NOVEL: The Unrest-Cure And Other Stories
AUTHOR: Saki
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2013
REVIEW:
That’s Saki, not sake…you don’t drink it with Japanese food, you read it, slowly, savoring it, sip by sip, and story by story. This collection is as good a place to start as any to enjoy the brilliant skewering of the absurdity and hypocrisy of Edwardian England; the addition of illustrations by Edward Gorey was a rather inspired pairing in this volume by the New York Review of Books.
If you’ve read any of these stories before, The Open Window is the most likely candidate, as it has been much-anthologized, but it’s worth a repeat. Besides the romance at short notice, you’ll also encounter polite and chillingly amoral English dandies, perfectly feral children, nature red in tooth and claw, an element of the macabre, and the casual cruelty of aunts, blackmailers, and a tomcat who had been (rather unwisely) taught to speak English. One of my favorites, The Interlopers, is not included in this collection, but that’s a mere quibble. If you like what you find here, you can always seek out the original collections (Beasts and Super-Beasts is a particularly good volume), as Saki was a master of the short story. (I’d advise against his novels, actually. They’re largely forgotten now, and for good reason.)
RATING (one to five whistles, with five being the best): Four Whistles
HOW TO PURCHASE: Amazon
***
ALSO ON OUR BOOKSHELVES:
Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan
The Dancer of Izu, Kawabata Yasunari
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
***
Art Courtesy of New York Review Book Classics
***
Laura LaVelle can be contacted at laura@newswhistle.com
