Customer Reviews

It's Beginning to Hurt: Stories

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I'm one of those people who read reviews on Amazon that lambast, agree, or disagree with previously published reviews (in this case the New York Times) and go, Oh, God! is s/he really doing that?! And yes, I am.

The NYT was unkind to this book, and the reviewer (being a published writer himself) failed to realize that writing isn't about being current, or American, or British, or so exciting with our words that they sometimes distract from the story itself. Rather, writing is about seeing something simple, something mundane, something so common to humanity and giving it life. It's about bringing us into the worlds that the characters live in and getting us to feel and understand their problems. These stories may not "crackle with energy" - as far as language goes, nor should they! - but they do easily tug you into their world. The writing is solid and sharp, and the stories are true to the nature of humanity and all its pitfalls and challenges. James Lasdun has given us an excellent little collection of stories.

I loved this book, so much so that I doled them out to myself only 1 or 2 a day. Alice Munro and Jane Gardam (and occasionaly Alan Gurganus, Sherman Alexie and Annie Proulx) are two other writers whose short stories make me swoon. This is a review of the book in its entirety because I don't see the point or necessity of picking apart this one or that one. Yes, some are not as good as others but the extraordinary ones (and there are many) shoot for the moon and don't miss. His writing enlarges my world, sentence by sentence. I wish I could keep the individual stories separate in my head the way I can with novels. It just doesn't work that way for me. Reading Lasdun, each story, is a 15-20-25 minute blast of almost overwhelming transcendence. It just doesn't get any better than this.

James Lasdun knows how to get into the psyche of his characters, mostly middle aged men living middle class lives. He rivaled Henry James with his psychological study of madness in "The Horned Man." Now comes his third book and his first collection of stories, It's Beginning to Hurt. The stories feature people going through hard times and learning to cope with the unbearable pain that comes from these obstacles: infidelity, cancer and loss.

A man goes to the funeral of a lover and out of habit lies to his wife about where he has been; An elementary school principal, who is fighting with his sister, goes through a series of tests to see if he has lymphoma. These are some of the things Lasdun writes so beautifully and simply about in this fine collection.

This collection opens with Lasdun's award winning short "An Anxious Man," about an investor who doesn't know his own risk tolerance--very topical subject matter. If I didn't know the story predated the 2008 financial crisis, I would say almost too topical. "An Anxious Man" is either the beneficiary or the victim of fortuitous timing.

The book closes with "Caterpillars," which I think was my favorite piece. It reminded me of an incident I had on the playground as a child. I got to the top of the slide and as I started to go down I saw that somebody had thrown dirt and gravel onto the bottom end. Unable to stop, I slid through them, soiling my pants. Upset, I picked up several handfuls of dirt and gravel and replaced that which I'd involuntarily wiped off. Naturally the next slider complained and it was I who got in trouble. In "Caterpillars," however, the main character is no child.

"A Bourgeois Story" was a close second. "Totty" (which is as close as this collection comes to a happy ending) and "Oh, Death" (aka The Hollow) were also up there. The rest, as other reviewers point out, are all very good, although I personally found "Cleanness" and "Cranley Meadows" to be the weakest offerings.

Short story collections, like record albums, usually start with the strongest offering then tapering off, and often I have a problem finishing the book. Not so with this magnificent collection. Each is a gem, unsettling, disquieting, memorable. The eponymous story is a wisp only 3 pages long, but has more impact than other stories that ran double the length. The unifying quality in these stories is a moment of truth for middle aged, middle class people, faced with life changing decisions. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be The Old Man, for its sharpness of character and poignancy of mood.

James Lasdun doesn't so much get inside his protagonists' heads as let the reader feel his way into their lives, ultimately becoming one with them. His central characters--mostly men in middle age, often financially successful--gradually confront their own emotional confusion and turmoil amid a world of people who seem sure of themselves, know who they are and where they're going in life. Lasdun's characters fall in and out of love or, more typically, never seem sure whether they're in love or not, or whether they once were, or whether they want to be...He occasionally switches to a female protagonist, but she will have similar issues. Perhaps the most poignant is a jewelry store clerk who feels herself falling for a customer who keeps coming back to buy necklaces for his "fiancee." It's a different fiancee each time, and the young woman is never sure he recognizes her. Even so, the encounters she has with "Peter Kahn" are more real to her than anything in "real life," including and especially her horrifying marriage to a man she hates. Lasdun does something daring in this tale: he gives us the outcome in the title, while only implying it in the text. In another story, a romantic young couple's first night of sex seems to change not just their relationship but the people themselves, so that 20 years later they are unrecognizable to each other, yet still retain some vestige of the past. Lasdun is a master of revealing by omission, and of suggesting whole worlds with a telling detail. In 10 or 12 pages he can give us a remarkably rich picture of his characters' lives, so that we feel we know them better than we know the characters in many novels.

Because of the overriding theme of what might be termed "middle-aged uncertainty," It's Beginning To Hurt feels like a novel even though none of the characters is connected with any other. But Lasdun's characters and their private sorrows and revelations can be so lacerating that they stay with you in a haunting manner, sometimes melding together, other times standing out like the most artfully cut jewels. As a collection, this is one of the most powerful books of short stories ever written. It should be on every serious readers shelf.

The writing in these stories is gorgeous. It rolls off the tongue of the mind and paints vivid pictures. But most compelling is the author's ability to get inside the heads of his characters. Profound insights, the kind you have of yourself in your own mind but don't (and can't) really put into words, provide the framework for each story. Highly recommended.

I am a serious fan of short stories. Never have I come across a book of short stories where every story was exceptional. Lasdun's writing is beautiful and calming. I loved this collection. Highly recommended.

A very fine piece. The author's sharp insight and wit make each page a joy to read. Highly recommended.

James Lasdun is an English writer to savour. This is, firstly, realism of the highest order - characters whose psychologies and auras really come into being. But beyond that the stories accelerate, in a subtly deranged way, leaving you turning the pages quite furiously. Light, nature, love, food, thoughts and places are described in a beautiful, shimmering prose which leaves you nervously awaiting the next moment paranoia, humiliation, revenge and tragedy will strike.