Afterthoughts: Ox-Tales Fire
September 20, 2009 by Rob
Filed under Afterthoughts, Book Reviews
In a Nutshell: Although identical in its layout and variety of stories, this third book in the series of four Ox-Tales volumes turns out to be the best of them all so far. Ideally all four volumes should be read as a unified set of course, but if you had to just pick out just one from the set then Ox-Tales: Fire is certainly a contender for the pick of the bunch.
*Not sure what the Ox-Tales series from Profile Books is? Then take a look at my Cover Love post on the series.
This is the third in the series of four Ox-Tales volumes I’ve read so far (you can see my afterthoughts on Ox-Tales: Earth HERE, and for OX-Tales: Air HERE). Not surprisingly Fire follows the same format as the previous two i.e. a collection of short stories/extracts from eminent UK authors, based around the elemental theme of the title in which they are featured (in this case fire). As Fire follows the exact same format in its presentation, my afterthoughts will also employ the same format I used for my review of the other two. Firstly, together with an extract from my reading journal (with a link back to the relevant journal entry) and an individual score for each, I will list all of the stories/extracts featured in Fire, before moving on to comment on the volume as a whole. First the rundown on the stories then:
- The Island by Mark Haddon (Reading Journal: “one of the best stories I’ve read so far in the collection”. Score: 5 out of 5).
- Playing with… by Geoff Dyer (Reading Journal: “A nice little essay. I like how [Dyer] seems to warmly engage the reader”. Score: 4 out of 5).
- Aflame in Athens by Victoria Hislop (Reading Journal: “I love Hislop’s straightforward, yet eloquent prose”. Score: 4 out of 5).
- A Family Evening by Sebastian Faulks (Reading Journal: “not a bad story… which illustrates that old adage – money can’t buy happiness”. Score 3.5 out of 5).
- The King Who Never Spoke by John le Carre (Reading Journal: “rather short, but very good”. Score 4 out of 5).
- Into the World by Xiaolu Guo (Reading Journal: “I actually rather enjoyed Guo’s story… Ingenious stuff!” Score 4 out of 5)
- Sandcastles: A Negotiation by William Sutcliffe (Reading Journal: “Although Sandcastles: A Negotiation reads quite well as an encapsulated whole, this is actually an extract of a novel in progress. That means there’s more of this ‘happy family’ goodness to come from Sutcliffe. I can hardly wait”. Score 4.5 out of 5)
- Last by Ali Smith (Reading Journal: “This short by Smith certainly comes under the odd category, but it also slips into the pure genius one too”. Score 4 out of 5)
- Long Time, No See by Lionel Shriver (Reading Journal: “The charismatic element of the story is great, but to be honest Long Time, No See didn’t really work for me, and I’m not sure why”. Score 3 out of 5).
- Dog Days by Jeanette Winterson (Reading Journal: “I rather quite liked it. It’s warm, it’s touching and it’s a very thoughtful piece of fiction”. Score 4 out of 5
Overall, both in terms of average rating and my own feelings, Fire is the best title in the Ox-Tales collection so far. Whereas I may have found a few stories in the other volumes not really to my liking, I can only really think of one – Shriver’s Long Time, No See – which I didn’t really take to, to any great degree. More importantly I scored eight out of the ten, 4 or more out of 5, which really speaks volumes in itself.
The reason I clicked so well with Fire? I’m not sure. Maybe the stories as a collection are more congruent. Or perhaps it was just good fortune that the majority of the stories appealed to me. Whatever the reason it can’t be denied that the stories/extracts found in Fire are all of the highest calibre, and while not everyone will like every story, there’s enough mix and variety to ensure that most people will at least like a few. I’ve found this to be the case with the other two volumes but with Fire the few has turned into the majority. So while I recommend that every volume of Ox-Tales should be read as a unified whole, I’m more inclined at this stage (with still having to read Ox-Tales: Water) to recommend Fire over the other two.
Rating: 
Ox-Tales Fire | July 2009 | £5.00 | PAPERBACK | 208 PP | ISBN: 9781846682599
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
