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johndomc's review
3.0
Good psychological stories, of people trying to understand other people, or beginning to understand them.
"I felt that I had never looked at her really or had any conception of what sort of person she was or what her experience in life was like. Now it seemed I would never know. I suddenly realized—at that early age—that there was experience to be had in life that I might never know anything about except through hearsay and through books."
In each story there are moments of obscure tension—should you be nervous?—and then while you're reading on high alert he'll go on not quite getting to the point. So the scenes feel rich. Sometimes cinematic in its images—the boy standing looking into the fully-stocked fridge, while his sister and her boyfriend are silent in the next room; a woman's voice and carriage changing, in the instant the light switches on—but not grand cinematography, more like filmmaking out of day-to-day events that would seem pretty ordinary to the people not experiencing them.
Also some interesting bits about women performing as well as they can the roles available to them, sometimes wishing they could have other roles.
"I was sitting on a cotton trough beside one of those windows, eating my club sandwich, when I heard the telephone ring back in the inner office. ... At first I thought I wouldn't answer the phone. I let it ring for a minute or two. It went on ringing—persistently. Suddenly I realized that a normal business call would have stopped ringing before now. I jumped down from my perch by the window and ran back between the cotton troughs to the office."
"I felt that I had never looked at her really or had any conception of what sort of person she was or what her experience in life was like. Now it seemed I would never know. I suddenly realized—at that early age—that there was experience to be had in life that I might never know anything about except through hearsay and through books."
In each story there are moments of obscure tension—should you be nervous?—and then while you're reading on high alert he'll go on not quite getting to the point. So the scenes feel rich. Sometimes cinematic in its images—the boy standing looking into the fully-stocked fridge, while his sister and her boyfriend are silent in the next room; a woman's voice and carriage changing, in the instant the light switches on—but not grand cinematography, more like filmmaking out of day-to-day events that would seem pretty ordinary to the people not experiencing them.
Also some interesting bits about women performing as well as they can the roles available to them, sometimes wishing they could have other roles.
"I was sitting on a cotton trough beside one of those windows, eating my club sandwich, when I heard the telephone ring back in the inner office. ... At first I thought I wouldn't answer the phone. I let it ring for a minute or two. It went on ringing—persistently. Suddenly I realized that a normal business call would have stopped ringing before now. I jumped down from my perch by the window and ran back between the cotton troughs to the office."
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