February 27, 2011

Aphrodite's Hat - Salley Vickers


I have found myself moving from a reader who never looked at short stories to one who is now actively seeking them out! Maybe it is a sign of reading maturity? Or just a reflection of where I am in my reading life? Whatever the reason, I am now a lover of the short story genre.

It probably doesn't hurt that I am managing to find short story collections that are blowing me away with their honesty, depth of emotion and clarity - my latest read, Aphrodite's Hat, being no exception.

The overarching theme for the stories in this collection is love - love lost, love gained, love needed, love gained but then not wanted and love in different forms and situations. I thought this theme was weaved perfectly through all of the stories and for a lot of them the theme was twisted and turned in a way that we may not have thought about before which I found refreshing.

Some of the stories in this collection are quite short - but the pacing and timing for each of them seemed just right.

As in all collections there are favourites - the final story "The Fall of a Sparrow" probably being my number one - simply for the reaction it was able to bring from me in the final line - powerful. But there were certainly others that provided a similar response and feeling.

A beautiful and memorable collection.

4 comments:

Joan Hunter Dunn said...

Now I like Salley Vickers, I like short stories and I like stories about love so this sounds right up my street. I like reading short stories on holiday so shall save it for then.

Karen said...

Hi Joan - this would be perfect holiday reading - hope you enjoy!

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