Forbidden Cities

by Paula Morris

From Sunset Boulevard to the beaches of Auckland, from the banks of the Bund in Shanghai to the banks of the Danube, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Hammersmith Flyover, from Post-Katrina New Orleans to Fire Island, the stories of Forbidden Cities explore places of escape, transgression, ambition, delusions and desire.Paula Morris is a New Zealand writer with an international focus.

Genres: Short Stories

276 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Paula Morris, a novelist and short story writer of English and Maori descent, was born in New Zealand. For almost a decade she worked in the record business in London and New York. She now lives in New Orleans, where she teaches creative writing at Tulane University.

Paula's first novel, Queen of Beauty, won best first work of fiction at the 2003 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Hibiscus Coast, a literary thriller set in Auckland and Shanghai, was published in 2005 and has been optioned for film. Her third novel, Trendy But Casual, was published by Penguin New Zealand in 2005.

Paula's first short story collection, Forbidden Cities (2008) was a regional finalist in the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Ruined, her first YA novel, was published by Scholastic in 2009.

Reviews

[Lillerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thread of horror weaves through these stories - there is nothing of the horror genre in them, but an acceptance and exploration of the horrors of everyday life. Beautifully written, wide ranging in subject matter and style, Morris is a fantastic writer. I can't wait to reread this and see what I've missed, because there is a depth to her prose that I found impossible to fully take in on the first read through.

[Caroline Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

* Review (and pictures) also published on my blog www.lovewordsmusic.com.

Three books in and I’m not finished my Morris-a-thon yet. I get a bit like that. At aged 7 it was Garfield. Aged 17 it was Plath. Aged 21, the Beat Generation. Aged 28, The Rolling Stones. And at 32 it was the Lost Generation and Paris in the 20s. I love reading or listening to everything I can by, and about, one author, or one band. I love being able to recreate lives and times through a particular artist's work and to feel the borders of my personal world bend and stretch outwards with new understanding. Paula Morris isn’t quite an ‘obsession’ to the level that F. Scott Fitzgerald is, but her voice has driven me to read three of her works and leaves me with a desire for more.

I think what makes Morris’ writing so special is her personal involvement in her works and the ambiguous line between fiction and autobiography. She uses her personal experiences and her own history to draw her fictional worlds and, I suspect, characters. The result is a beautiful genuineness, as if she gifts part of herself with each story.

Forbidden Cities is no exception. It is a compilation of short stories that trot us around the globe and into the darkness and light of lives and places that seem real enough to book a flight to. The book’s opening story, Like a Mexican is my favorite. It is the story of a record industry exec (which Morris was before becoming an author) and an affair that almost broke her. This line so well-caught the essence of what true love feels like, that I emailed it to my hubby:

“It feels as though you’ve invented him, as through you’ve invented each other. It feels as though you’ve never been in love before.”

I can’t help but feel that this, or a version of this story, really happened to Morris – ah, the beauty of fiction.

Lonelyville for poor Robert and the perfect depiction of his gaggle of bitchy girls. And the uncomfortable ending;

The description of miscarriage ((77) and Olivia’s disappointing marriage in The Party;

The delicate sense of “I’m not sure what is, but this isn’t the life I wanted” in Testing;

Plain light of day infidelity and realization in The Argyle;

Rangatira for showing me the providence of Morris’ later novel by the same name

Forbidden Cities is Morris’ fifth work of adult fiction. For my other Paula Morris book reviews click on the links:
Queen of Beauty:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rangatira:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paula Morris' collection of short stories dates from 2008. There are thirteen tales in this book that take us on a global tour from the USA to the UK, to Auckland and New Zealand and on to Shanghai and finally to Budapest.

They are a great selection of stories with no particular theme running through them other than a highly observant eye turned upon everyday living. For some reason the one that I enjoyed the most was set in Auckland and had the most mundane of subjects - the inorganic refuse collection. It is a strange season in Auckland, and perhaps the story worked so well because I can relate it to things I have actually seen. When households put out the rubbish that the weekly refuse will not take away, suddenly hoards of strangers roam the streets, leaping from battered cars and vans to grab any useful item from the roadside piles. Unwanted by others but perhaps worth a few dollars to them. I guess inside those battered vans there is the remote hope of a valuable find, something that might fetch hundreds, like the lure of a big win on the lotto.

There are lots of relationships and affairs within these stories, few of them perfect, many very transitory, but all interestingly observed. Highly enjoyable.

One story bucks the trends of the others, 'Rangatira'. The story of a Maori chief from Hauturu who journeys all the way to England to meet Queen Victoria in the 1860s. After months at sea the little group is put on steam train and sent to the Isle of White to meet the monarch. I cannot imagine how bizarre and baffling such a trip must have been. It obviously became a book in its own right and I look forward to reading that soon.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just started reading this - it was a gift from Dorothy, from New Zealand