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Sunday, December 28, 2014

Family Matters by Elizabeth Berridge



A boring cover which is all I could find for a delightful collection of charming short stories. I do so wish the cover could have been a bit more imaginative!

The collection of short stories cover the gamut of all relationships. Between husband and wife married for decades, between sisters now grown old and widowed and living together, between aunts and nieces and nephews. The usual family with all its hidden depths. Nothing is as it seems and even the most innocuous relationship seems to have hidden meanings of either spite, envy and bitterness but there is plenty of happiness and joy in the simple things in life as well.

The collection of stories set during wartime reiterate the influence the war had on the social mores of the time. Husbands who expected submissive wives did not get what they were used to, fathers who expected obedient daughters got the shock of their lives when their daughters became independent women. Wartime changed women for good. It seemed to be a testing time for women to take up the challenge in Britain and taking up the challenge they did and very well at that. Men came back expecting things to be the same as before but life had changed for all and some of them did not quite like what had happened.

For anyone who likes short stories this is an ideal collection. For those who are hesitant thinking that there is not enough time for a story to have a proper ending when it is a short story should maybe try this one.

This was a download from Open Library.

4 comments:

  1. The book sounds good, but I agree about the cover. They could have done better.

    Happy New Year!

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  2. Short stories are hit and miss for me, generally, but this really sounds good. The tie to war time in particular caught my attention. I will have to look for this one.

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