‘Bold, glamorous, sexy, unrepentant,’ promises the jacket. The heroines of Fay Weldon’s short stories ‘offer a quite unique view of the world as they face their trials without fear or trepidation’. It’s not the done thing to start a review by quoting the blurb, but this one unwittingly helps to establish why these stories ought to be good, and why, on the whole, they are not.
Most stick to the ‘twist in the tail’ formula bequeathed to short-story writers by Saki and too rarely discarded since. A faked Early Christian cross works healing miracles, a dowdy book illustrator turns the tables on a smooth-talking con-man, a china-smashing poltergeist shows a displaced Jewish girl the way back to her roots. Whatever expectations are raised, you can guarantee they’ll be overturned. Sometimes this is subtly achieved, as in the beautifully balanced ‘Wild Strawberries’ where a cat’s pregnancy nudges sophisticated Elaine into recognising that she has been living a smart, glittering, urban lie.
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