Ms. Hen reviews Tales of the Unexpected

 

Tales of the Unexpected

Roald Dahl

Vintage Books

1990

Ms. Hen decided to read this collection, because she watched some short films that were based on the author's stories, and wanted to learn more. She watched THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR, and three other short films by Wes Anderson based on Roald Dahl. Ms. Hen loves strange stories, so she bought one of his books.

Ms. Hen learned that some of the author's short stories were adapted to ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, a mystery show she used to watch in reruns when she was young. She remembers one episode from the show that is a story in the book, "Lamb to the Slaughter," about a woman who kills her husband with a leg of lamb, then feeds it to the policemen who are trying to solve the case.

A lot of these stories are about gambling, which Ms. Hen does not understand. Also, a lot of these stories are strange, which Ms. Hen does appreciate. The story, "Royal Jelly," is about a man who discovers that the royal jelly from bees can help his baby grow, so he takes it from his bee hives, and fantastic things occur. The story "Skin," brings us to Paris and we find a man with a tattoo on his back that could be worth a lot of money. The story "The Landlady," is about a creepy boardinghouse where the character learns that two young men have disappeared and become something else.

Ms. Hen thinks these stories are written in a way that people don't write anymore. She thinks they are a little dragged out, and the time period in which they are written is evident. She thinks they're ironic, and sometimes cruel, and a little old-fashioned. But some of them are unsettling enough for the Halloween season.

Ms. Hen does not know if she would recommend this book. It's strange, but somehow, it's not strange enough, and not consistently strange. Ms. Hen desires things that are devotedly strange, so she can fall down a rabbit hole and get lost in the midst of darkness.

Ms. Hen reviews The Ancestor

 

The Ancestor

Danielle Trussoni

Harper Collins

2020

Ms. Hen chose this book, because she wanted to read a Halloween book she had never read before. She read about this on a list of the best books for Halloween in O Magazine, and decided to order it from the library. She's happy she got it from the library for free, because she would not want to pay fifteen dollars for a book this horrendous.

The first horrible thing Ms. Hen noticed is the writing style. The author writes like she does not know how to write. Every sentence is constructed piece by piece, awkwardly, and it sounds as if it's written by a high school student.

When Ms. Hen read about this novel, it was compared to REBECCA, which is one of Ms. Hen's favorite novels. This is nothing like that. The character goes to a mysterious house in Italy in the Alps, after she discovers that she's the sole heir to the Montebianco family. The house is creepy, but Ms. Hen doesn't think it's creepy enough. She doesn't believe what she read on the pages, because it doesn't come to life for her.

The story becomes more ridiculous when the character discovers that she's a decedent of snow beings who live in the mountains, a type of Yeti that live in a tribe like prehistoric people. Ms. Hen will spare you the agony of reading this atrocity by telling you what happens, the character goes to the tribe, and lives with them for a while, and takes a child with her to Paris, and tries to hide the fact the child is a snow person.

Ms. Hen does not know how she read this entire novel. She wanted it to get better, but it simply became worse. She doesn't know how books like this could get published. The world is full of mysteries, and some things in life don't make any sense, and the fact that this book got published and exists in the world is one of them. Read REBECCA instead.

Ms. Hen reviews Convenience Store Woman

 

Convenience Store Woman

Sayaka Murata

Portobello Books

2016, 2018

Translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takamori

Ms. Hen bought this book at Waterstone's in London. She had it on her library list for a while, and she wandered into that bookstore, because they're all over London, and there used to be one in Boston. She bought the book because she likes to buy books when she's on vacation.

This novel is about a woman who works in a convenience store in Japan, and the store is her whole life. The book does not explain that she is autistic, but Ms. Hen suspected that. She read reviews about the book after she read it, and Ms. Hen's idea was confirmed.

In CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN, Furukura has worked at her job since she was in college, and she does not want to get another one. Her parents don't understand that, and her friends don't understand why she doesn't get married. Her sister helps her learn what to say to people in order to not have them think she is strange.

A man starts to work at the store who nobody likes, and he gets fired. He explains to Furukura that he worked at the store to look for a wife. He convinces her to let him live with her, and she agrees. She wants her friends to think she's getting married, and he wants to get his sister-in-law off his back. He doesn't leave her apartment for a while, and Furukura gets upset with him.

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of other books she has read including SHOPGIRL by Steve Martin, and ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman. There is a sub-genre in fiction that encompasses sad women, and this is one of those books. It also reminds Ms. Hen of a Netflix series called EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO, about an autistic lawyer in Korea. Ms. Hen started to watch that show, but she stopped, because it was too real.

Ms. Hen loved this book, but it was too short! She wished she could spend more time with the character. She learned in doing research after she read the book, that the author worked in a convenience store, but it's not about her. She worked there while she was a published writer, but she had to stop when she became too successful because a fan was stalking her at the store where she worked. Ms. Hen would love to have problems like that. She is a strange hen, if you didn't already know.

