From Library Journal
These 34 stories have all the hallmarks of post-1945 British culture: an amused attitude toward Americans and Australians, a comic fascination with sex, a baffling affection for a cold evening meal called "tea." In most cases, though, as the narrator of Adam Mars-Jones's "Structural Anthropology" says, "just below the surface of story . . . lies the tangled richness of myth." Stylistically, the works vary from Samuel Beckett's succinct avant-gardism to Doris Lessing's extended revisiting of naturalism a la Flaubert. The entire volume is recommended, especially Ian McEwan's "Psychopolis," which makes it clear why many consider him Great Britain's leading writer. David Kirby, Florida State Univ., TallahasseeCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

ANNOTATION

Long-established writers such as Samuel Beckett join with Adam Mars-Jones and other more modern contributors in an anthology of 34 stories.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This anthology is in many ways a 'best of the best', containing gems from thirty-four of Britain's outstanding contemporary writers. It is a book to dip into, to read from cover to cover, to lend to friends and read again. It includes stories of love and crime, stories touched with comedy and the supernatural, stories set in London, Los Angeles, Bucharest and Tokyo. Above all, as you will discover, it satisfies Samuel Butler's anarchic pleasure principle: 'I should like to like Schumann's music better than I do; I daresay I could make myself like it better if I tried; but I do not like having to try to make myself like things; I like things that make me like them at once and no trying at all...'

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal