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Times Like These: Stories
His wasn't a world war. It was one of the smaller wars, but just as deadly as any other. "Wars are like snakes," his first commanding officer said to him. "Some of the little ones
can be even worse than the monsters." --from "Veterans"
Franklin fears his family is in danger from a fellow veteran he saved during the war. A young boy entranced by opera despite being born into the rock-and-roll generation finds himself playing the lead role in a present-day tragedy. Travel agents happily lost in the paperwork of other people's adventures break away for an impromptu trip without -- to their horror -- a destination.
Pitch-perfect and unpredictable, these stories cover a wide terrain of voices, plot, and imagery. Rachel Ingalls's richly drawn characters slip from the ordinary into the surreal with an elegance that can only come from a master of the form. Mostly set in the United States, the stories in Times Like These are available for the first time to American readers.
can be even worse than the monsters." --from "Veterans"
Franklin fears his family is in danger from a fellow veteran he saved during the war. A young boy entranced by opera despite being born into the rock-and-roll generation finds himself playing the lead role in a present-day tragedy. Travel agents happily lost in the paperwork of other people's adventures break away for an impromptu trip without -- to their horror -- a destination.
Pitch-perfect and unpredictable, these stories cover a wide terrain of voices, plot, and imagery. Rachel Ingalls's richly drawn characters slip from the ordinary into the surreal with an elegance that can only come from a master of the form. Mostly set in the United States, the stories in Times Like These are available for the first time to American readers.
316 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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107 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Ingalls
21 books134 followersRachel Ingalls grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She held various jobs, from theatre dresser and librarian to publisher’s reader. She was a confirmed radio and film addict and started living in London in 1965. She authored several works of fiction—most notably Mrs. Caliban—published in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 13, 2017
Adore the brutal final story "No Love Lost," which proves the post-apocalyptic doesn't have overreach for an inventive cataclysm when there is war. A delightful passage from it:
He remembered his friends, so young and full of exuberance, who were now dead while a rotting piece of senility like this lived on. The mere fact of it enraged him. And the next moment, it filled him with sorrow. This thing had had a mother once. Once upon a time, a young woman had cradled a baby in her arms and looked lovingly down into its face; and it was to become this pitiable wreck.
Somebody should just hit her on the head with a shovel. He didn’t want to do it himself. But if his wife did it, he’d accept it.
His wife wouldn’t do it. She’d told him straight to his face that it was his responsibility. It was something he was just going to have to carry out without thinking: like breaking the neck of an injured animal.
He remembered his friends, so young and full of exuberance, who were now dead while a rotting piece of senility like this lived on. The mere fact of it enraged him. And the next moment, it filled him with sorrow. This thing had had a mother once. Once upon a time, a young woman had cradled a baby in her arms and looked lovingly down into its face; and it was to become this pitiable wreck.
Somebody should just hit her on the head with a shovel. He didn’t want to do it himself. But if his wife did it, he’d accept it.
His wife wouldn’t do it. She’d told him straight to his face that it was his responsibility. It was something he was just going to have to carry out without thinking: like breaking the neck of an injured animal.
August 13, 2022
Rachel Ingalls' writing feels like a compound fracture at times, a bit jarring and the bone actually pokes through the skin.
Recommend this collection for marital therapists after they've had a difficult week; just imagine having some of the couples from this collection walk into your practice.
Not all of the stories here have relationships on turbulent waters, certainly "The Icon" stood out as an exception to that.
Recommend this collection for marital therapists after they've had a difficult week; just imagine having some of the couples from this collection walk into your practice.
Not all of the stories here have relationships on turbulent waters, certainly "The Icon" stood out as an exception to that.
August 3, 2011
These stories are wonderful and dark and breathtaking. I was already a fan of Rachel Ingalls from Mrs. Caliban; I found these stories very different from that book and yet just as astoundingly good. They're sprawling stories that take place over years and often decades, or maybe sprawling is the wrong word because the plots are so well woven. The stories are dark and bizarre and told with chilling plainness. "No Love Lost" is my new favorite dystopia/near-apocalypse story. Anyway, you probably haven't read this book, and probably you should.
June 27, 2007
loved "last act: the madhouse," "the archaeologist's daughter," and "somewhere else." "veterans" frustrated me and the other stories fell kind of flat. overall i think ingalls is a unique voice and i'd be interested in reading her other work.
February 5, 2008
there is something going on here i don't understand.
October 22, 2014
Very mature work and a rare gem , once again , by the venerable Ms Ingalls
She must have a beautyful soul to be able to write such wonderful stories
She must have a beautyful soul to be able to write such wonderful stories
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews