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bookpossum's review against another edition
3.0
Jane Gardam is always worth reading. While I didn't enjoy these short stories as much as, say, "Old Filth", that is more because I didn't become as engaged with the characters, even where they appeared in various stories, as I do with characters developed in a novel.
Her spare style is, as always, elegant.
Her spare style is, as always, elegant.
bookworm_prodigy's review against another edition
2.0
What a disappointment. The concept had such great potential, and yet I found it mostly so very empty. The writing was hard to follow and I’m sure the complexity of the writing had depth and layers but I still struggled to find anything within the stories. There were little snippets, somewhat obvious metaphors but overall to me it felt like dull vacation stories with lacking depth. I felt no connection or interest toward the characters and I expected a way more vibrant story with strong themes of power imbalance and colonisation. There were no such things - or I’ve lost them in the text which I simply could not follow. The exception was Saul Alone - the story, although having little to do with being set in Jamaica - was the only easy to follow, layered short piece in the collection.
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