Paris Postcards by Guy Thomas Hibbert: book review

Paris Postcards: Short Stories (2018) is a collection of 11 short stories set in Paris, with the central theme: a postcard. Each postcard in each story has a message – for good or bad. The stories span from 1925 to the present day, in a snapshot of history. They are all linked in some way, through time or character or place – but in a subtle way.

From a Russian Count in 1925 to a middle-aged woman in the present day, the stories are of young and old, Parisienne and foreign, and rich and poor.

The collection begins with the mysterious Count Stanislaw Kerensky, exiled from Russia after the Revolution, leaving in receipt of the knowledge that his old comrade Petrovich is alive. Stanny promised to send his friend Andre a postcard with a coded message.

Hermione’s party in 1937, Lucienne in German Occupied Paris in 1943, Elodie and her son in 1963, Didier and Jules in 1997, Jeanne in 2000, Hank in 2006, and Li Ling and Christopher in the present day, it ends with a fifty-year-old divorced woman, off Citalopram for two months, visiting the bouquinistes along the river Seine with their old books and postcards.

The Blue Dress, February 2006, is my favourite story, and the shortest –Hank and his wife Lilian, who is ‘a little forgetful’ are in Paris for their wedding anniversary. She has a collection of vintage Valentine’s Day postcards.

There are various narrators – Andre, Daisy, Serge, George – and it is interesting to find the linkages and connections between stories. The stories are full of secrets and subterfuge, love and loss, and the search for a change of life and fortune. There is much hope, desire, and dreams in the streets of Paris. It’s an enjoyable read.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog