This is a fantastic collection of short stories, most of which have an open ending, but where the insight offered by the "cross section" of modern life ( at least in eight of the nine stories), gives the reader a lot to think about. An introduction to each of the short stories is as follows;
The Brown Coast:
I saw the ocean meet the man
I saw you buried in the sand
A friend was there to hold your hand
Said walk on by
So I went walking through the street
I saw you strung up in a tree
A woman knelt there said to me
Said hold your tongue
( Monty got a raw deal - R.E.M)
I enjoyed this story, with its subtle metaphors, and inferences. Bob (not Monty) appears to have got a raw deal, from more than one front. Yet Bob, it appears can make a life from the new circumstances he finds himself in. Derrick's grievance, which Bob puts away aside, comes to pay Bob when he least expects it. The author presents an intimate scene with subtlety, while inferring some detail. The final episode of the sea cucumber being thrown back to the sea, and the young couple avoiding it, possibly suggests that one must be careful not to lose a good thing - possibly a hint on what Bob and Vicky lost out on.
Retreat: An attractive trait of this book is its somewhat meandering, only for irony to hit the reader with a punch. In this story, we see two brothers who never had a model fraternal relationship. Here we see the elder brother offering the olive branch to his sibling, inviting him over a holiday, only to have things go sour from the time the latter touches down. The tale almost suggests that there is something intricately wrong in certain relationships, that they are near impossible to restore.
Executors of Important Energies: Step parents are common to the protagonists in this collection, suggesting its modern setting. In this one, we have a complex relationship between Burt, his father who is suffering from a strange illness of memory loss, and his step mother. There is a nice dive in to the complex, yet realistic character of Burt's father, a successful lawyer before his illness put a stop to his practice. Burt reflects on the contribution to society that his father has made, despite his flaws, and compares it with his own work. Like most of the stories in this collection, the story has an open finish, suggesting that the reader make her own conclusions.
Down Through the Valley: This is another story of irony, and where a partner ends up in a tight corner, over no fault of his own. Here Jane reaches out to her ex-husband to help out with the new husband, who's had an accident. But accident or no accident, the new husband Barry puts his nose into matters which are none of his, and ironically our protagonist, Ed, the ex-husband gets a raw deal. His daughter's actions with the gear shaft too leaves a disturbing after taste, questioning if Marie is being used in a monstrous way.
Leopard: Another case of a kid having a less than happy home in the hands of a step parent - while there isn't out right cruelty, the step parent's socialism influenced beliefs aren't easy on our young protagonist - who's having a bad day although he was able to fudge from going to school. Just like the escaped pet leopard prowling in the woods, the narration suggests that there is a threat to the boy even though it is not outright abuse.
Door in Your Eye: This is a tale where an aging father spends some time at the house of his daughter, and visits a woman, whom he reads as being under duress. The woman has been in scrutiny for sometime by the father-daughter duo. He finds out that his daughter has read the woman's "vocation" completely wrong, and a friendly, breaking of the ice results between the woman and the older man.
Wild America: In this short story we find two cousins, who were close friends in their younger years, have since drifted apart in their interests. The girls go out to a walk into the woods, and things go wrong between them, resulting in Jacey taking a risk by approaching a stranger. There is a subtle suggestion that the broken family, her love for her missing father, (while disappointing her due to his aged looks,) works in a manner that a young girl cannot understand or settle to.
On the Show: Is a fabulous creation, where we are presented with a few characters from a visiting fair. It also features a seven year old boy being sexually exploited, while his father spends some time in the fair on a date. Probably this is the pick of the stories for me.
I cannot help, but strongly feel that in this collection, the unfortunate circumstances that children find themselves in, is one of the inklings that the author factored. True, that in the modern world, children are known to adopt to new circumstances; new relationships. However, the new parent and the natural ones, may need to go out of their ways to work towards a confidence that the child needs. Ed finds his daughter Marie in a position that disturbs him ( down through the valley); Jacey is clearly finding her life in a confusing state ( Wild America); Jim is worried if he'll have his visiting rights taken away after his son is raped during his blind date, while even the young man Jeff Park has a ugly fall out with his step dad who is pushing seventy ( On the show ).
The short story which lends its title to this collection is different from the other eight. While the other eight could be thought of as having an American setting of the eighties, if not early nineties, the title story is one based on the times of the marauding Vikings. The senseless violence is not only brutal, but even has a tone of humour given its absurdity. There is even a line here which suggest that the insecurity where I come from, experienced over millennia, has a similarity although our neighbours weren't quite as brutal as the vikings of a long gone era.
"You could say that those people on Lindisfarne were fools, living out there on a tiny island without high cliffs or decent natural defenses, and so close to us and also the Swedes and the Norwegians, how we saw it, we couldn’t afford not to come by and sack every now and again. "
This story ends suggesting that one's happiness in his or her family, was always a burden to carry in those violent times. Harari in his seminal book Homo Deus suggest that we are living in the best of times. Indeed, compared to the senseless violence that Tower portrays in this short story, maybe an unkind parent, new relationships, adaptability is a small price to pay in the journey of humanity to what it is today.
I have no hesitation in recommending this collection, not only to lovers of short stories, but those like to read modern fiction - it might even be looked upon as essential reading.
Rating: *****
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