A review by kimswhims
Here Until August: Stories by Josephine Rowe
3.0
I read this collection because it is long-listed for the 2020 Stella Prize.
Not my cup of tea at all. Short stories, for me, often don't hold enough character development and not enough of the three necessaries: A beginning, a middle and an end. This certainly applied for this collection.
The writing is good enough about these transient moments in time and any one of them would adapt well into part of a longer story. There is probably even some good metaphor here but I was so bored by the lack of plot that I couldn't be bothered investing any further into it.
All these stories ended with a whimper, not memorable at all. Apart from maybe a wildcat that crosses the ice with one of it's kittens carried in it's mouth. Metaphorical perhaps.
I hope anyone else who reads this get's a lot more from it than I did.
Rating is rounded up from a 2.5 to a three because the writing is good enough, to only just prevent me from dnfing it.
Hoping the other short story collections on the Stella long list hold more entertainment.
Not my cup of tea at all. Short stories, for me, often don't hold enough character development and not enough of the three necessaries: A beginning, a middle and an end. This certainly applied for this collection.
The writing is good enough about these transient moments in time and any one of them would adapt well into part of a longer story. There is probably even some good metaphor here but I was so bored by the lack of plot that I couldn't be bothered investing any further into it.
All these stories ended with a whimper, not memorable at all. Apart from maybe a wildcat that crosses the ice with one of it's kittens carried in it's mouth. Metaphorical perhaps.
I hope anyone else who reads this get's a lot more from it than I did.
Rating is rounded up from a 2.5 to a three because the writing is good enough, to only just prevent me from dnfing it.
Hoping the other short story collections on the Stella long list hold more entertainment.