Customer Reviews

The Rendezvous And Other Stories

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Ahoy, shipmates! I enjoyed the Aubrey-Maturin books as much as any of you. I was introduced to them by a Medieval musicologist, not someone you'd expect to swash his buckle much, and I read the whole series in one summer. I'm still hoping that another all-concluding volume will be discovered in a secret cask somewhere in Provence. I wouldn't want O'Brian to have been another writer than he was. Nevertheless, his early short stories display the fact that he COULD have been a very different writer, and perhaps a very great different writer. I rather lament the writer that he wasn't as much as I value the writer he was.

The stories in The Rendezvous apparently represent O'Brian's own selection, and thus part of his literary testament. Most of them would be impossible to regcognize as his work if one encountered them anonymously. They are terse, dark, evocative, elusive, and beautifully crafted. Another reviewer has already identified the masterpiece of the collection, "The Chian Wine", a story about ritualized Jew-baiting in an otherwise idyllic village. It's a story that will knock you out of yourself. A classic. But there are other stories of almost equal power, and then there are graceful flirtations with an aesthetic never exposed in the Aubrey-Maturin books. Too bad cloning hadn't been perfected in time to create two Patrick O'Brians - one to write the great sea novels that he wrote, and another to write the great psychological novels that he could have written.

This is a compilation of short stories, written by Mr. O'Brian over many years. They are emotionally dark, speaking to man's helplessness against the forces of nature and emotion, but they are masterpieces of characterization and understatement.

Read "The Chian Wine" first and you will be astounded.

I am a Aubrey addict. I also just finished Patrick O'Brian's biography by Dean King which is pretty decent and worth reading. It gives you some interesting insight as to how he developed as a writer and the early development of the Aubrey characters.

So I ordered this collection of his early short stories. I can see why O'Brian was not particularly successful until later in his career.

Only one has anything to do with sailing. Most of these stories end, trail off, or just sort of stop suddenly, with the reader wondering ...what...what just happened?

One of them, the Billabillian really perplexed me. I could not figure out the surprise ending - why the young man was suddenly in big trouble. So I googled the story, found a discussion forum and - what a surprise - none of them had a clue as to what was going on either.

Most of them were complaining about the stories. One of the forum members said, "This book is beginning to sap me." I thought to myself, that describes me exactly: why am I reading this?

Lots of other great collections of short stories out there. I would give this a pass.

Readers of the Aubrey Maturin Series may be disappointed as this book of short stories has nothing to do with that series. While I personally read and enjoyed all 20 1/2 of the Aubrey Maturin Series as well as the related Golden Ocean and Unknown Shore, I did not enjoy the few stories I read in this volume. So I would urge caution here. UPDATE: Obviously my intent here is to warn readers how different these stories are to the Aubrey Maturin series. These stories may have merit as another reviewer states and I won't argue the point, but if you are expecting anything like the Aubrey Maturin series, you will likely be disappointed.