Just finish writing a damn story! There were 2 decent ones, I think, so 2 stars. ( )

Randomly chosen from my pile(s) of books and it is book 89 of 2011 - aim 133 books in 2011 ( )

Constitutional, Helen Simpson’s 4th short story collection, is a slim volume (133 pages) containing 9 stories about midlife crisis.

These stories are about women and men in their late 30s/early 40s facing a turning point in their lives – affairs, relationship breakdown, teenage children growing up, serious illness and pregnancy/impending single parenthood. I found them witty and sad at the same time.
These are not stories based on a tight little plot and a neat twist, and readers seeking those should look elsewhere; they offer a glimpse into the people’s lives at a particular point.

The story with the most obvious plotting, If I’m Spared, was my least favourite as the main character was so unlikeable.

In The Year’s Midnight, Marion can’t resist intervening to try and cheer up an upset child and finds herself advising a Czech au pair girl who hates her job. I enjoyed this story but the ones I liked best were those containing bits I could really relate to. In Early One Morning, Zoe worries about her 9 year old son growing up and away from her, I can imagine feeling like this in a few years’ time. In Every Third Thought, a woman is freaked out to find that so many people around her are dying – other mums of kids at her children’s school, people of her age, people like her. In The Phlebotomist’s Love Life, a woman is distraught about the Iraq war and is distressed to find out that the man she has a relationship with doesn’t want to talk about it, probably because he has a completely different view. And in the title story, a woman finds herself pregnant in her 40s, a wanted baby but not the right circumstances.

Simpson’s stories are written in simple prose. They are very witty in looking at the way people think, the mixture of logic and irrationality.

I have read her earlier stories before, but reading this (twice in a few months) has made me want to go back to them. ( )

Short, imaginative, rigourous but funny stories from an accomplished English author. ( )

It is a truism in the book world that writers love short stories, but readers never buy them. I have always been mystified by this. Short stories are, after all, short. And in an era where time is an ever more scarce resource, you would think that shorter would be better. How is it that millions of people next month will buy a copy of the newest Harry Potter (rumored to run around 750 pages) without batting an eye, but probably not take the time to read a five-page short story in Harper’s that is probably much better written? After all, the shorter the piece, the more care must be taken with each word. Every phrase, every scene, every scrap of dialogue must justify itself. Short stories are short, but they are intense. They are demitasses of espresso in our coffee-fueled culture.

The problem, I thought, as I turned the last page of Helen Simpson’s new story collection In the Driver’s Seat (Knopf; $22), is that most people are ordering hazelnut-flavored double-skinny lattes. Decaf. With low-fat whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Simpson’s story collection brought home to me why short stories—good short stories—do not do well in the literary marketplace. They are too good, too intense. Too inescapably honest, perhaps. To drink a cup of espresso, you had better like the taste of coffee. To drink a hazelnut-flavored double-skinny latte with whipped cream, you just need to be in the mood for dessert. . .read full review