a tanning salon, sign up at one of these gyms that flaunted their robotic, Lycra-clad members at passersby through vast street-level windows. Turn the inside of your head into your own private rock stadium…The steady convergence of mainstream commerce with what had once been marginal or underground was peculiarly dismaying. In the past, when you grew sick of one of these worlds, you could shift, mentally, into the other, but now they had consolidated, and there was nowhere to escape. The whole world, as he had read somewhere, was an underworld. If you described New York to even a liberal-minded person of fifty years ago, he would tell you the apocalypse must have come…
“But in the thick of these thoughts a sudden bewilderment seized him. Where did they come from? What was the basis, within him, for this indignation? On what rock of conviction was it founded? If you didn’t believe in God or the soul or the hereafter, then what was a human being if not merely living meat? And if that was so, then surely it was natural to want to be healthy, nubile, muscular, lusty…Better that than tainted meat, as he had become!” (58-59).
“Mrs. Knowles looked at him for a moment, saying nothing, but leaving him in no doubt that he had humiliated himself” (70).
“Privately, I had observed the events in the countries beyond what had once been the Iron Curtain with mixed feelings; it had been strangely unsettling to find myself somehow vindicated in the caution, the capacity for endless equivocation, the final attachment to comfort and prosperity that had delivered me to where I was today. It had felt like getting away with a crime, on the grounds that the crime had suddenly been made legal. ‘It’s all right,’ history had seemed to whisper complicitly in my ear, ‘you have nothing to be ashamed of…’ The peculiar economy of my conscience had apparently come to depend on the supposition of a universe violently opposed to my own” (125-126).
“ ‘As far as I can see, a nation is just an expression of the human inability to give a shit about the life or death of other humans beyond a fixed limit. Or put the other way round, it’s a way of organizing and instituting people’s apparently limitless desire to grind their heels in other people’s faces’” (127-128).
“The woman’s round, haggard face seemed to dilate in the gray air as though swelling on her own obscurely affronted rectitude” (179).
“Vindictiveness was rare in June’s experience, but she wasn’t after all, a complete stranger to it. She knew well the feeling of luxuriant, almost voluptuous destructiveness it released, over and above any justified punitive function it might serve” (179).
“He spread the menu before him like a general’s map, plotting his debauch on our inexperienced palates” (201).
“Since being with Craig, she had found that I was necessary to guard, rather carefully, what remained of her affection for her own species” (215).
“Then it was the light itself one became aware of, rather than the things in it” (12).
“She had changed out of the tissuey top into a sleeveless robe of flowing peach-colored linen, but Joseph had recognized her at once as the victor in the incident with the lobsters” (14).
“The ideal state of affairs, things seemed to imply, was a continual orgy. If you weren’t desirable, then dye your hair, spend the day in a tanning salon, sign up at one of these gyms that flaunted their robotic, Lycra-clad members at passersby through vast street-level windows. Turn the inside of your head into your own private rock stadium…The steady convergence of mainstream commerce with what had once been marginal or underground was peculiarly dismaying. In the past, when you grew sick of one of these worlds, you could shift, mentally, into the other, but now they had consolidated, and there was nowhere to escape. The whole world, as he had read somewhere, was an underworld. If you described New York to even a liberal-minded person of fifty years ago, he would tell you the apocalypse must have come…
“But in the thick of these thoughts a sudden bewilderment seized him. Where did they come from? What was the basis, within him, for this indignation? On what rock of conviction was it founded? If you didn’t believe in God or the soul or the hereafter, then what was a human being if not merely living meat? And if that was so, then surely it was natural to want to be healthy, nubile, muscular, lusty…Better that than tainted meat, as he had become!” (58-59).
“Mrs. Knowles looked at him for a moment, saying nothing, but leaving him in no doubt that he had humiliated himself” (70).
