Afterthoughts: Ox-Tales Water

In a Nutshell: The quality of stories in this, the final volume of the four-book Ox-Tales series, is of a high enough standard to ensure that the collection as a whole remains consistently good across the board. In fact there are a couple of stories in Water which are so good that the volume is worth buying for these alone.

*Not sure what the Ox-Tales series from Profile Books is? Then take a look at my Cover Love post on the series.

And so it is with a heavy heart that I come to the end of my reading journey with the 4 volume Ox-Tales series from Profile Books, and offer my afterthoughts on the final volume – Ox-Tales: Water. I’ve already read Earth, Air and Fire and shared my afterthoughts on each (clicking on the titles will take you to each of these), and if you’ve read any of these reviews then you’ll know that they follow the exact same review framework i.e. a rundown on the short stories in the collection together with a quote on each story from my reading journal (with a link to the specific journal entry), together with a rating score out of 5. This rundown is then followed by a comment on the collection as a whole, before a final score is presented for that volume.

It will probably comes as no surprise then that these afterthoughts for Ox-Tales: Water will follow the same review framework that was employed for the other three volumes. So firstly a rundown on the individual stories that are contained in the Ox-Tales: Water collection:

• Rice Cakes and Starbucks – Esther Freud (Reading journal: ‘[I] applaud Freud for a nice piece of fictional writing’. Score: 4 out of 5)
• Crossing the River – David Park (Reading journal: ‘Tender, sympathetic and wholly engaging, Crossing the River is a model for exactly what a good short story should be. Mr. Park, you’re a genius!’. Score: 5 out of 5)
• Kaltes Klares Wasser – Hari Kunzru (Reading journal: ‘A couple of well-penned instances when the narrator describes his own sufferings of illness, but other than that not an outstanding story for me’. Score: 3 out of 5)
• What She Did on Her Summer Vaction – Zoe Heller (Reading journal: ‘The story is a good one. Well worth a read’. Score: 4 out of 5)
• Bethany-next-the-Sea – William Boyd (Reading journal: ‘an interesting story, and by no means a bad one’. Score: 3.5 out of 5)
• Walking After Midnight – Michel Faber (Reading journal: ‘Faber writes well. He’s descriptively elegant, but as an extract this story is maybe not as good as it’s going to be in its final form’. Score: 3.5 out of 5)
• The Piano Man – Joanna Trollope (Reading journal: ‘[This is] an opening chapter [of an upcoming novel] that’s raw, honest, grief-stricken and ultimately, quite sad. It certainly piques the interest for what the full novel may hold’. Score: 4 out of 5)
• (One Last) Throw if the Dice – Giles Foden (Reading journal: ‘Full marks for sticking to the ‘water’ theme, but not a story I really understood or enjoyed’. Score: 2 out of 5)
• Look at Me, I Need a Smile – Michael Morpurgo (Reading journal: ‘It’s the ending to this extract though that’s the most incredible. It’s so memorable and engaging that it makes me eager to seek out the novel.’. Score: 4.5 out of 5)

So that’s the rundown on the stories to be found in Ox-Tales: Water. What did I think of the collection as a whole?

Well looking at the ratings for each story it’s fairly easy to tell that I generally found the collection to be of a high standard (with the exception of one story). Two of the stories in fact – Crossing the River by David Park and Look at Me, I Need a Smile by Michael Morpurgo, I consider good enough on their own to warrant the purchase of this volume (Look at Me, I Need a Smile didn’t get the maximum score because it’s only an extract rather than a standalone story), but generally Water, even putting aside these two story ‘gems’, is a praiseworthy volume which complements the other three perfectly.

Having come to the end of my time with the Ox-Tales series it is with some regret that I leave my reading of this fine collection of short stories. Ox-Tales has indeed been a faithful companion at the breakfast table for a few weeks now, and I truly am going to miss the sheer variety and randomness of reading, that the Ox-Tales collection offered me. It’s true that I may not have enjoyed all of the stories in the collection, but given the amount of stories on offer, and the wide-ranging pool of authors who created them, it would impossible for everyone to like everything.

Looking back I’d say that I’ve been truly entertained by the Ox-Tales series during this time, and I think that speaks for itself. Through Ox-Tales I’ve been given a huge taster of the state of contemporary storytelling in the UK right now, and it’s one that’s definitely left me reassured and hungry for more. Consequently I can’t do anything other than to recommend that all readers add the entire four-volume Ox-Tales collection to their bookshelves.

You certainly can read any of the Ox-Tales volumes on their own, but as Profile Books boss Mark Ellingham said himself, on this very blog, the real pleasure comes from reading all 37 of the stories contained across the series. Having now read them all myself. I’m very inclined to agree with Mark, especially when the ones who really benefit from the sales of Ox-Tales, are the ones who really need it.

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Ox-Tales Water | July 2009 | £5.00 | PAPERBACK | 208 PP | ISBN: 9781846682063