Rating: 4/5
Review:
very well done, but...
I thought this was a bit of a mixed bag. William Boyd is one of our finest writers, so
this collection of short stories is all beautifully poised and well done, but
I'm not sure what it really added up to in the end.
The book begins with a collection of brief stories, each a
sort of character study in which Boyd exposes and skewers the pretensions of
various self-deluding characters, often in the world of art, books or film and
often with a very unrealistic view of their own talent and character, and of
their relationship with others. This is
also true of the two later, longer
stories in the first of which the eponymous Bethany has a deluded view of her
own talents and drifts from one career idea to another without sticking to any of
them – which was rather the way I felt about the story itself, in that it had
some nice scenes which didn’t add up to much overall. The book closes with a sort of Thirty-Nine
Steps-like story which is well done and very gripping…until it just peters out
with loose ends all over the place and no resolution. This may be edgy and experimental, but for me
it's a very unsatisfactory tactic in this genre and marred an enjoyable story.
It's all very neatly done.
The characters are well painted and believable, and Boyd's prose is
elegant, poised and unflashy so that it's a pleasure to read. However, I'm not sure how much there is in
the way of new insight here - as though these were the author's initial character
sketches and vignettes from the sort of longer, more profound books which we
know Boyd can write. As a result I
enjoyed the process of reading, but I did get to the end with a sense of not
really having gained a lot from the process.
This is definitely worth four stars because I did enjoy it,
but I can only give it a qualified recommendation.
(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)
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