"If a book is well written, I always find it too short." Jane Austen

Ms. Hen reviews The Gap of Time

 

The Gap of Time

Jeanette Winterson

Hogarth

2015

Ms. Hen decided to read this because she wanted to read another British book when she went to England. She's read several books by this author, and was intrigued by the premise of this one - it's a cover version of Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE. This is a series of different rewritten Shakespearean plays by various authors. Ms. Hen is not familiar with this play; it's one of Shakespeare's lesser known works. The press is the same one started by Leonard and Virginia Woolf.

The novel opens up with a car chase, and the forming of a family. Shep finds a baby who he names Perdita, because that is the title of the song on the sheet music that he finds with her. He is mourning his wife, but he finds Perdita and some money, and moves away, opens his own bar, and a new life.

Leo and Mimi, Perdita's parents, fight because Leo thinks that his friend Xeno is the baby's father. Leo is rich, and he wants to get rid of the baby. He sends his gardener to America with the child. Seventeen years later, Xeno finds himself in New Bohemia, and chaos ensues.

Ms. Hen thinks the plot of the novel is very complicated and Shakespearean. It's a beautiful story with complex twists and turns. The reader does not know the truth until the end. It's absurdist and funny at times, and tragic in others. Ms. Hen likes that Leo is such a jerk; she thinks it's comical. 

There are some inconsistencies with language when the characters are supposed to be in the United States. The word "curb" is spelled "kerb" which is the British. Also Shep says "going to hospital," where in America people would say, "going to the hospital."

Ms. Hen read this book partly when she was in England, and she enjoyed reading it there. It made the characters seem more real, because she could imagine their voices. She thinks this book is a fun romp, because Shakespeare is always a good idea. She wants to try to read other books in this series.

Ms. Hen reviews Four Literary Houses in Great Britain

Virginia Woolf's writing room

 

Jane Austen Centre 

40 Gay Street, Bath UK

Charles Dickens Museum

40 Doughty Street, London, UK

Sherlock Holmes Museum

221B Baker Street, London UK

Monk's House

Rodmell, Lewes East Sussex UK

Ms. Hen at the Jane Austen Centre

When Ms. Hen went to London, she also went on a bus tour to Stonehenge, and Bath. She had a choice to go to the Roman Bath Museum, or the Jane Austen Centre, and of course she chose Jane Austen. She was the only person of 72 people on the bus that visited the Jane Austen Centre, and the tour guide told her that not many people go there. She was excited, and she listened to the presentation by the guide in Regency costume. She knew most of the information, but she thought it was beneficial to review. Jane Austen lived in Bath up the street from the centre, and she was inspired her time spent in Bath.

Ms. Hen thought the Jane Austen Centre was a little bit anticlimactic. They didn't have any real items that belonged to Austen, it was more of a museum about Jane Austen. The things were well presented, there were clothes of the era people could try on, and different objects that were popular at the time. There is information about the films, and a quill pen people could try. Ms. Hen didn't want to get ink on her feathers.

Ms. Hen in Charles Dickens's Bedroom

The next day, Ms. Hen visited the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Dickens lived in this house for a short time, but things from his other houses were brought there for display. She was astounded by all the items that belonged to Dickens, including furniture, a suit, and a lock of his hair, among others. Guides sat in select rooms to answer questions about the items in the room, and to talk about Dickens. In a room called the "Death Room," Ms. Hen inquired if anyone had thought to clone Charles Dickens from the lock of his hair taken from his corpse, like in Jurassic Park. The lady said that nobody had ever asked that. Ms. Hen doesn't know everything about cloning, and she's not sure if it would work with dead hair. Ms. Hen was thrilled with the Charles Dickens Museum.

Ms. Hen takes a tea break in Charles Dickens's garden

Even though Sherlock Holmes is not a real person, some fans started a museum with items that he would have belonged to him, at his actual address 221B Baker Street in London.

Ms. Hen thought this museum was excellent, designed exactly like Sherlock Holmes' rooms. When she went there, it was a little crowded, and she would have like it better if people were not standing right in front on her. Sherlock Holmes' popularity never seems to fade because there are many different ways to tell his stories. Ms. Hen would like to be as smart as Sherlock Holmes, that is one of her goals in life.

Ms. Hen with a wax figure of Sherlock Holmes

On her last full day in London, Ms. Hen traveled on the train to Lewes, in East Sussex, to go to Virginia Woolf's house, Monk's House. She was under the assumption that she could walk from the station, but she went to the Visitor's Centre in town, and the people there told her it was too far to walk because it was raining. She took a taxi.

The gardens at Monk's House are extensive and lovely. Ms. Hen would have enjoyed it better if it had not been raining. She wandered around, and took lots of pictures. Virginia and Leonard Woolf's ashes are buried in the garden.

In each room of the house, a guide talked about Virginia and the items, and the artwork. Ms. Hen though it was all fascinating. The house is National Trust, which means someone lives there and takes care of it. The house contains lots of artwork by Virginia's sister, Vanessa Bell, and other artists they knew.

