Add a Dash of Pity: And Other Short Stories

Rating:
Summary: Accessible and Well-Crafted
Review: I did not expect much from Ustinov as an author, because it was from his acting career that I first heard of him. With this colletion of short stories, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Every story is easy to get into, well thought out in terms of plot, and written beautifully. Need an example? This extract comes from the first story, "The Man Who Took it Easy": 'He caroused all night, talking black philosophy to his cronies while his mistress smoked knowingly...' Ustinov is very good at forming a picture of a scene or situation within the reader's mind. The subjects of his stories range from that of a down-and-out composer (The Man Who Took it Easy) to that of a WWII Italian soldier sitting in a shack in the middle of nowhere, waiting to die (The Aftertaste). Read these stories. Trust me, you will enjoy them.