Piranha To Scurfy And Other Stories
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
The long title story is about a man whose life, in a sense, is a book. There are shelves in every room, packed with titles which Ambrose Ribbon has checked pedantically for mistakes of grammar and fact. Life for Ribbon, without his mother now, is lonely and obsessive, filled with psychoses and neuroses, with the ever-present possibility of a descent into violent madness. He still keeps his mother's dressing table exactly as she had left it, the wardrobe door always open so that her clothes can be seen inside, and her pink silk nightdress on the bed. There is one book too that he associates particularly with her - volume VIII of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Piranha to Scurfy. It marked a very significant moment in their relationship. In the other stories, Ruth Rendell deals with a variety of themes, some macabre, some vengeful, some mysterious, all precisely observed. The second novella, High Mysterious Union, explores a strange, erotic universe in a dream-like corner of rural England, and illustrates very atmospherically what range Ruth Rendell has as a writer, expanding beyond her famous sphere of crime writing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Multiple Edgar and Gold Dagger award winner Rendell displays her mastery of spine-tingling suspense in her first short story collection since Blood Lines (1996). In the scary title tale, a solitary, arrogant, self-appointed fault-finder is haunted by memories of his dead mother. Although the twist is soon obvious, Rendell adds a dimension that holds the reader to the end. Mythology and fairy tales come to life in "High Mysterious Union," a novella in which a man's increasing obsession with a young woman places him under a spell that almost leads to his death. Irony plays a strong role in most of the nine tales here. In "Walter's Leg," the title character learns that people don't change, even over a lifetime. "The Professional" is about a young man who thinks he witnesses a murder, talks himself out of it, then too late realizes he was right. In "Fair Exchange," a man's doubts about a healer who helps his sick wife are his undoing. Rendell is such a good writer that all these subtle and witty stories succeed, but they are superficial compared to her far more complex and satisfying novels.