“Privately, I had observed the events in the countries beyond what had once been the Iron Curtain with mixed feelings; it had been strangely unsettling to find myself somehow vindicated in the caution, the capacity for endless equivocation, the final attachment to comfort and prosperity that had delivered me to where I was today. It had felt like getting away with a crime, on the grounds that the crime had suddenly been made legal. ‘It’s all right,’ history had seemed to whisper complicitly in my ear, ‘you have nothing to be ashamed of…’ The peculiar economy of my conscience had apparently come to depend on the supposition of a universe violently opposed to my own” (125-126).
“ ‘As far as I can see, a nation is just an expression of the human inability to give a shit about the life or death of other humans beyond a fixed limit. Or put the other way round, it’s a way of organizing and instituting people’s apparently limitless desire to grind their heels in other people’s faces’” (127-128).
“The woman’s round, haggard face seemed to dilate in the gray air as though swelling on her own obscurely affronted rectitude” (179).
“Vindictiveness was rare in June’s experience, but she wasn’t after all, a complete stranger to it. She knew well the feeling of luxuriant, almost voluptuous destructiveness it released, over and above any justified punitive function it might serve” (179).
“He spread the menu before him like a general’s map, plotting his debauch on our inexperienced palates” (201).
“Since being with Craig, she had found that I was necessary to guard, rather carefully, what remained of her affection for her own species” (215).
July 26, 2010
I can't say I didn't like this collection of short stories, but I also can't say I liked it fully either. James Lasdun is one of those writers who can capture a feeling so well in a sentence, that you can't help but keep rereading the sentence that felt like it was mocking you with its accuracy in revealing something about you to the whole world you thought only you were privy to, until that moment you saw it on the page.
The stories in this collection share one common theme, though they differ from each other quite a bit. The stories do contain action, but they are very character-oriented, so much so that everything else seems to melt away in the background and we are nowhere but inside the protagonist's brain, watching him or her process what happens around them. Sometimes, as demonstrated in the stories "An Anxious Man," "The Woman at the Window," and the title story, "It's Beginning to Hurt," it seems as though there is no story, but rather just a vignette of a character and what's going on inside his or her head.
The problem with the stories in this collection is that many of them seem stunted, lacking in enough umph to make them leave an effect on the reader. I found myself feeling more of a connection with the language and writing, rather than the characters or stories. Some stories were more solid than others, but for the most part, it seemed that most of them were ideas that sounded great in Lasdun's head, but once he typed them onto the screen, they were a lot more difficult to convey than he originally thought, so he just sorta'...stopped trying to find satisfactory resolutions or even good endings to them and went with subpar ones that could be confused with open endings, but are too flimsy to qualify as such.
Some of the more solid stories, I felt, were "The Natural Order," "The Incalculable Life Gesture," "Cranley Meadows," "Totty," and "Peter Kahn's Third Wife." A handful were too stunted for me to have an accurate opinion of, and a couple, like "Oh, Death" and "Annals of the Honorary Secretary," were ones I couldn't get through and had to skip.
In the end, I feel safe in saying that with a mixed bag of good and bad stories from "It's Beginning to Hurt," this collection deserves a look, and the three stars I've given it.
The stories in this collection share one common theme, though they differ from each other quite a bit. The stories do contain action, but they are very character-oriented, so much so that everything else seems to melt away in the background and we are nowhere but inside the protagonist's brain, watching him or her process what happens around them. Sometimes, as demonstrated in the stories "An Anxious Man," "The Woman at the Window," and the title story, "It's Beginning to Hurt," it seems as though there is no story, but rather just a vignette of a character and what's going on inside his or her head.
The problem with the stories in this collection is that many of them seem stunted, lacking in enough umph to make them leave an effect on the reader. I found myself feeling more of a connection with the language and writing, rather than the characters or stories. Some stories were more solid than others, but for the most part, it seemed that most of them were ideas that sounded great in Lasdun's head, but once he typed them onto the screen, they were a lot more difficult to convey than he originally thought, so he just sorta'...stopped trying to find satisfactory resolutions or even good endings to them and went with subpar ones that could be confused with open endings, but are too flimsy to qualify as such.
