An Orchid in My Belly Button – Katy Wimhurst

 

The short story is an underrated genre. Character, plot, setting and suspense all combine succinctly to a satisfactory conclusion. It used to be far more prevalent amongst writers of substance. Think of Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, Daphne Du Maurier, Franz Kafka, Raymond Carver…… I could go on.  But now it seems that many short story authors fall below the radar. I long for the day when we see the longlist for the Booker Short Story Prize 20whatever……. But I guess in our money dominated times it is an economic issue that inhibits the major publishers from embracing the short story collections. 

 

I’m an eclectic reader, maybe that helps, but I love short stories. I love the skill that a short story writer displays with their ability to create a concise narrative without compromising literary integrity. So, I jumped at the chance to read this absorbing collection from Katy Wimhurst. For a start I adored the title!! Who couldn’t resist a book entitled An Orchid in my Belly Button?!

 

I laughed, I cried, I marvelled. The stories are diverse. Some juxtapose what we might see as the norm; snow falling inside rather than outside, predator rabbits and a Buddhist wolf. Another takes the capability of an everyday item to an extreme - a vacuum cleaner that can suck up literally anything! 

 

There are tales of magic, dystopia, shapeshifting, dreamlike tales, bizarre imaginings. There are fables for our contemporary times; materialism that causes a boat to sink, a stroppy mermaid aghast at the plastic pollution.

Accounts of flora and fauna growing on the human body. There is something euphoric about an imagination running so freely. 

 

I think my favourite story was Bootleg Chocolate. It was certainly the one that made me laugh the most. At times it was almost Kafkaesque, with a helping of Lewis Carroll. It’s a short story but it defies a precis, it’s so offbeat with such creative episodes within the story, very clever.

 

But as well as making me laugh I was also touched by the empathy and understanding of the natural world - The Ghosts of Crabs where little Luke can communicate with the ghosts. So many of Katy Wimhurst’s characters are in tune with the rhythms of nature and possess a reverence for living things that is almost spiritual. 

 

It may only be March, but this has been one of my favourite books so far this year. I loved it. 

 

Thank you to the author for gifting me a copy.