Synopsis
Our Review
Beginning to End, a Gem of a Collection
Grand Master Ruth Rendell, who has won virtually every award that the mystery community can bestow, is primarily a novelist. Under her own name, and under the popular pseudonym of Barbara Vine, she has written more than 40 novels, the best of which ( The Bridesmaid, Live Flesh, A Demon in My View ) have helped raise the standards of contemporary psychological suspense. Rendell, however, is nothing if not versatile and is equally at home in shorter forms, as Piranha to Scurfy, her latest collection of novellas and stories, makes abundantly clear.
Piranha to Scurfy (a memorably odd title that refers to the range of subjects in Volume Eight of the Encyclopedia Britannica ) contains nine seven short pieces bookended by a pair of larger, more ambitious tales. The shorter pieces are, for the most part, tightly compressed dramas set in a convincing variety of locales, such as London, Mexico, and the mountains of Colorado. A few of the highlights include "The Beach Butler," the story of a loveless encounter between a lonely Englishwoman on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation and a handsome, grasping young waiter; "The Astronomical Scarf," which recounts the circular journey of an embroidered
silk scarf that passes from one owner to another, leaving a trail of theft, murder, and marriage in its wake; and "The Wink," a memorable account of an elderly woman who belatedly confronts the man who raped her more than 60 years before.
But the real high points are the two long tales that open and close this collection. The title story takes us into the disordered perspective of Ambrose Ribbon, an anal retentive bibliophile whose mother has just died of undisclosed causes and who spends his days writing endless letters to published authors, castigating them for the errors and inconsistencies in their work. Ambrose's world changes forever when, in the course of his "job," he reads a bestselling horror novel that mirrors -- or appears to mirror -- the guilty secret that dominates his life.
The final entry, "High Mysterious Union," is the longest story in this volume and possibly the best. In this one, the narrator lends her country cottage -- a weekend retreat appropriately known as Gothic House -- to a recently divorced friend, who hopes to use the peace and solitude to finish translating a Jungian analysis of ancient Greek mythology. What follows is a compelling, wholly unexpected portrait of an isolated, self-contained community whose members are united by a powerful erotic bond. "High Mysterious Union" is reminiscent -- and worthy -- of Shirley Jackson, and it brings this collection of beautifully crafted stories to a resonant -- and
chilling -- conclusion.
--Bill Sheehan
Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has recently been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).
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Review
These short fictions showcase Ruth Rendell's many gifts, among them the ability to evoke a mood and trap a reader in the deepest recesses of a character's psyche. The title story (its odd name comes from the volume of the encyclopedia her character uses in venting his spleen at published authors whose work suffers from a lack of precision) draws us into the mind of a lonely man whose inability to please his mother makes him vulnerable to self destruction. "The Wink" and "Walter's Leg," two stories about revenge, demonstrate that it is indeed a meal best eaten cold. "The Professional" is a small gem with an ironic twist, notable for its acute insights into social class and status in England. In these and other pieces in this collection, Rendell's powers of invention and acute psychological insight remind one of the chilling tales she writes as Barbara Vine. But the best is saved for last, "High Mysterious Union," a tale that's like the weather in Rendell's typical English landscape: sunny at the start but increasingly dark and threatening as the plot thickens. A translator rents a cottage in a village that seems like Lake Wobegon. Everyone is beautiful, strong, and kind, especially the women, who seduce the newcomer with their charms and then abandon him when he fails to see the rightness of their unique, bizarre ways. He gets away with his life, but it will take days before he (and his creator) give you back your own. --Jane Adams
From the Publisher
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