Tales of the mysterious and the curious
Kimblewood, £8.99 (ebook £4.99)
If nothing else, Elisabeth Russell Taylor has a knack for creating characters. Her new short-story collection, Belated, is so full of distinct and curious personalities that, at times, you might question how they came from a single pen. And, from the despondent-but-still-charming artist’s widow you meet in the first story, to the actor slowly descending into depression and retribution, or the oblivious wife in Passed over in Silence, many stick in the mind.
If there is one overriding theme to this collection, her third, it is of ordinary people thrust beyond their comfort zones, many of them in some way disturbed, and all of them facing some kind of tragic and indeterminate dark- ness. There are gothic traces to most of the tales; subtle hints that normality has gone awry.
But it is unfair to sum them up under one umbrella for these are fables that span countries, decades and emotions — a good few, but by no means all, relating to the lives of Jews.
The story of Maisie and Reg Brunt, reveals a couple marooned in a life of rigid routine who find themselves infiltrating the home and final days of an elderly lady stuck in the past.
The mystery at the heart of the narrative leaves you with far more questions than the brevity of the tale would suggest.
Then there’s the delightful, enthralling snapshot of a caretaker giving evidence in a trial involving his employer; a simple man, facing questions he is barely equipped to answer.
Charlotte’s Tale beautifully weaves together the hopes and dreams of refu- gees from Germany as their past lives become ever more distant.
Russell Taylor writes vividly in elegantly constructed sentences. In describing a house where parsimony is a way of life, she writes that “such green vegetables as found their way to the plate did so enfeebled and tasteless, and such fruit, jetlagged”.
Her style is engaging and she is able to create recognisable characters with a few deft strokes, even if some — the Jewish harridan wife Gina Jacobs, for one — occasionally veer towards caricatures.
Some stories are more enjoyable than others but that’s the nature of the genre and, with 16 to choose from, you will be hard-pressed not to find at least some to your taste. T h e t h e mes d o n ’ t always make f or pleasant reading, but the stories t h e ms e l v e s are never less than compelling. Jennifer Lipman is a freelance reviewer