redhickory's review
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. Each chapter explores a different type of desire and in doing so, a different way of people relating to each other and the world. Each story is stand alone but the characters appear in more than one story, as they touch each other’s lives (sometimes in profound ways, but always at the edges).
The prose is easy to read and flows well. The emotion of the pieces comes through in the detail of the stories. The other character in the book is King’s Cross (even though not all of the stories are set there, or even in Australia), and the location is important to the attitudes of the people at the centre of the stories, as well as their life experiences and resultant expectations.
Most of the characters are flawed and even those at peace with themselves are somehow sad. In many ways for me the most interesting aspect was not the desires of the characters, but the way in which they bumped into each other’s lives. I was always looking for a previous character to re-appear.
I think the most interesting story for me was one in which a wife makes her philandering husband (he appears in 2 other stories) magically disappear; it is all about perception and is it thought provoking.
The prose is easy to read and flows well. The emotion of the pieces comes through in the detail of the stories. The other character in the book is King’s Cross (even though not all of the stories are set there, or even in Australia), and the location is important to the attitudes of the people at the centre of the stories, as well as their life experiences and resultant expectations.
Most of the characters are flawed and even those at peace with themselves are somehow sad. In many ways for me the most interesting aspect was not the desires of the characters, but the way in which they bumped into each other’s lives. I was always looking for a previous character to re-appear.
I think the most interesting story for me was one in which a wife makes her philandering husband (he appears in 2 other stories) magically disappear; it is all about perception and is it thought provoking.
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