Virginia's bedroom has a separate entrance from the house. Her writing shed, her room of her own, is in the back of the garden, and her desk is covered by glass. Ms. Hen thought this was moving. She thinks that Monk's House was the highlight of her trip.

Ms. Hen reviews A Haunted House and Other Stories

 

A Haunted House 

Virginia Woolf

1944

Harcourt, Inc.

Ms. Hen decided to read this collection, because she wanted to read a book by Virginia Woolf that she hadn't read. She wanted to read it while she was visiting Monk's House, Virginia Woolf's house in Lewes, England, but she did not end up doing that. She read it when she got back.

This collection of stories contains stories that have been published, and that have not. Leonard Woolf wrote in the introduction that some of these had not been edited by Virginia, and since the book was published posthumously, she did not have a say. He knew she wanted to publish a collection, even though she died before she did.

A lot of these stories are depressing, and of the time. Many of them have women who are unsatisfied with their lot in life. Ms. Hen thinks that Virginia might have felt like these characters.

The story "A New Dress," reminds Ms. Hen of a story called "Miss Brill," by Katherine Mansfield. The characters in Virginia's story is pleased with her new dress, but when she goes to a party, she realizes how ridiculous she looks. In "Miss Brill," the characters thinks she looks beautiful, but some young people laugh at her strange hat. Stories like this about women and fashion, and what they think of themselves were stylish at the time, since fashion was changing so much. If a woman thinks she looks good, she probably doesn't.

A few of the stories in this collection are about Clarissa Dalloway, the character in MRS. DALLOWAY, the novel by Virginia Woolf. Ms. Hen tried to do research about why she wrote these, but Ms. Hen thinks she was not finished with Clarissa Dalloway, and had more to say about people who surround her.

Ms. Hen found a few chickens in this book. In the story "An Unwritten Novel," the character describes herself as "while she spoke she fidgeted as though the skin on her back were as a plucked fowl's in a poulterer's shop window." Ms. Hen thinks this is a fascinating way to describe fidgeting. She has never seen a fowl move like that, though she believes it is possible.

Ms. Hen does not know if this is the best book that Virginia Woolf has ever written. She thinks the author would have preferred to have the last say, but she couldn't, because she was gone. When Ms. Hen went to Monk's House, she thought it was magical. She felt the spirit of Virginia and her work in the house. The day she went it rained, and she would have like to spend more time in the garden, but we can't always have what we want.

Virginia's writing shed - her room of her own

Ms. Hen reviews London

Ms. Hen at Tower Bridge

 

Ms. Hen went on a trip to London recently, and she has never been there before. She decided to go on the spur of the moment, because she got a good deal on airfare and a hotel room, and she had a week off from work.

She didn't know the weekend she was going was the time of the Notting Hill Carnival. The hotel where she stayed, the Ruby Zoe Hotel, is located right in the middle of Notting Hill. The carnival was a disaster, and she felt unsafe, with people screaming covered in paint and glitter, and drinking on the streets. Ms. Hen did the things she planned to do, and tried to avoid the carnival.

On Ms. Hen's first day, she walked to Kensington Gardens, and enjoyed looking at the birds in the different ponds. She especially liked the Italian Gardens.

On her first full day in London, Ms. Hen took a Vintage Double Decker Bus Tour around the city. She saw all the sights, including Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. The tour also included a boat ride, and the changing of the guard, and the weather was lovely.

Ms. Hen on the boat with Big Ben

Ms. Hen had always thought that British people were prejudiced again Irish people, but she found that nobody flinched at all when they heard her full name (which is Shannon O'Connor), even when she was outside of London. She thinks this might be the way people used to be, and the British are used to the Irish by now. Also, London is incredibly diverse, and there are many different kinds of people.

Also, she learned that people in England walk on the left side of the sidewalk, and walk up and down the left side of the stairs! She had always suspected this, but she found this to be true.

After her double decker bus tour, Ms. Hen went to a place called Sloane Square because it was on her way back to the hotel, and it was mentioned in a song by Morrissey called "Hairdresser on Fire." She was looking for a cup of coffee, and there is a beautiful park in the middle of the square, but they had three bars and no coffee. Ms. Hen had a cappuccino with a pistachio rose muffin at a cafe combined with a Yoga and a Pilates studio.

Ms. Hen found that people would start talking to her in London, and nobody does that where she lives (in Boston). She thought it was nice, and found people to be friendly. She felt more comfortable in England than any other place she has been recently in Europe.

Ms. Hen was a complete tourist and had her picture taken at Platform 9 3/4 where Harry Potter got the train to Hogwarts! She paid to get her picture, because she thought there was a chance she might never go back there again.

Ms. Hen is going to write a separate review on four literary houses she went to in England, so stay tuned!

Below is a picture Ms. Hen took on her last day in London in Portobello Road, around the corner from her hotel. Ms. Hen loved London. She hasn't been out of the country since before COVID, and she missed the thrill of traveling somewhere she's never been and having an adventure. London gave that back to her.