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A review by mairispaceship
The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon
5.0
Exactly the book I wanted to read at exactly the right time and it was fantastic.
A friend recommended this one about a year ago, I picked up a copy fairly quickly but kept it on my "to read" pile for far too long. Sometimes I wasn't quite in the mood for short stories, other times I read a few pages and realised it was going to be a hard read. But I'm glad I read it when I did.
There are 9 stories in this collection. They span multiple different genres, but all centre around lonely people and all typically are about disasters. Whether sudden or long-lasting, personal or societal, they all have a "cracking point".
The Pier Falls is a short, moment-by-moment account of a pier falling into the sea and the confusion and disaster it causes. This is one of the more memorable stories in the collection.
The Island A retelling of (I think) a Greek mythological tale. Which one, I'm not sure. I'm not super familiar with them. This one was probably slightly more forgettable than the others, but had a wonderful pace and setting.
Bunny is about an incredibly overweight man who lives alone and struggles to take care of him. When someone from his past arrives back to his council estate, the two form an unlikely friendship.
Wodwo Again, a modern retelling of (I think) The Green Knight, but I can't be sure because I've never read or seen it. It centres around a mysterious visitor who visits an obnoxious family at Christmas, and how their life unravels over the next 12 months.
The Gun is about two kids who have a gun, and what they do with it. This story has a wonderful sense of "If the circumstances were slightly changed, life would have turned out totally different". I had a sense that I missed some subtext that was going on here, which gave an ending which didn't entirely make sense to me, but I liked it.
The Woodpecker and the Wolf is a sci-fi story of a base on a distant planet which the humans of earth abandon. Surprisingly, this one has a happy ending which left me googling "what really happened". I couldn't find anyone else on the internet who agrees but I'm pretty sure
Breathe was a weird story, not sure this one totally resonated with me. A successful but estranged daughter returns home suddenly to take care of her mother, but things go wrong.
The Boys Who Left Home to Learn Fear is an adventure expedition gone wrong. A group of men wander the jungle looking for the remains of the two explorers who came before them. Slightly forgettable, even though I literally just read it.
The Weir after saving a young woman from completing suicide, an old divorcee and a 25 year old girl form an unlikely, companionable friendship. The world around them crumbles, but they sit in comfortable silence.
Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. An easy 5*s for me.
A friend recommended this one about a year ago, I picked up a copy fairly quickly but kept it on my "to read" pile for far too long. Sometimes I wasn't quite in the mood for short stories, other times I read a few pages and realised it was going to be a hard read. But I'm glad I read it when I did.
There are 9 stories in this collection. They span multiple different genres, but all centre around lonely people and all typically are about disasters. Whether sudden or long-lasting, personal or societal, they all have a "cracking point".
The Pier Falls is a short, moment-by-moment account of a pier falling into the sea and the confusion and disaster it causes. This is one of the more memorable stories in the collection.
The Island A retelling of (I think) a Greek mythological tale. Which one, I'm not sure. I'm not super familiar with them. This one was probably slightly more forgettable than the others, but had a wonderful pace and setting.
Bunny is about an incredibly overweight man who lives alone and struggles to take care of him. When someone from his past arrives back to his council estate, the two form an unlikely friendship.
Wodwo Again, a modern retelling of (I think) The Green Knight, but I can't be sure because I've never read or seen it. It centres around a mysterious visitor who visits an obnoxious family at Christmas, and how their life unravels over the next 12 months.
The Gun is about two kids who have a gun, and what they do with it. This story has a wonderful sense of "If the circumstances were slightly changed, life would have turned out totally different". I had a sense that I missed some subtext that was going on here, which gave an ending which didn't entirely make sense to me, but I liked it.
The Woodpecker and the Wolf is a sci-fi story of a base on a distant planet which the humans of earth abandon. Surprisingly, this one has a happy ending which left me googling "what really happened". I couldn't find anyone else on the internet who agrees but I'm pretty sure
Spoiler
she doesn't make it off the base and dies there and it's all just an hallucination.Breathe was a weird story, not sure this one totally resonated with me. A successful but estranged daughter returns home suddenly to take care of her mother, but things go wrong.
The Boys Who Left Home to Learn Fear is an adventure expedition gone wrong. A group of men wander the jungle looking for the remains of the two explorers who came before them. Slightly forgettable, even though I literally just read it.
The Weir after saving a young woman from completing suicide, an old divorcee and a 25 year old girl form an unlikely, companionable friendship. The world around them crumbles, but they sit in comfortable silence.
Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. An easy 5*s for me.