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Never think a writer is too grand to browse on a booksite and have a gander at their reviews. I know! few years ago I wrote a review for Wagner's fine critical work 'Ariel's Gift' on a lunch break at the garage and, later, find I had an e-mail from the author thanking me. I found out later that the same woman edits a page or another for The Times (don't read broadsheets) in London, and went to that UEA place. I've since bought this book, a collection of short stories. When I read the story 'Please, Don't' I thought about the way it invited the reader to fill in the blank space around it, its atmospheric quality. Looking back, I saw it had read out on the radio - a nice feeling of vindication. My other favourite stories are 'Stealing', 'Haircut', 'The Great Leonardo' and 'Pyramid'. Each story is written in a finely tuned, angled prose style that pans our emotional back yards, looking for precious metal. Some have said they resemble the stories of the late (great) Raymond Carver, citing the stories' swift economy (an feature inherent in short-story writing since Poe, surely; not something that appeared out of nowhere with Carver) and preoccupation with dislocated lives. Wagner reviewed Carver's underrated 'Call If You Need Me' (savaged on publication by Mr. Cheerful himself, Adam Mars-Jones). I wouldn't take this trendspotting too far. The characters are what matter. They are marginal, often periphereal people with 'small lives', like those in A.L. Kennedy's debut collection 'Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains'. Yet they go on, looking for some kind of intimacy, tenderness. I think Ray would have been very proud of this collection - I know I am. I hope one day to read a novel or further collections of stories by Ms. Wagner.
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