It's Beginning to Hurt
By James Lasdun
Published by Vintage
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Lasdun draws the reader deep into the specific moment of each story.
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Short story collection review
There’s something disarming about James Lasdun’s writing, a hard-to-define tone that nevertheless draws the reader deep into the specific moment of each story.
A nervous man is unable to emulate his friend’s one-night-stands; a woman is troubled by her partner’s seething anger; a wealthy wine merchant’s marriages are seen from the perspective of the jewellery-store assistant who has modelled pieces for him over the years.
A brother’s goodwill gesture towards his sister is thrown back in his face; and a well-to-do, but previously promiscuous divorcee’s past comes back to haunt her. The strangest story in the book, ‘Annals of the Honorary Secretary’, would not be out of place in a JG Ballard collection.
Lasdun isn’t flashy and the plots of his stories are unremarkable. Likewise, his characters are ordinary individuals suffering the common problems of life – financial concerns, unwanted pregnancies, unwelcome attentions – but his precision with every word makes their concerns real and realistic.
