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Rating: 
Summary: Absolute & Delightful Perfection!
Review: In this collection of short stories, Penelope Lively conjurs up worlds and characters and prose that touch the heart and often bring laughter and tears. The deftness of the writing is astonishing. This book is a perfect bedside companion for all seasons.
Rating:
Summary: Sensitive Writer with Consistent Style
Review: Lively's complete short stories (they're all here) showcase how well she writes. Lively is especially adept at illustrating how a person comes to change (change one's mind, change one's attitude, fall out of love, grow up, et cetera). Lucky for the reader, many if not all of these stories work with the theme of how a person does change. Again and again, we see that she is remarkably good at constructing the feelings and thoughts of adolescents, and this reviewer suspects it is partly because Lively has indelible memories of her own amazing childhood; read also her Oleander, Jacaranda autobiographical work, hinted at in the marvelous short story about an English girl returning from a childhood in colonial India. Lively is purely talented as a wordsmith, with amazing economy and clever, rather elegantly composed dialogue. The book is excellent from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Sensitive Writer with Consistent Style
Review: Lively's complete short stories (they're all here) showcase how well she writes. Lively is especially adept at illustrating how a person comes to change (change one's mind, change one's attitude, fall out of love, grow up, et cetera). Lucky for the reader, many if not all of these stories work with the theme of how a person does change. Again and again, we see that she is remarkably good at constructing the feelings and thoughts of adolescents, and this reviewer suspects it is partly because Lively has indelible memories of her own amazing childhood; read also her Oleander, Jacaranda autobiographical work, hinted at in the marvelous short story about an English girl returning from a childhood in colonial India. Lively is purely talented as a wordsmith, with amazing economy and clever, rather elegantly composed dialogue. The book is excellent from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Collection!
Review: This is one of the best collections of short stories I have ever read! Penelope Lively is right on target in terms of believable settings and trenchant characterization with one story in particular, "Nothing But the Samovar", being one of the most memorable.
Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Collection!
Review: This is one of the best collections of short stories I have ever read! Penelope Lively is right on target in terms of believable settings and trenchant characterization with one story in particular, "Nothing But the Samovar", being one of the most memorable.
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