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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
David Constantine's stories freeze-frame lives just at the moment when the past breaks the surface, or when the present, like the dam of the title, collapses under its own weight.
A girl's body re-appears in the ice where she fell 50 years before - melting the life of the lover who survived her.
A tourist staggers through an Athens marketplace transformed into a vision of Hell.
During a speech a businessman feels his soul abandoning him.
Constantine's landscapes are as alive and fluid as his prose, which swells and surges like unsettled water throughout. HIs characters are solitary figures drawn against stark and disquieting backdrops. Whether oppressed or emancipated by their surroundings, many seem to be seeking a kind of asylum from themselves or the unsustainable pressures on their lives.
It took me a while to get through what is actually quite a short book (around 200 pages). That's not a comment on the quality of the writing, which is always thoughtful, careful and at times, sensual and moving but rather the fact that these stories are all character examinations, examining a character at a particular moment when something changes that's personal to them and as such, not automatically something that grabs me.
Of the stories in this collection, I think that my favourite was A Paris Story, which follows a middle-aged woman who embarks on a spontaneous affair with an Arab boy she meets in Paris. As an examination of the character's sexual and romantic re-awakening, I found it to be an interesting read and whereas the situations could have descended into sleeze, Constantine instead portrays them as snatched moments filled with meaning.
I did find some repetition within the stories - e.g. Estuary and The Red Balloon each have the main character described as undergoing a "quickening" and I wondered whether this was intentional on the part of the author or an unconscious repetition of theme. On balance and because of the way both that some of his stories slyly refer to characters mentioned or described in others and because of the carefulness of his prose, I think it's more likely to be intentional, but it did stand out.
The Verdict:
This isn't a collection for those who prefer their fiction to focus on plot, but it is well-written, intelligent and interesting and as such, well worth a look.
David Constantine's stories freeze-frame lives just at the moment when the past breaks the surface, or when the present, like the dam of the title, collapses under its own weight.
A girl's body re-appears in the ice where she fell 50 years before - melting the life of the lover who survived her.
A tourist staggers through an Athens marketplace transformed into a vision of Hell.
During a speech a businessman feels his soul abandoning him.
Constantine's landscapes are as alive and fluid as his prose, which swells and surges like unsettled water throughout. HIs characters are solitary figures drawn against stark and disquieting backdrops. Whether oppressed or emancipated by their surroundings, many seem to be seeking a kind of asylum from themselves or the unsustainable pressures on their lives.
It took me a while to get through what is actually quite a short book (around 200 pages). That's not a comment on the quality of the writing, which is always thoughtful, careful and at times, sensual and moving but rather the fact that these stories are all character examinations, examining a character at a particular moment when something changes that's personal to them and as such, not automatically something that grabs me.
Of the stories in this collection, I think that my favourite was A Paris Story, which follows a middle-aged woman who embarks on a spontaneous affair with an Arab boy she meets in Paris. As an examination of the character's sexual and romantic re-awakening, I found it to be an interesting read and whereas the situations could have descended into sleeze, Constantine instead portrays them as snatched moments filled with meaning.
I did find some repetition within the stories - e.g. Estuary and The Red Balloon each have the main character described as undergoing a "quickening" and I wondered whether this was intentional on the part of the author or an unconscious repetition of theme. On balance and because of the way both that some of his stories slyly refer to characters mentioned or described in others and because of the carefulness of his prose, I think it's more likely to be intentional, but it did stand out.
The Verdict:
This isn't a collection for those who prefer their fiction to focus on plot, but it is well-written, intelligent and interesting and as such, well worth a look.
