Book Review

Ten Modern Short Novels by Leo Hamalian

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


lazzarone: noun; beggar, scoundrel, rogue.

as·per·i·ty/əˈsperədē/
noun; harshness of tone or manner.

“It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.” - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, 1899

This paragraph is a product of its time and the character speaking, to be sure. But it's fascinating to me that the whole thing is equally true if you reverse the genders and change one other word:

“It's queer how out of touch with truth men are. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too rugged altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we women have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.”

ten·e·brous ˈtenəbrəs/
adjective: dark; shadowy or obscure.

“And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul.” - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.

This volume is a wonderful collection of short novels by authors from the US, Europe, and Russia. These stories give us writers at the top of their profession and the height of their skill and talent. Several, Tolstoy Conrad Faulkner, I intend to read more of. All of them I'm glad I had a chance to experience. Not only are they well told stories on their own, they all illustrate a wider context of the authors' lives and society around them. I especially loved that the editors give us an extended essay about the author and the story at the end of each piece instead of a couple of unsatisfactory paragraphs all lumped together in an introduction. This gives the reader a chance to read the story unbiased and form their own opinion and then fill in and expand that opinion with the details and context of the author's life and career. A pleasure to read.



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