Short story collections didn’t feature in my reading universe until recently, and it’s been a revelation to find them as entertaining as a novel, albeit in a different way. Take High Spirits – it kicks off with a fascinating introduction leading us through the labyrinth of links between alcohol and writing: from Dionysus to Chaucer, the tradition of drinking songs and poems and onto a legion list of writers who owe much to their favourite tipple. The description of short story writer Brendan Behan as ‘the drinker with writing problems’ proper tickled me. Having grown up in the 70s and 80s in an industrial town, alcohol has been a constant backdrop to the highs, lows and drama of my own life, so there’s much to identify with in the introduction along with literary connections I’d never considered before.
The eighteen stories that follow made me laugh, cry, cringe and reflect on alcohol’s power to alter us. The façade and fragility of relationships is often highlighted, but there is hope and comedy too. There are some writers here who I’ve heard of and read before such as Louis de Bernières, Jonathan Taylor and Hannah Stevens, but many who I’d not come across and that’s the joy of a collection like this. Jenn Ashworth fair took my breath away with her hyper-real portrayal of the messiness of grief in ‘Jackie Kennedy and the Widow,’ so now I have a new favourite author to check out.
Short stories are by their nature, er, short and intense and often leave you thinking about the characters and situation long after you’ve finished reading. It’s a different experience to reading a novel. Like the difference between downing a tray of shots versus drinking a pitcher of beer. Sometimes we need the free abandon of shots. I’d definitely recommend this book for established short story fans and newbies alike. Enjoy, and cheers!
About the reviewer
Karen Rust is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester. She's a Lead Writer for Writing East Midlands, a freelance biographer for StoryTerrace and has work published in various literary magazines including Mooky Chick, Ellipsiszine and Inkpantry. She's currently working on a YA novel for her dissertation and makes music with Yodaclub. This review was first published on her blog here.
You can read another review, by Jon Wilkins, of High Spirits: A Round of Drinking Stories on Everybody's Reviewing here.
It would be easy to say that Elisabeth Horan is just another reincarnation of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, and there’s truth in such a claim, but that would be doing this bold, new American poet an injustice, for she is more than just a carbon copy rising to say pale cover versions from the graves of the greats who have gone before her. She is influenced, yes, but she, as all the best poets do, has taken her inheritance and twisted, mangled and sculptured it into a definite new voice, her own. One that once encountered shan’t be easily forgotten.
Alcoholic Betty is an unflinching, yes another hoary old cliché from the book of reviewing tropes, journey through a thick blackened world of miscellaneous liquids both spilled and imbibed, addiction and collapsing mental health, a long dark night of the soul replayed on a daily, grinding loop over many years.
At times it does feel your faculties and senses are wading through a thickening soup of terror, and if it ever feels tough, keep going, think how Horan herself must have felt living out these nightmares for real, and also head to the end, where glimmers of light and hope will bathe you, both in humane relief that Horan has made it through not unscathed presumably, but certainly unbroken, but also that she survived to write these poems, these hymns covered in every sickly liquid imaginable that by being here represent a hope and victory, not just for the act of writing, but for living through it all.
From what passes on these pages, and to quote the title of probably my favourite poem in the collection - though to be fair there are many candidates - it may be a stretch for the poet herself to be penning a poem entitled “I love Elisabeth Horan Volume 3” any time soon; still, after reading this book it may well be a poem I myself may scribble. It is certainly a sentiment I feel after this emotional and linguistic tour-de-force.
About the reviewer
Matt Nunn is the author of 5 poetry collections, the latest of which is St. Judes College reject (RedSox Press). He works as a freelance writing tutor, writing coach, editor and writer and teaches Creative Writing at Solihull College and has performed his work on TV, radio and a million different venues, to audiences big and small, enthusiastic and indifferent, for over 25 years. He’s still amazed at how he gets away with it all.
I have seen High Spirits advertised on social media for months and had always thought its sub title was A Round of Drinking Songs. A bit bold I thought, but I do enjoy a good song. So without reading the blurb, I assumed there would be plenty to choose from! Then when I received my copy, I realised it was Drinking Stories. Sucking up the disappointment I began to read them.
So Drinking Stories: would this be an uplifting, joyous approach to the theme of having a carousing time and the benefits of being let loose through alcohol? No. What I did learn is that, on a very basic level, drinking is not that good for your body, your mind or your soul. Just some of the outcomes in the short stories here include death through drinking too much, suicide, and a woman scarred when she is burnt, who loses an eye after excess consumption. There is an emboldened paedophile. There are catastrophes that follow people's divorce and the estrangement from their children. Another character is lost in an underground labyrinth, and presumed dead. We also see intoxication resulting in cheating on a dead husband with his brother, then infidelity with new neighbours.
Though sometimes depressing, the stories are all very well written and surprising in every sense. If you did want to be uplifted, this is not the right book; if you want to read clever description and subtle depictions of relationships under pressure then this is the right book for you. We go deep into characters who, though under the spell of alcohol or alcoholics, are able to show life in a clear, even visceral way.
There is such variety. No two stories have the same theme: drink may be the cause of problems and is never the solution, but we see this in every which way. We see how children are affected. In "The Ballad of Barefoot Bob" by David Swann, it is not enough for young Bobby to have an alcoholic father; he also has to suffer his own mental torments. In "May Day" by Alison Moore, we see Gareth trying to do right by his daughter now living with his estranged wife and her new partner, battling the bottle and also his jealousy of the new man. He sinks into his own metaphorical and literal maze and we are left asking: does he survive or not? For me, the most evocative tale, "Bones" by Hannah Stevens, concerns Henry, who sees his drunken partner Bethan topple from his bedroom window to her death. It underlines the futility of drinking to oblivion.
This collection is a vibrant, thought-provoking set of stories. A collection that makes us think, makes us confront a way of life that is so self-destructive, yet so attractive until events take over and control is lost. You may not be singing along at the end of reading this book, but the stories will remain with you and are accessible in a way that that begs us to challenge and to discuss the outcomes. The editors have done a fine job in bringing these carefully crafted stories to us.
About the reviewer
Jon Wilkins is sixty-three. He has a gorgeous wife Annie and two beautiful sons, and loves to write. He is a retired teacher, lapsed Waterstone's bookseller and former Basketball Coach. He taught PE and English for twenty years and coached women’s basketball for over thirty years. He has always loved books and reading.
