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A review by victoriaknow
The Blue Lenses and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier
Did not finish book.
These were all so bleak or else so boring that I was forced to give up because trying to finish the darn thing was causing my reading to stall. I'd compare this volume to Patricia Highsmith's short stories, but I don't think they live up to that level of skill. They're just floating around in mediocrity, capitalising on du Maurier's name when in all honesty I think most of them weren't worth publishing.
Many of the stories imparted such an uncomfortable atmosphere, where you just know the worst is coming, that they were actively unpleasant to read. Or else, as in Ganymede and The Archduchess, were told explicitly that the worst had already happened so you were just slogging through the body of the story, waiting for it to be over with. Some of the stories verged on delving into sci-fi or fantasy with new and fantastic inventions driving the plot, but Daphne du Maurier doesn't normally write sci-fi and, in my opinion, while she excels at the type of subtle suspense that's based on human nature and flaws, she fails to grasp the necessary conventions that make sci-fi or fantasy stories enjoyable.
The only stories I half-way enjoyed were the first one: The Alibi, which (as I said) pivoted on her exquisite grasp of human nature. The second was: The Pool, and then mostly because I could relate so strongly to the setting and the girl's need for solitude, not because of the story itself.
Got stuck halfway through The Menace and didn't bother to finish the last few. I'll stick to her full-length novels in future.
Many of the stories imparted such an uncomfortable atmosphere, where you just know the worst is coming, that they were actively unpleasant to read. Or else, as in Ganymede and The Archduchess, were told explicitly that the worst had already happened so you were just slogging through the body of the story, waiting for it to be over with. Some of the stories verged on delving into sci-fi or fantasy with new and fantastic inventions driving the plot, but Daphne du Maurier doesn't normally write sci-fi and, in my opinion, while she excels at the type of subtle suspense that's based on human nature and flaws, she fails to grasp the necessary conventions that make sci-fi or fantasy stories enjoyable.
The only stories I half-way enjoyed were the first one: The Alibi, which (as I said) pivoted on her exquisite grasp of human nature. The second was: The Pool, and then mostly because I could relate so strongly to the setting and the girl's need for solitude, not because of the story itself.
Got stuck halfway through The Menace and didn't bother to finish the last few. I'll stick to her full-length novels in future.