Product Description

JOTTINGS is a collection of the stories that Liz Smith has written over the years. Sometimes they explore the darker side of life and what may occur out of the public gaze: a rich and lonely housewife neglects her child and the nanny subjects her charge to unpleasant and adult scenes; a man's wish for fame catapults him into prison and mistaken notoriety; an unhappy wife loses her only friend and is haunted by her. Other stories are more amusing: the sexy, man-eating woman who runs the mobile library: moving through the fog of 1950's London with the help of a blind man; a scheming daughter who plans to take her mother's money has a surprising comeuppance. Liz's stories are unexpected, original and revealing of a writer who is fascinated by relationships and the barriers we erect between our public and private selves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #193676 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

A Charming read.
If you like short stories you will love this collection. Very different from each other. Totally original and show ms.smiths imagination. Couldn't put this book down.

An interesting collection
I read Our Betty and thought it was an absolutely first class memoir, cleverly written, beautifully balanced and thoroughly absorbing. I was intrigued to see what Liz Smith would produce in this, her collection of short stories.

In all I think it is a bit hit and miss. Some things worked wonderfully, other's less so, for me at least. The incredibly short stories like Fog and The Chemist are in the same vein as our Betty and were really exquisite. I also liked the longer, novella type story, Eliza of a woman's rise from abject poverty to a life of comfort and wealth. The characterisation was strong and the story had a coherence and structure that worked beautifully.

I thought the other stories were less successful, particularly Hello, which I couldn't warm to.

An interesting collection with something for everyone, including the author's own illustrations which are suitably quirky and help to draw the collection together coherently.

GOOD OLD LIZ
THIS WAS BOUGHT AS A GIFT AND VERY WARMLY ACCEPTED,I RATE THIS A 4 STAR,A NICE BOOK FULL OF FUN