Short or long, Byatt always writes good stories. ( )

Another one that does what it says on the tin: a collection of five fairly dark tales, where Byatt uses the extra freedom of short form to be a little bit more experimental and less tied to realism than in her novels.

"The Thing in the forest" brings a grisly fairy-tale motif into an otherwise realist story about two women who met as little girls evacuated from London during the war. The Thing is memorably horrific, but the two women's strategies for dealing with the memory of it are perhaps a bit too flip. "Body art" — originally written for a Wellcome Trust exhibition — is about a gynaecologist who rather unwisely lets a young artist loose in a collection of historic medical artefacts.

My favourite in the collection was "A stone woman", a kind of mineral counterpart to Margaret Atwood's Edible Woman: a woman metamorphoses into rock in a glorious riot of geological and mineralogical terminology and Icelandic scenery. "Raw material" is a sardonic look at the Creative Writing business: an evening-class teacher tries to persuade his students to move away from melodrama and writing-as-therapy. Naturally, he finds that the one student in his group who is not tone-deaf to language, who repeatedly produces modest little sketches of the greatest elegance and beauty, is the one with the most melodramatic life of all. The last piece, "The pink ribbon", brings together dementia, Teletubbies, the Aeneid and the London Blitz in ways that were touching but didn't quite convince me in the end: I think there was just a bit too much going on. ( )

The human world of stones is caught in organic metaphors like flies in amber. Words came from flesh and hair and plants.

A collection of slightly stories which appear to announce in all-caps, IF I CARED MORE I WOULD PLAGIARIZE. Yet it doesn't. I am not sure about our own state either. Byatt is always will suited for the epic scale (As long as she avoids Babel) but the shorter pieces appear to stumble.

The Blitz features a few times here, as do geriatric concerns, obstetrics and gynecology. There's a fallen Creative Writing teacher and a woman becoming mineral--albeit with poetic panache. The arc is situated to inspire the broken logic of the nightmare but I feel Angela Carter has a better handle on such. There has been a theme in reviews regarding the characterization of a black book of stories. I offer no insights. ( )

These are good stories, masterly written, thoughtful and very moving. They are also somewhat contrived and lacklustre from time to time. The first story stands out. If I had had this knowledge beforehand, and the book in my hands in the bookshop, I'd have put it back on the shelf and look for "The Thing in the Forest" in the New Yorker Fiction archive.

Gentle reader! If you think that I should still read the popular work of A.S.Byatt which is, incidentally, in my possession, give me a buzz. Otherwise I might give it to the poor. ( )

This is a collection of five stories that are supposed to be inspired by fairy tales. There were two in this collection I really enjoyed. “The Thing in the Forest” did an amazing job of blending history and fantasy and I love how is spanned so much time and told such a broad story. “A Stone Woman” was incredibly creative and I loved the imagery in this story; it was just beautiful.

The other three stories had some irony to them, but they were a bit to stridant for my taste. They kind of beat you over the head with their social commentary and principles and I really didn’t enjoy them as much. You can see below for short reviews of each story.

Overall this was a unique collection of stories. The writing style has a high literature feel to it and is very beautiful. These are stories you need to read slowly and savor; they don’t make for quick reads. I would recommend to those who are interesting in literature that has both a feminist and fairy tale feel to it. I think fans of Angela Carter would enjoy this book as well.

“The Thing In The Forest” (5/5 stars)
I really loved a lot of elements in this story. The writing was beautifully descriptive. I loved the blending of history and fairy tale. This was about two young girls sent off to a country plantation during the London bombings. While there, they see something truly disturbing and of a monstrous variety. This sighting effects both girls in very different ways as they grow into women, but the effect on them both is profound. I love how much story was in this 50 page short story, and how it spanned so much time and was so complete.

“Body Art” (3/5 stars)
This was an interesting story about a young woman artist who comes in to decorate a OB/Gyn ward at the request of the lead Ob/Gyn doctor there. Additionally there is a collection of strange antiquated medical objects that need to be catalogued and displayed somehow. The doctor gets very involved with the artist and her painful past, but he takes objection when she comes up with a creative way to display the medical objects. This was a bit of an odd read; there are some interesting statements on women’s rights, motherhood, and feminine pain throughout. However I didn’t like this as much as the first story.

“A Stone Woman” (5/5 stars)
I loved this story about a woman who slowly turns to precious gemstones. It was a beautiful story; very intriguing and creative. I love how she meets a stonemaker that takes her to Iceland where a stone woman can truly belong. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of Iceland itself, I have always wanted to travel there.

“Raw Material” (3/5 stars)
This was about a man who teaches a creative writing class and his obsession with the writing of an old woman who takes his class. I actually really enjoyed the stories the old woman wrote but the rest of the story was just kind of blah. I kept feeling like I was missing something at the end of this story and I reread it a few times but still don’t get it.

“The Pink Ribbon” (3/5 stars)
This was a story about a man who is taking care of his mentally disabled wife. We get some insight into how she ended up mentally disabled. There is a little twist at the end that I thought was actually a bit silly. This wasn’t my favorite of the bunch and actually took me a long time to read. ( )