The Hunters: Two Short Novels [Hardcover]

Claire Messud (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 2001

A Simple Tale is the moving account of Maria Poniatowski, a woman born in the Ukraine between the two World Wars, taken by the Germans for slave labor, and eventually relocated as a displaced person to Canada. She and her husband settle in Toronto. They struggle to build a new life there and provide their son Radek with every opportunity. But a gulf widens between mother and son. What of the past is she to preserve, and how to avoid letting its weight burden the present? Maria's story is about the moments of connection and isolation that are, ultimately, common to us all.

The Hunters is told by an American academic living in a dreary suburb of London for a summer. Removed from the relationships that ordinarily add structure to life, this scholar soon grows obsessed by the neighbors downstairs. Ridley Wandor lives with her mother and their horde of pet rabbits, occupying her days as a caretaker of the elderly. While the narrator researches a book about death, Ridley Wandor's patients all seem to be dying. Is she doing away with them? The narrator constructs Ridley's story from the available clues, only to find that nothing is what it had seemed to be.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These two short novels have nothing in common except for providing the pleasure of seeing a writer of enormous skill and stylistic grace excel in crafting two very different fictions. "A Simple Tale" traces the life of Maria Poniatowski, a Toronto cleaning woman whose last client has become incapacitated with age and must soon enter a nursing home. Her deterioration marks the end of an era for the 70ish Maria, who reflects on a "simple life" that is soon revealed to consist of a series of horrifying disruptions: her transfer as a teenager from her village in the Ukraine to a series of Nazi labor camps; her arrival in Canada as a displaced person after the war; her son's marriage to the wrong woman; her husband's death. Messud (When the World Was Steady; The Last Life) builds a powerful and resonant story out of the simplest and seemingly most ordinary of domestic details: Maria's teatime with her elderly client, her plastic furniture-covers, a painting of a tropical seascape. "The Hunters" is a world away from Maria Poniatowski's Toronto set in London and narrated by an American academic who has taken to spying on her two downstairs neighbors, a mother and daughter who raise rabbits. "The hunters" is what the daughter, a "suet of a woman," calls the rabbits, adding, "Although they're more like `the hunted,' in this world, wouldn't you say?" Just as a simple life proves more complex and contradictory than one would imagine, so the reversal of hunter and hunted here provides unexpected suspense and plot surprises. These two fine and remarkable novellas, each a modest tour de force, are sure to advance Messud's critical standing and to broaden her readership.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The reader gets two for the price of one in this volume of novellas. The first piece, "A Simple Tale," is the story of Maria Poniatowski. Maria was born in the Ukraine and survived World War II in German slave labor camps. Put in a displaced persons camp at the end of the war, she meets her husband, Lev, and together they decide to relocate to Canada to start a new life and raise their young son, Radek. Maria struggles to find her place in the world, first as a cleaning woman, then as a widow. A gap forms between her and Ron, as her son now calls himself, because Maria disproves of his wife, who in Maria's words is not a nice girl. In the second piece, "The Hunters," a nameless English professor is researching death during a dreary summer in London. Alone and depressed, the narrator eliminates most human contact, until the downstairs neighbor, Ridley Wandor, knocks on the apartment door. The narrator becomes enthralled with Ridley, a home health aide, and her tales of a sick mother whom no one ever sees, patients who die with alarming frequency, and a horde of pet rabbits. Both novellas illustrate the frustration of human relations, loneliness, and the veracity of personal histories. Messud's (The Last Life) short novels are well written, intense examinations of isolation that will appeal to readers of literary fiction. Recommended for larger collections.
- Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 181 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st edition (August 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151005885
• ISBN-13: 978-0151005888
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,453,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Novellas Are Hard, September 9, 2001

By 

Gertrude Wellikoff (Big Island, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hunters: Two Short Novels (Hardcover)

and especially so in Claire Messud's case when "The Last Life" was so deliciously rendered, so unforgettably film like and full of nostalgia without ever being sentimental. In contrast, I found these novellas too tight and with too little room for the reader to daydream on them. But this is highly subjective. I read one professional review that praised the first, damned the second work--there are 2 novellas here. Another reviewer, highly respected saw it just the other way around. But for myself, I missed the last novel and felt these experimental works may lead to a greater next novel, not another novella, which I do not believe is Ms. Messud's best genre.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fierce Young Voice, August 17, 2001

By 

Marianna Vieira - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hunters: Two Short Novels (Hardcover)

Claire Messud's THE HUNTED is surprising work, and what most surprises is that this young writer has mastered a demanding literary form, the nouvella. In "A Simple Tale" she enters the mind of a World War II survivor of Hitler's labor camps and traces this woman's consciousness from youth to her older years as a Toronto cleaning woman. All of the characters in this nouvella are fully fleshed out and thoroughly interesting. "The Hunters" is set in contemporary London and deals with the psychology of fear and suggestibility. To say that it is a contemporary take on James'"The Turn of the Screw" is to suggest its creepiness and fascination. not to dismiss the nouvella as trite hommage. The book is a double dose of adventurous thinking and accomplished writing from a writer who has found her voice at a very young age. Highly recommended.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Artistry of Words, January 23, 2003

By 

rizabiz "rizabiz" (Westhampton Beach, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hunters: Two Short Novels (Hardcover)

Wonderful introduction to an author who will surely make her mark in contemporary literature. Messud utilizes the pen to paper as would a painter use their brush to a canvas. In both short novels----or novellas, Messud engages the reader into the full depth of a story in the shortness of 100 pages each. Unlike other reviewers, I was not prejudiced by having read The Last Life first and so disappointed with these stories. (although it sits next to me as I write because I can't wait to see more of her work). In A Simple Plan, we learn the whole life of Maria to who and what she has become today from her plight as a child. The Hunters story immediately strikes the reader without ever revealing the gender of the first person narrative. The most engaging part of both of these stories is that the language makes them come alive, almost dance off the page. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more of her work.