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Book Reviews Title Hard
Shoulder Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story Two Asian
teenagers invent their own secret
postcode… Here are sixteen
stories from Birmingham's young writers. Stories of
forbidden love, theft, racism, chaos and isolation.
Stories of the fallout from sexual disaster, the
death of the nuclear family, the rebirth of the
spirit of rebellion. We
Say By the way, for
all of our friends Stateside, that's Birmingham U.K
and not Birmingham Alabama. In fact, even the Brits
might need pointing in the right direction on this
one. The U.K's second city has not previously been
known for it's writing prowess. It is more usually
associated with industrial trades and a daunting
road system (hence the name "Hard Shoulder"). An
organisation determined to put this right is the
Tindal Street Press, Birmingham's very own
publishing house for fiction and they are certainly
causing a stir. This anthology of short stories by
young Birmingham writers has just won a major
publishing prize. But how good is it? Easy - it's very
good. Sixteen amazingly confident voices and
sixteen fantastic short stories. Each story has
it's own, independent appeal but put them together
and they give an almost complete impression of city
life and the characters within it as well as those
who have escaped from it. Also, a wide variety of
life experience is here, from love affairs to
racism, from working to robbery. Everyone will find
something that they enjoy but of course, I have my
favourites. These are probably two stories, which
appear in the middle of the anthology. The first is
"Green" by editor Jackie Gay in which two friends
spend a summer working on the coast and second is
"Ringers" by Rob Smith, which involves a young
man's conflict and conscience when he sees cars
being stolen in his road. The advantage of
reading an anthology of short stories is that you
get so many different perspectives crammed into one
book. Reading "Hard Shoulder" is like having a
really good box of chocolates - you'll read a story
and find yourself saying "just one more" until
you're absolutely stuffed full and
satisfied. Review by: Rachel
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