Category: reading

Review:Siege 13 by Tomas Dobozy

Often, I get sent books to review that I am so excited about. I get so excited I take photos of the cover and dream about when I can read it. Sometimes, I will have a cheeky first read of the first story or few pages and then put it away and then dream all over again.

With Siege 13, I felt a bit stressed. My friend, Terry is a real-life historian and when he picked it and started to flick through, wanting to read it and then commenting that he was surprised I was “into this kind of book”, I got worried. I enjoy history but fiction is better. I don’t really enjoy historical fiction and I like my covers to be fun and touchable.

Siege 13 is a short story collection all based or inspired around the Siege of Budapest, this was where the Soviet Union captured the Hungarian capital city of Budapest towards the end of World War 2.  The siege began when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and  German troops, was first encircled on 29 December 1944 by the Red Army and the Romanian Army. It ended when the city surrendered on 13 February 1945. It was a decisive victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin.

That is the history part over and in fact, there is no need to worry yourself about the above details for I was much relieved when I started reading the first story The Atlas of B. Gorbe. It’s the title that didn’t attract me and that is a shame as the story was immediately different and contemporary and I was hooked. I spent my whole time exclaiming to anyone that would listen( Read, Simon) that this book was brilliant and that I had been judging it by the cover and that it wasn’t boring like some historical fiction can be.

That is the beauty of this book. Each story is inspired, hugely or loosely connected to the Siege of Budapest, war, its horror, aftermath, life and death. It’s all there. The narrative style stays consistent throughout and Dobozy writes history as fiction. Each story sheds a spotlight on the human condition, the relationships we form and how war can shapes them for generations to come.

The stories are either written directly in Budapest during the Siege or in Toronto where an exiled community live, trying to get away from the past.

My favourite story was “Rosewood Queens,”a girl tells us about his father’s new girlfriend who is called “Aunt Rose”. She is a strong and fascinating character. She had a strange habit, she goes from shop to shop buying only the queens out of chess sets; a sort of regaining of herself, where  she makes the chess set she leaves behind worth nothing. The narrator’s father loses out in the end because of his inability to communicate his feelings and let go of his past. The ending is perfect-

There was nothing, of course, and had never been, only two queens desperate for the affection of an absent king, trying to conjure him into existence and losing each other along the way.

What can be challenging for the reader is the disjointed nature of short story collections, Dodozy solves this by using the common theme or event of the Siege and the war. He shows how its effects could be subtle or more apparent with some stories barely hinting at it. He writes in an easy and unobstrusive style which is immediately accessible to the reader.

Siege 13  can be purchased at amazon here or at the publishers, Milkweed Editions here. You could grab it on kindle too but you already knew that.

Tea at the Midlands by David Constantine

This set of short stories has probably taken me the longest to read and to review. That is purely because they are packed with the kind of stuff that you need a breather from, a couple of a days or even a week.

David Constantine is a British poet, author and translator and most recently he won the Frank O’ Connor Short Story Award where Tea at the Midlands was pitted against some strong writers like Deborah Levy and Black Vodka, which I reviewed recently here.

Tea at the Midlands is a hard but a freeing read once completed. Some stories demand more from you that others in the collection, for example Charis, a story about three siblings and the fall out after one of the three kills themselves, all siblings are mature in an old age. It is most depressing to think of older people thinking this way yet we know they must do as these are thoughts of all ages.

Most of David’s stories are from a more mature angle, like Alphonse, a fun loving and energetic story about Alphonse, the shape shifting pensioner who keeps changing names and identity to escape being confined to an awful old people’s home by his family. We cheer Alphonse on to the glorious end where he “sails into the south” with a couple on a barge.

In the story The House by the Weir and the Way, two elderly ladies, Odive and Sabela live in an ageing house. They are going downhill physically and when Odile gets sick, a chink of hope comes in the form of a young lodger. This is a beautiful and universal story, a future that we will all relate to and hope to emulate their energy.

In Lewis and Ellis, we have a condensed version again of the same type of relationship, two elderly men called Ellis and Lewis share a quiet bond but it is only when Ellis is diagnosed with a terminal cancer, the strength of their relationship is highlighted. Ellis has left Lewis all of his classics, his books, his memories and the theme of fiction as power is really brought to the equation.

But, some read so beautifully that they seem as if they are whispers of entertainment. But, of course not one of David’s stories could be called  mere entertainment. Each line, paragraph and page is plumped with meaning, classical references and evocative representations of the landscapes. The power of nature and the way a landscape or the open fields or sea front can untie a person comes through in all of these stories. David is also a well-known poet, this shows in his choice of language and imagery throughout remaining meatier than the average story. He also uses a modern style of not using the apostrophe and allowing the characters’ actions and dialogue to drift in and out of the narrative. This can be taxing on the reader but there is pay off for the patient people!

My stand out stories would be An Island, this is a long, short story, which I do enjoy when mixed into more shorter ones. A sad and moving story where nothing much happens but a former monk moves to a remote island. We feel his past and his turmoil. He writes and reads alone. He is reluctant to let anyone in and thinks constantly of the past. The island itself is made up of people leaving and returning and we sense he too will be heading that way. David’s use of poetic in nature is present especially in this story as it is written from a first person narrative in a diary format. We see the inevitable end or at least we think we do.

Each and every story is gelled together by the power of narrative, imagination, fiction, stories or poetry. The power of telling a story is illustrated time and time again and I found this wonderful to be able to piece together the many puzzles David leaves for you. His imagination and his characters have no boundaries, they are all complex and pushy, they are all difficult. If you enjoy a story that will linger on your mind so much that you just have to read it again, then Tea at the Midlands is for you. I thoroughly enjoyed the collection and can see why he won the Frank O’ Connor and the BBC National Short Story Award. Although, there are many stories on a more mature age group and the relationships that they have, David gets the youthful couple as well, he analyses people and the struggles and pain they go through, regardless of their age or where they are. It is a painful yet moving collection. Get a copy, read some slowly and put it away. Come back to it again.

Tea at the Midlands is published by Comma Press and you can purchase a copy of it here and also listen to him read some of his stories too. You can also purchase it in hard copy or kindle on amazon here and at audible for the audio version.

David will be reading at the upcoming Cork International Short Story Festival in September. It should be a treat.