Nobody else's book club: Saki's Improper Stories
I must confess this was a bit of a disappointment. Not because it is bad, but because it is not quite as good as I expected, based on the reviews that made me want to read it in the first place. Put quite simply, Saki's short stories are good, but I am not entirely sure they are worth the time considering how short life is. However, let me make myself clear, this is the only reason I doubt their worth, because they are pretty good.
These stories are highly peculiar and imaginative, quite unique. So I understand people who love this sort of peculiar may love them passionately. In case you are wondering what sort of peculiar we are talking about, Saki has a very English appreciation of the eccentric and the absurd. He also has a certain obsession with children, which are the main characters in a lot of his stories. Most of the time the fact they are children is used to emphasize just how stupid adults are. Most often the adults involved are small-minded middle-class women, a major peeve of Saki and his main target of ridicule. More rarely, the stories become dark, dwelling in the horror genre, and children are used, on the one hand, to boost the desired effect of titillation, and, on the other, to give credibility to the horror. "Sredni Vashtar" being the finest example among these of a story you can take at face value or interpret as the imagination of a child.
I must confess that, even though the stories involving children are pretty good, I preferred the ones that do not. In particular the ones from "The chronicles of Clovis". These are completely surreal and absurd and I guess this is a sort of peculiar I like.
Because I share Saki's peeve with small-mindedness and conventionality I did enjoy most stories.
These stories are highly peculiar and imaginative, quite unique. So I understand people who love this sort of peculiar may love them passionately. In case you are wondering what sort of peculiar we are talking about, Saki has a very English appreciation of the eccentric and the absurd. He also has a certain obsession with children, which are the main characters in a lot of his stories. Most of the time the fact they are children is used to emphasize just how stupid adults are. Most often the adults involved are small-minded middle-class women, a major peeve of Saki and his main target of ridicule. More rarely, the stories become dark, dwelling in the horror genre, and children are used, on the one hand, to boost the desired effect of titillation, and, on the other, to give credibility to the horror. "Sredni Vashtar" being the finest example among these of a story you can take at face value or interpret as the imagination of a child.
I must confess that, even though the stories involving children are pretty good, I preferred the ones that do not. In particular the ones from "The chronicles of Clovis". These are completely surreal and absurd and I guess this is a sort of peculiar I like.
Because I share Saki's peeve with small-mindedness and conventionality I did enjoy most stories.
Next book: I am reading "Mr. Fox" by Helen Oyeyemi.
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