Playing Sardines

by Michèle Roberts

Playing Sardines - a game in the dark, a game about desire, about wanting, all whipped up in a tale about the erotic allure of a cook whose obsessive love turns hungry and dangerous; a fan who tries to get into a celebrity novelist's sheets; a fanatical dieter and maker of lists working out how to deal with a husband who snores; a faddy eater thrown off-course by a miracle; a child greedy for love who faces up to her demon of jealousy - just some of the characters who shape this wonderful collection.
Women yearning for what they haven't got - prepared to be wily, deceptive, cunning and perverse - all these strategies for survival in love and life are deployed here to mouth-watering effect.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, France

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Michèle Brigitte Roberts is the author of fifteen novels, including Ignorance which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basics: 18 stories, some of flash fiction length

Settings: France, England, Italy

Themes: reinvention, love affairs, obsession, food, literature

Stand-outs: The ones with funny twists/shock endings: “The Sheets” (French maid beds visiting English author), “The Cookery Lesson” (woman stalks celebrity chef), “Lists” (pillar of the community prepares for Christmas, starting months ahead), “Blathering Frights” (a Wuthering Heights spoof)

Similar authors: Julian Barnes (one story is indeed dedicated to him!), A.S. Byatt, John Lanchester, Helen Simpson

Aside: I own two unread novels by Roberts and need to prioritize them.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up on the strength of Roberts' Daughters of the House, which I very much enjoyed a couple of years ago. Each story in Playing Sardines is marvellous, and surprising. The repeated themes - love, food, obsession - have been handled in different ways, making every single story stand apart from the rest. I cannot believe that Roberts is such an underrated author. MY GOD, SHE IS SO GOOD.

[Gabriela Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caution: DO NOT READ WHILE HUNGRY.
You'll feel famished and will have nothing on hand to eat as delicious as the things described here.

DO NOT READ WHILE HEARTBROKEN.
You'll feel miserable you've never experienced love as profound and fullfilling as the ones in this book. Or you might decide to artfully murder you ex.

[Liz Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't generally like collections of short stories, not enough to get your teeth into, but some of these were excellent. Very vivid.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good short stories, atmospheric and arty in it's telling!

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly (and rather honestly), I’m not particularly into short stories as I normally like to explore a longer plotline and characters than change over time, this said though I do like to read widely and like try out anything that comes my way - so, short stories it is!

Reading Roberts did surprise and enlighten me somewhat and I found that throughout stories she likes to use common themes. Amongst them there is a real predominance of sensuous and flavoursome foods (no harm there then!) and some rather naughty and cheeky little characters! Clearly, Roberts is also influenced by space and I enjoyed the fluidity of moving throughout stories set between urban and rural French and English landscapes.

Sex, religion and the identity of male and female characters (and their transgressions!) also float around the pages as common themes often with sharp twists and surprises in the tale that unfold themselves either gently or harshly within the final moments of each story – hence giving each tale a bit of a twist and a hint of a quirk – almost like fairy stories gone wrong really.

Even through reading a little of this work, I am inspired to read more. Roberts reminds me already of a cross between Joanne Harris (the UK writer who loves her French themes) and Anne Hébert (the French Canadian/Québecoise writer who loves a taste of fantasy and the supernatural) – this is definitely strong female imaginative writing that is brimming with symbolic meaning.

A great introductory entrée (starter) of this writer for me – I look forward to choosing a 'plat principal' from her prolific list of other works.

Recommended as a quick and jolly little read with added bite! No bun intended.

[Ape · Rating 3 out of 5]

2007 bookcrossing journal:

Collection of short stories. A lot of cooking and France in them, so perhaps a little comparable to Joanne Harris, although I would say Roberts' writing is of a higher quality.

When I started this book I found it really dull and uninspiring to be honest so after the first few stories I took a break from it. And when I came back to it, yesterday evening, I really enjoyed it and read the rest in one go. So either the first stories are dull or I was just in the wrong mood for reading at the time.

I liked the one about the fan of a celebrity chef; the mills and boon style bodice-ripper story with a twist at the end. Oh, and the story told in list format, which was a little different. It's always interesting to read a short story that is written in a different format to straight prose and works. That reminds me of a story by A L Kennedy that is told in the form of dictionary definitions (and it does work). The one about the twins complimenting one another was a nice story too. Oh, and the women whose husband snores - I could sympathise with that as snoring is one of my pet hates!

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

In case you're thinking my reviews are always negative... I loved this book. I'd never read anything of hers before and don't go for short stories much since getting put off by Maupassant at school but she's so lyrical, so evocative, so surprising. I'm going to seek out one of her novels and hope I like it half as much...

[VWrulesChick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a quick read with short stories that take place in France or England with some intriguing characters. Some its the author's description of food that tantalizes the senses or the the description of the landscape. I enjoyed reading this book.

[Sarah Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The style of writing was a breath of fresh air in the sense that she often uses the present tense and writes in the second person. Also, one short story was entirely made up of a series of lists yet humourously arrived at it's punchline.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories with a sensual flavour