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A review by rachyreads
Continent by Jim Crace
3.0
‘Continent’ is a succinct, cohesive collection of short stories from writer Jim Crace. This is the first work of Crace’s I’ve read and though I didn’t fall in love with this collection, it was impressive enough that I’m definitely interested in reading more of his work.
A rather short collection at only 7 stories and 140 pages, ‘Continent’ holds faithfully to it’s themes about community, modernity and humanity’s strive and struggle for progress. These comprise the main virtues of the collection. It’s more and more uncommon to find short story collections that are as well thought through as ‘Continent’ and it definitely contributes to the overall enjoyment of reading it. All of the stories feel similar in theme and setting, but are still different enough to stand apart from one another. The length of the stories also gives more than enough time to get into each one, but aren’t so long that they feel dragging. The first three stories were definite highlights for me. The initial story is one of the most interesting reads. It constantly diverged from what I thought it was going to do in a delightful and surprising fashion that kept me constantly engaged.
Some of the later stories in this collection were just average. It’s hard to dislike them too much as they’re still well written and in keeping with the same feeling as the others, so they still feel like a nice continuation of a journey even if that particular stop wasn’t great. My only other criticism is that sometimes the setting is ambiguous in an odd way. A lot of these stories imply some kind of developing state in certain spaces that can feel very African, Asian or South American, but don’t fully commit to this. I can see how someone could see this as lazy or maybe as a cheap ploy to get out of fully exploring these spaces/cultures and giving them the research they deserve. I understand though that is not what he is trying to do in this collection, and using ambiguity to bypass these landmines is maybe necessary for the collection to exist in the form it does. This ambiguity however can sometimes leave some of the stories or characters feeling a little lacking. It feels like there are depths we could yet plumb, but aren’t afforded the chance to.
Overall I felt there was some really great stories in this collection with writing that was often brilliant and only occasionally convoluted. None of the stories in this collection were particularly poor either, which is an impressive feat in any short story collection. If you’re looking for nicely thematically linked collection that’s an interesting and not too taxing read, ‘Continent’ would definitely be a fine enough choice.
A rather short collection at only 7 stories and 140 pages, ‘Continent’ holds faithfully to it’s themes about community, modernity and humanity’s strive and struggle for progress. These comprise the main virtues of the collection. It’s more and more uncommon to find short story collections that are as well thought through as ‘Continent’ and it definitely contributes to the overall enjoyment of reading it. All of the stories feel similar in theme and setting, but are still different enough to stand apart from one another. The length of the stories also gives more than enough time to get into each one, but aren’t so long that they feel dragging. The first three stories were definite highlights for me. The initial story is one of the most interesting reads. It constantly diverged from what I thought it was going to do in a delightful and surprising fashion that kept me constantly engaged.
Some of the later stories in this collection were just average. It’s hard to dislike them too much as they’re still well written and in keeping with the same feeling as the others, so they still feel like a nice continuation of a journey even if that particular stop wasn’t great. My only other criticism is that sometimes the setting is ambiguous in an odd way. A lot of these stories imply some kind of developing state in certain spaces that can feel very African, Asian or South American, but don’t fully commit to this. I can see how someone could see this as lazy or maybe as a cheap ploy to get out of fully exploring these spaces/cultures and giving them the research they deserve. I understand though that is not what he is trying to do in this collection, and using ambiguity to bypass these landmines is maybe necessary for the collection to exist in the form it does. This ambiguity however can sometimes leave some of the stories or characters feeling a little lacking. It feels like there are depths we could yet plumb, but aren’t afforded the chance to.
Overall I felt there was some really great stories in this collection with writing that was often brilliant and only occasionally convoluted. None of the stories in this collection were particularly poor either, which is an impressive feat in any short story collection. If you’re looking for nicely thematically linked collection that’s an interesting and not too taxing read, ‘Continent’ would definitely be a fine enough choice.