Some of the more solid stories, I felt, were "The Natural Order," "The Incalculable Life Gesture," "Cranley Meadows," "Totty," and "Peter Kahn's Third Wife." A handful were too stunted for me to have an accurate opinion of, and a couple, like "Oh, Death" and "Annals of the Honorary Secretary," were ones I couldn't get through and had to skip.
In the end, I feel safe in saying that with a mixed bag of good and bad stories from "It's Beginning to Hurt," this collection deserves a look, and the three stars I've given it.
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July 31, 2023My wife picked up a used copy of this for me on a whim, despite neither of us knowing the author, and I'm really glad she did. This collection of short stories from James Lasdun has some real gems in it. "Annals of the Honorary Secretary" is a chilling exercise in withholding information from your audience, reminiscent of Saunders's "The Red Bow." "An Anxious Man" is an intentionally anti-climactic piece, exemplifying, along with others in this collection, the many ways we sabotage ourselves and hinder our own progress. "Caterpillars" is a particularly excellent piece that reminded me of some of O'Connor's grotesquely specific short stories. I also really loved "Oh, Death", which painted a heartbreaking portrait of morally entropic forces slowly having their effects on a man over the course of his life. It's a solid collection with a diverse mix of narratives.
That being said, it has its duds. If Lasdun has a besetting sin, it's definitely exposition; all throughout this collection, he'll introduce a character or plot point and immediately explain its entire backstory in the subsequent paragraphs. This is particularly noticeable in "Cranley Meadows" and "Cleanness," where the plot can never really get off the ground, as Lasdun is too busy putting the plot pieces in place. When you notice the pattern, it's hard to unsee—and distracting.
Nevertheless, I'm glad I was unexpectedly introduced to Lasdun; he has a keen insight into many modern anxieties, and even when the pieces end in tragedy(or worse, cyclicality), there's something sorrowful and empathetic in his authorial voice. Lasdun doesn't enjoy bringing his characters to their grim logical conclusions, and as such, I can't help but feel that there's something deeply humane at this collection's core.
That being said, it has its duds. If Lasdun has a besetting sin, it's definitely exposition; all throughout this collection, he'll introduce a character or plot point and immediately explain its entire backstory in the subsequent paragraphs. This is particularly noticeable in "Cranley Meadows" and "Cleanness," where the plot can never really get off the ground, as Lasdun is too busy putting the plot pieces in place. When you notice the pattern, it's hard to unsee—and distracting.
Nevertheless, I'm glad I was unexpectedly introduced to Lasdun; he has a keen insight into many modern anxieties, and even when the pieces end in tragedy(or worse, cyclicality), there's something sorrowful and empathetic in his authorial voice. Lasdun doesn't enjoy bringing his characters to their grim logical conclusions, and as such, I can't help but feel that there's something deeply humane at this collection's core.
May 16, 2010
James Lasdun’s newest short story collection, It’s Beginning to Hurt, offers an impressive array of captivating anecdotes. Most of these stories feature British or American protagonists living in New York or London, who, while rambling about middle age, find themselves in a bit of trouble.
Some grapple with disease, others with infidelity. In one story, a man falls into a heaping pool of garbage-filled mud and in another a fanatical (and egotistical) environmentalist receives his comeuppance.
However, these categorizations and plot descriptions only scratch the surface of Lasdun’s latest book. Each work tumbles out of the page in a burst of energy, every sentence holds importance and each character has a uniquely fresh perspective.
What I find most compelling in James Lasdun’s stories, however, is his ability to understand and relay emotion and the human condition so effortlessly. By the end of each story, I felt attached to the characters. I understood them in some way or related to them regardless of how different their lives might have been from my own. I highly recommend this book. Lasdun is a masterful writer and I enjoyed every story.
“An Anxious Man,” the first story in the collection, won Britain’s coveted Short Story Prize. Lasdun’s collection also received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and was named one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2009.
Some grapple with disease, others with infidelity. In one story, a man falls into a heaping pool of garbage-filled mud and in another a fanatical (and egotistical) environmentalist receives his comeuppance.
