Love, Lies and Lunch - Diana Kay

I always feel that the short story seldom gets the attention it deserves. Writers of fiction tend to favour the novel over the short story.  It’s a bit like playing Doubles in a tennis grand slam tournament;  the big guns don’t bother with the Doubles because they want to concentrate on the Singles. Yet it wasn’t always that way. Short stories seemed to be as much of an author’s arsenal as the mighty novel. One thinks of Kipling, Poe, Wilde, Kafka, Hemingway and so on but modern authors don’t seem so keen. Ishiguro embraces the genre as does Annie Proulx but rarely do short stories hit the best seller lists or ‘grace’ the TV/Radio book club recommendations. And yet they are a delight to read. Very satisfying as a compact reading experience.

So I was delighted to receive a copy of Diana Kay’s anthology. I will admit I was unfamiliar  with the writer so I did a little research especially as the rear cover detail advised that she is a blogger going by the name of Delia Despair! http://www.despairingdelia.com/322323222 In fact I found out more about Delia Despair than I did about Diana Kay including this video interview from YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXG8yR9JAI8 which is a marvellous companion to the stories since it puts them into context in terms of the author’s experiences and inspirations. 

Love, Lies and Lunch is a diverse collection of short stories that span what seems to be the writers’ whole career. And it needs to be stressed that some of these stories date back to the 1950’s which means that reading them today the attitudes and ideas described may appear dated. I fear this collection might not appeal to a feminist reader unless it is viewed historically when it becomes absolutely fascinating.

Frequently the review of a novel will comprise of a précis of the plot. The challenge for the reviewer of a short story collection is that you simply cannot summarise the entire collection. You can perhaps offer a flavour of what’s there by citing your favourite stories but the variety makes that an almost impossible task. Reader, I’ll try!

One of my favourites was the prize winning Rendezvous with Rory because of the humour and the twist in it that I didn’t see coming. You assume one thing and it isn’t until the final paragraph that you realise the complete opposite is in fact the case. The Lonely Rose was another favourite for it had a fairy tale quality. Both thematically and stylistically it reminded me of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and The Lonely Prince. There is another fairy tale like story which is an updated retelling of Cinderella where the prince is called, wait for it, Frank Incense! The two ugly sisters are Gold and Myrhh! 

I liked The Cherry Stone for its opening paragraph which caused a chuckle and a wry smile;-

‘When I was fifteen I thought falling in love with me the most romantic thing in the world, but now I’m 20 I know better. It isn’t romantic at all  - it’s just inconvenient.’

There were several tales that had quite dark outcomes and, indeed, many were submitted and published in Dark Tales. I enjoyed all of those very much. Love in its myriad guises feature predominantly in a great number of the stories often from the adolescent or young wife’s perspective. And there were a fair number of lunches enjoyed too as the anthology collection suggests! And the lies? Well,yes,there were several. Some stories with a faintly supernatural flavour nestle alongside the more worldly tales. 

There are 46 stories in total, an impressive oeuvre and a most enjoyable way to spend an hour or two. My thanks to Elly Donovan who sent me the book which I won in a social media giveaway. Always a thrill to win something!