Fionnuala’s Reviews > Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic > Status Update
Fionnuala
is on page 505 of 941
Labrenas—a boyhood friend from Venezuela called them and I sometimes call them that too. Actually they are no more than the common gecko, the one zoologists call Plattidattilo murailio: a sort of miniature crocodile that frequents and meanders along old walls and sometimes invades inhabited rooms where as is its habit it eyes and then sneaks up on various insects particularly butterflies
Tommaso Landolfi The Labrenas
— Jan 16, 2026 05:59AM
Tommaso Landolfi The Labrenas
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Fionnuala’s Previous Updates
Fionnuala
is on page 527 of 941
"A delicate and powerful instrument, it possesses hinges, pincers, tongs, hooks...cushions, valleys, hillocks...It is a marvelous flower with five petals that open and close like a sensitive plant at the slightest provocation! Is five an essential number in the universal harmonies? Does it belong to the order of the dog rose, the forget-me-not, the scarlet pimpernel?"
Alfonso Reyes, Major Aranda's ( what?)
— Jan 17, 2026 07:16AM
Alfonso Reyes, Major Aranda's ( what?)
Fionnuala
is on page 520 of 941
The carriage door stuck as usual; at the other end of the train the big hat chief leaned on the red button and the compressed air squirted in the tubes. A strained to force the two panels apart. Drops of grey sweat zigzagged across his face like flies. The train was about to start when the chief released the button. A almost lost his balance as the door suddenly gave way and he stumbled down
Boris Vian The Dead Fish
— Jan 16, 2026 06:13AM
Boris Vian The Dead Fish
Fionnuala
is on page 475 of 941
The rooster came to the pansy bed so sereneWhat a joy he felt to be of the world of wordless creatures where crowing or whirring of wings or the brush of legs together said everything, said praise, we live. To be of the grassy world where things blow and bend and rustle; of the insect world so close to it that it was known when an ant hauled an imperceptible grain of sand from its tiny cave.
W Goyen The White Rooster
— Jan 07, 2026 07:31AM
W Goyen The White Rooster
Fionnuala
is on page 468 of 941
"'What's your fee?' I asked.
She looked at the horses then glanced at me, then worked one toe into the ground and looked at that. She was wearing blue cloth shoes with thick white laces—all very clean. Too clean. I didn't think she knew snot about horseflesh. I figured she was straight out phony.
'Your fee,' I said.
She scratched a little itch behind her ear..."
Leon Rooke, 'The Woman Who Talked to Horses'
— Dec 09, 2025 08:24AM
She looked at the horses then glanced at me, then worked one toe into the ground and looked at that. She was wearing blue cloth shoes with thick white laces—all very clean. Too clean. I didn't think she knew snot about horseflesh. I figured she was straight out phony.
'Your fee,' I said.
She scratched a little itch behind her ear..."
Leon Rooke, 'The Woman Who Talked to Horses'
Fionnuala
is on page 459 of 941
"I cast my eye round the collection of books, instinctively noting whether they were for use or display. Here, they were not dressed by the right according to size; individual volumes of sets were occasionally misplaced; a few bookmarks protruded. Use, then; or extremely cunning display."
Julian Barnes, 'A Self-Possessed Woman'
— Dec 09, 2025 08:13AM
Julian Barnes, 'A Self-Possessed Woman'
Fionnuala
is on page 443 of 941
"She looked idly about her, and the swaying of the streetcar so determined that her eyes fell on a small slim man sitting beside the entrance...Her whole attention was taken by this man, although no one else seemed to observe him, and as the body of someone swaying beside her interposed between her and the small man, she did not see him, and then she saw him again..."
Ethel Wilson, 'Mr Sleepwalker'
— Dec 09, 2025 06:55AM
Ethel Wilson, 'Mr Sleepwalker'
Fionnuala
is on page 425 of 941
'The Brute' by Joseph Conrad begins as follows: "Dodging in from the rain-swept street, I exchanged a smile and a glance with Miss Blank in the bar of the Three Crows."
The story ends in a similar way: "On going out I exchanged a glance and a smile (strictly proper) with the respectable Miss Blank, barmaid of the Three Crows."
What happens in between is as mysteriously hilarious as those two sentences. I loved it!
— Nov 22, 2025 06:37AM
The story ends in a similar way: "On going out I exchanged a glance and a smile (strictly proper) with the respectable Miss Blank, barmaid of the Three Crows."
What happens in between is as mysteriously hilarious as those two sentences. I loved it!
Fionnuala
is on page 370 of 941
"He was a hard thin-faced man with an air of being scarred. His eyes were a sort of taunt to the whole human family—the eyes of an animal sleepy and quiescent in the presence of another species. They were helpless yet brutal, unhopeful yet confident. It was as if they felt themselves powerless to originate activity but infinitely capable of profiting from the weakness of another"
FS Fitzgerald: A Short Trip Home
— Nov 16, 2025 08:56AM
FS Fitzgerald: A Short Trip Home
Fionnuala
is on page 370 of 941
"'My old woman,' Toddy shouted, and she saw him pointing to the power-house below. In England his habit of personalizing an electric generating plant had charmed her, fitting her picturesque notions of the Canadian north. But now she felt uneasiness prod her. It was such a sinister-looking building, and the sound of falling water was so loud and engulfing..."
Joyce Marshall, The Old Woman
— Nov 16, 2025 08:39AM
Joyce Marshall, The Old Woman
Fionnuala
is on page 250 of 941
There were two new graves in the cemetery; the names on the small temporary wooden boards set up at the foot of each mound: James Bull; George Whitelegg. Poor chaps—no one would ever know why they had fallen; they were climbing guideless. Bull—well, he was a nasty bit of work. Poor Whitelegg was quite under his spell; Bull had that power of dominating another person, almost of possessing them
Ann Bridge: The Accident
— Oct 31, 2025 02:00PM
Ann Bridge: The Accident