However, these categorizations and plot descriptions only scratch the surface of Lasdun’s latest book. Each work tumbles out of the page in a burst of energy, every sentence holds importance and each character has a uniquely fresh perspective.
What I find most compelling in James Lasdun’s stories, however, is his ability to understand and relay emotion and the human condition so effortlessly. By the end of each story, I felt attached to the characters. I understood them in some way or related to them regardless of how different their lives might have been from my own. I highly recommend this book. Lasdun is a masterful writer and I enjoyed every story.
“An Anxious Man,” the first story in the collection, won Britain’s coveted Short Story Prize. Lasdun’s collection also received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and was named one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2009.
January 29, 2011
Great little short stories that pack a big impact in a few pages. (copied review) WSJ one best of 2009 This accomplished poet, novelist, and story writer's collection packs a devastating punch. Lasdun peels back the facades of middle-aged, middle-class types through their run-ins with cancer, infidelity and loss that lead them to deal with unexpectedly large and often ugly recognitions. The title story is less than three full pages, but generates near-boundless futility and regret as a businessman, having just attended the funeral of a long forgotten former lover, can't help falling back into the old habit of lying to his wife about how he's spent the day. The Incalculable Life Gesture builds to a climax of relief as an elementary school principal, feuding with his sister, follows through a series of tests that indicate he has lymphoma—until a specialist reveals the truth of his ailment. In Peter Kahn's Third Wife, a sales assistant in a jewelry boutique models necklaces for a wealthy wine importer who brings in a series of successive wives-to-be over the years. Jewels of resignation and transformative personal disaster, these stories are written so simply and cleanly that the formidable craft looks effortless.
August 2, 2012
It's Beginning to Hurt. While rather short and located far in the back, the title story to this short story collection truly defines the book. A man secretly attends a funeral on his lunch break, while his wife calls him to bring home fish for dinner. Dealing with ordinary occurrences, Lasdun vividly brings to the forefront the ordinary emotions and passions that define and give meaning to life. Any reader will be able to relate to these emotions and feelings, knowing exactly how many of them manifest themselves, which brings a strong power to these stories. A loyal husband travels the northern Greek countryside with a casanova with a knack for finding ladies seemly out of thin air. A trio wanders a French forest, stomping on caterpillars to save the pine trees. Relationships past and the human connection. Lasdun's stories start off on good footing but get even better in the second half of the book (after a somewhat bizarre 'Annals of the Honorary Secretary'), so if the first stories don't draw you in at least attempt the later ones, it will be well worth it. This is one to read again.
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October 16, 2009
excellent, biting stories, one called 'An Anxious Man' and I thought the whole collection could be called that for these pieces are all about things that go wrong, could go wrong, little moments that reveal a lot, futures uncertain and weird events causing things to go awry. For example a man in his best finery on his way to his father's wedding in France gets lost and has to call at a farm to ask his way and falls in pig shit on his way back to the car.
The stories are mainly set among the country house/London flat/New York apartment crowd with their cleaners and dinner parties and hidden etiquettes and manners, all nicely observed, cruelties subtly revealed. But there are also some about a weird supernatural club, or a dope smoking biker/woodsman.
There is a beautiful elegance to many of the stories, and Lasdun writes superbly (sorry I've taken the book back to the library so can't quote), in an almost old fashioned way, suited to that middle class setting. There is also a sliver of ice at the heart of everything, an appraisal oh his characters which is not flattering.
The stories are mainly set among the country house/London flat/New York apartment crowd with their cleaners and dinner parties and hidden etiquettes and manners, all nicely observed, cruelties subtly revealed. But there are also some about a weird supernatural club, or a dope smoking biker/woodsman.
There is a beautiful elegance to many of the stories, and Lasdun writes superbly (sorry I've taken the book back to the library so can't quote), in an almost old fashioned way, suited to that middle class setting. There is also a sliver of ice at the heart of everything, an appraisal oh his characters which is not flattering.
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