A review by paulataua
Complete Short Stories by Elizabeth Taylor, Joanna Kingham
4.0
Added two more stories June 28, 2023
Hester Lilly
Feeling uncertain about her position within her marriage, Muriel is alarmed about the consequences arising from the arrival at their school of her husband’s very young cousin , especially as her husband and the girl appear to have a special relationship. Fearing the worst, she decides to preempt any possible problem, which is not always the best course of action. Hester Lilly is the longest short story in the book, possibly better embarked upon as if it were a novella. I just love the emotional depth Taylor manages to give her characters and how she is always able to get the reader to have sympathy for even the most flawed of people. Taylor is always a great read and even her most serious work still includes the author’s gentle touch.
'Hester, in clothes which astonished by their improvisation – the wedding of out-grown school uniform with the adult, gloomy wardrobe of her dead mother – looked jaunty, defiant and absurd. Every garment was grown out of or not grown into'.
Following added June 28 2023
‘Taking Mother Out’
Mrs. Crouch is eighty-years-old but seems younger, and seems obsessed by drawing attention to her age. Her son, Roy, is a cynical type who appears to know everything and yet comes over as the henpecked son. There is also an elderly bird-watcher who constantly bores the company with his sightings. Very short offering that didn’t knock me out, but I am amazed how Taylor brings these three together with such perceptiveness. You feel you have experienced this whole interplay many times. (3 stars)
Spry Old Character
Only by pleasing could he live; by complying – as clown, as eunuch – he earned the scraps and shreds they threw to him, the odds and ends left over from their everyday life.
An elderly blind man is trapped in a home, but suddenly ‘escapes’ on an adventure where he meets people and they take him to the fairground. As always with Taylor, we are given insight into the unfortunate and also, unfortunately, how they are treated. Harry’s day out, however, is not exactly the wonderful adventure he might have imagined but a realization of how the world is. A great read that reaffirms Taylor’s brilliance. (5 stars)
Hester Lilly
Feeling uncertain about her position within her marriage, Muriel is alarmed about the consequences arising from the arrival at their school of her husband’s very young cousin , especially as her husband and the girl appear to have a special relationship. Fearing the worst, she decides to preempt any possible problem, which is not always the best course of action. Hester Lilly is the longest short story in the book, possibly better embarked upon as if it were a novella. I just love the emotional depth Taylor manages to give her characters and how she is always able to get the reader to have sympathy for even the most flawed of people. Taylor is always a great read and even her most serious work still includes the author’s gentle touch.
'Hester, in clothes which astonished by their improvisation – the wedding of out-grown school uniform with the adult, gloomy wardrobe of her dead mother – looked jaunty, defiant and absurd. Every garment was grown out of or not grown into'.
Following added June 28 2023
‘Taking Mother Out’
Mrs. Crouch is eighty-years-old but seems younger, and seems obsessed by drawing attention to her age. Her son, Roy, is a cynical type who appears to know everything and yet comes over as the henpecked son. There is also an elderly bird-watcher who constantly bores the company with his sightings. Very short offering that didn’t knock me out, but I am amazed how Taylor brings these three together with such perceptiveness. You feel you have experienced this whole interplay many times. (3 stars)
Spry Old Character
Only by pleasing could he live; by complying – as clown, as eunuch – he earned the scraps and shreds they threw to him, the odds and ends left over from their everyday life.
An elderly blind man is trapped in a home, but suddenly ‘escapes’ on an adventure where he meets people and they take him to the fairground. As always with Taylor, we are given insight into the unfortunate and also, unfortunately, how they are treated. Harry’s day out, however, is not exactly the wonderful adventure he might have imagined but a realization of how the world is. A great read that reaffirms Taylor’s brilliance. (5 stars)