Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Dark Roots: Stories (2006)by Cate Kennedy
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I wasn't too sure about this when I fist started it. The last book of short stories I read was Miranda July's collection. I liked it, but I wasn't enthralled. This is completely different. I LOVE these stories. It is a rare thing when I read a short story that I want it to be more than a short story. What I love about Cate Kennedy is that she is totally in my head. Even though I might not experience what is going on this all of the stories, I can somehow relate to all of them. There were a couple of stories that I found amazing and wanted more of the story. Obviously "The Testosterone Club" was one of them. The idea of slowly killing her husband and friends by pickled vegetables was fantastic. "Seizure" was also one of my favorites. I can't wait till more from her comes out. I really really enjoyed this. Not being the biggest fan of short stories (I always want more!) I found this collection very intriguing. Every story was different. Including the writing style, in my opinion. Not sure if I'm now a Cate Kennedy fan, but, I do know that I loved the way she can capture a moment...or a few minutes into the lives of these characters...and just hold us there. Almost like a snapshot. I did love that. no reviews | add a review
In these sublimely sophisticated tales, Cate Kennedy opens up worlds of finely observed detail. Her stories are populated by people at tipping points in their lives: moments that find them poised between a familiar past and an unfamiliar future. A cancer sufferer boards a plane with three kilos of cocaine in her luggage; a neglected wife plans an unsavoury revenge on her boorish husband; a married couple realise their too-tight wedding rings may symbolise wider aspects of their relationship. Heartbreaking, evocative and richly comic, Dark Roots unveils the traumas that incite us to desperate measures, and the coincidences that drive our lives. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
And the writing! The writing is gorgeous, and thought and feeling flow with each sentence, taking us along on the journey of each story. The unexpected sharp smack of dark humor and the hum of edginess all woven into the structure that is a paragraph. This collection is a feast for the senses. When I had finished reading it, I wanted nothing more than to turn back to the first story and begin again. Which is just what I did. Highly recommended, even if, like me, short stories are not your favorite. This collection shows how very much can be done with so little - fully-fleshed characters and plot and an advanced story arc all in miniature. Small, but not abridged.
"I watch people sometimes, wonder how they can walk around with the weight of what they know. Wonder if they feel like me, stumbling with lead shoes on the bottom of the ocean, swimming in a sea of the unsayable. It's a mistake we make, thinking that it's words that tell us everything. It's sound that breaks glasses, cracks windows, sends cats up trees. Bats hear more than humans, understand more noise, let alone dogs. Maybe we're just not getting it, standing here listening for sensible speech, dying of loneliness and waiting for whatever it is. How do we know we're not calling and calling all the time, our throats so tight with it, it's too high to hear?" ( )