Two women in Rome, harbouring a resentment over something that seems shallow at first and then, little by little, it becomes spoken and plain, and terrifying. I didn’t know what I was getting into, with this collection of short stories, and it was the titular one to shake me up. Then you have an old little woman whi’s very fond of the view she has from her room at the boarding house (expect a twist from this one as well), “The Other Two” where a man comes to terms with his wife’s two former husbands (or does he?), and “Pomegranate Seed”, where the title gives it away but you won’t get it right up to the end. And “Afterward” is a proper ghost story. The one I liked least was “After Holbein”, I couldn’t connect with the characters, but it’s a minor flaw in yet another delightful collection of these quaint little books.
But here’s an ordered list of the stories in the book, since these Little Clothbound Penguins don’t have the index published anywhere in sight:
- Roman Fever
- Mrs Manstey’s View
- The Other Two
- Pomegranate Seed
- After Holbein
- Afterward
On this blog, we already featured some stories by Edith Wharton, no later than yesterday with her splendid “A Bottle of Perrier”. Just follow the hashtag.
No Comments