Indelible Acts: Stories [Hardcover]

A. L. Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2003

From the acclaimed Scottish writer A. L. Kennedy (“If you are at all interested in contemporary fiction, this is work you must not miss”—Richard Ford; “A world-class fiction writer”—Thomas Lynch, New York Times Book Review), a brilliant short-story collection—her first to be published in this country—about adultery and sexual obsession.

The twelve stories in Indelible Acts are variations on a theme of longing. A line outside a cheese shop leads to a thrilling infidelity; a funeral exposes a love gone sour; a scene of sickness and despair in a foreign hotel room becomes a metaphor for incurable grief. In “A Bad Son,” a young boy from a damaged home searches for peace, risking his life on a snowy hill. In the title story, two lovers confront their lust amid the ruins of Rome.

Each piece in A. L. Kennedy’s mesmerizing collection is an eloquent, excoriating revelation, saved from bleakness by the humanity and humor of the author’s unrelenting wit and by her unwavering scrutiny of desire and loss. Her characters’ lives are dashed, impassioned, each in his or her own way immolated by hope and by the unassuageable human need for contact, for completion, for that most fugitive gift of all: reciprocal love.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Thematically connected by issues of sexuality, identity, rejection, and acceptance, Kennedy's 12 luminous stories are marvels of emotional intensity, made all the more so by being told, for the most part, from the male point of view, though not in a heavy-handed, macho fashion. Indeed, it is this sort of narrative androgyny that makes her characters' nearly genderless neutrality both satisfying and surprising. Limning the depths of palpable despair, they are equally capable of soaring with mercurial bravado, often working within the confines of relationships that display varying degrees of sexual dysfunction. Some pulsate with a subtle undercurrent of perversion or violence, such as implied acts of rape or explicit acts of homosexuality. Others plumb issues that are disturbingly immoral or, at the very least, inappropriate: adultery, or the breakup of a love affair. Nearly all flirt with, or are flummoxed by, a fatalistic need to lose oneself inside another person, as if searching there for an identity they are unable to find within themselves. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“The best stories here are exacting in tone and compassionate, delivering ornery or wretched characters with equanimity and grace” –The Boston Globe

“Brilliantly moving. . . . As stark and incisive as an X-ray negative of bones and joints.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A world class fiction writer.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Kennedy is adept at creating the texture of desire. . . . One of the bright young stars among contemporary British writers.” —San Jose Mercury News

“Randy, crabby and dangerous to read . . . Kennedy is a master of the whomping good phrase.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st ed edition (June 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400040558
• ISBN-13: 978-1400040551
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,890,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lack of Love Proves to be Indelible, January 27, 2005

By 

Bohdan Kot (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indelible Acts: Stories (Hardcover)

A.L. Kennedy, a prized Scottish fiction writer, brings us from across the pond, "Indelible Acts," a short-story collection filled with satisfying tales - her first to be published in the States. The unnamed narrator in "Not Anything to Do with Love" summons up the theme of the slim book with her notion of an ex-boyfriend, "There would be tenderness, but the kind you only feel when there's a bruise."

Kennedy explores what individuals will do when love is absent - adultery runs prominently as an inadequate fix. Thankfully, humor is sporadically present within the pages of heartache, thus keeping the pieces from becoming a veritable mine of depressive rants. Inner dialog also propels the stories with ease; it allows the reader to be aware of the painful disparity between outer and inner reality.

In "A Little like Light," John Edward feels stuck in a dismal marriage and an unrewarding job as a school janitor. He thinks of himself as an actor playing out a role for both his family and work. The only moments of solace he has are his thoughts: "The best love is a little like light. It is unremitting, cannot fail to find you, to take the shortest, surest way, as if that were marked out as part of your nature, the line where you and love are made to meet." The school's new teacher, Elizabeth Harrison, does find Edward, but he does nothing to pursue the new relationship despite his interest or take action to repair his failing marriage.

Edward, like Kennedy's other characters, is unable to make decisions that could improve life and love. However, hope for change does brim in "How to Find Your Way in Woods." Sarah invites her ex-boyfriend David for a holiday trip, but regrets the invitation once he arrives. Later she is able to walk away from him and says, "We didn't work, David."

Bohdan Kot

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Plotless, but excellent writing, July 7, 2006

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indelible Acts: Stories (Paperback)

I picked this up on the recommendation of a travel guide book, as an example of good writing by a Scottish author. The writing is very good, but the Scottish nature of these stories is near to non-existent. What connects these stories together is their theme of adultery, a theme that is fairly common to mainstream literature these days (I've an aunt-in-law who used to complain that it was a criteria for Oprah's Book Club), but one that I had heretofore avoided in my own reading diet. Unfortunately, the saliciousness of these short stories was fairly mild, and while I found Kennedy's writing quite admirably, at the end of each story I found myself saying, "So what," a common complaint I have with modern short stories, which tend to be heavy in style and character and light in plot or substance. I did end up reading every story, so that's something of a recommendation, in the sense that if plot isn't necessary for you, you might find this book quite worthwhile.