to the speed of...
|
|
I met this book by chance in a library, and yet its cover mummified, its roughness to the touch, gave me the impression that I wouldn't have made a mistake if I was to bring it home. And I was right. The short stories of this manual of lightness (in a Calvinian way), flow between your fingers and they make themselves readable with the speed of a baryon. Indispensable.
|
|
Wonderful first steps to understanding Woolf
|
|
Woolf is not typically known as a writer of short stories -- "sketches" as she called them. However, the short fiction that she wrote provides a wonderful introduction to her narrative style. The early "Mark on the Wall," "Kew Gardens," and "An Unwritten Novel" give to the reader a sense of how Woolf's technique works within a smaller package than the usual assigned Woolf reading. Her feminist (apologies to VW since she considered the word dead once women were able to earn a living) leanings come through in "A Society" and "Moments of Being: 'Slater's Pins have no Points'." Woolf's early sketches are where she formed her interior monologue style, within which one thing leads to another as the work progresses. These short fiction works should be required reading for anyone delving into Woolf. Possibly those who read these sketches before they dive into the novels would understand a bit better of what Woolf's fiction is made. Excellent.
|
|
|