07:00 – Another morning and another session with Ox-Tales: Fire (Profile Books). This morning was the turn of Sebastian Faulks with his story A Family Evening. Not a bad story, and Faulk’s rationale for creating it seem to centre on his need to explore the futility of striving to earn more money than one needs. Highly appropriate in a volume whose raison d’être is to raise funds for Oxfam, but this story is more focused on the family unit, and the solitude that an over-zealous chief ‘breadwinner’ can infuse into the family. Am I making sense? Probably not! So perhaps it’s easier to say that this story illustrates that old adage – money can’t buy happiness.
21:00 – Well I’m done, I’m dusted and yes, I’m profoundly affected by Bryony Doran’s The China Bird (Hookline Books). Not quite the ending I would have wanted (it seemed a tiny bit rushed) but overall a fantastically penned work of fiction. I’ve said right through my reading of this novel that Doran has a gift for writing, and now that I’m finished with it, I can state that unequivocally. I’ll say more about this when I get around to writing up my afterthoughts, but for now take comfort in the fact that I recommend this as a must read. Great job Bryony!
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