The Day I Met Vini Reilly
An anthology
Selected by Jeremy Worman
Ten award winning short stories from the Cinnamon Press Short Story Prize.
The Day I Met Vini Reilly by Will Kemp has a pop buzz feel from the outset as the male narrator, an infatuated fan, sets off to see a concert of his hero Vini Reilly, guitarist and leader of the Manchester band The Durutti Column, formed in 1978. The reader is absorbed into the enthusiasm of the author. Light-touch social commentary, ironic personal reflections, sharp dialogue and insights about the author and his hero, fuse history and autobiography to create a bravura narrative that rescues from obscurity a cultural and personal moment.
In Common Ground by Jane McLaughlin the solitude of the narrator, living in a country cottage after the breakup of a relationship, is striking for its ironic lack of self pity. The originality comes not from further self-analysis but through meeting a travellers family who have made an encampment at the edge of her land. She is drawn further into their life and through helping them, in a highly charged conclusion, finds a kind of emotional release for herself.
The dramatic first paragraph of Eclipsed by Kat Mitchell really grabbed my attention: a successful middle-aged couple, barristers, are on a cruise ship when a young man comes to their dinner table and says hello to the woman, with whom he has had an affair. The social and psychological entanglement is well drawn out, the dialogue and details crisp and controlled, as the story skilfully constructs the various elements to bring the narrative to a chilling conclusion.
Driving Blind by Jennifer Bailey is set in a tense urban environment and this well controlled story tells of the emotional drama between a father, his grown-up daughter and their strange neighbour Michael, which twists to a satisfying ending.
Restoration by Aoife Fitzpatrick has a tone reminiscent of William Trevor and the first-person voice of an elderly uncle reveals, through strongly felt imagery, unresolved family feelings after the death of his sister.
This Is For You by Erik Lofroth is a psychological story of a woman who reflects on the trauma caused by her piano lessons as a girl and reaches a taut yet subtle climax.
Pink Knickers by Mandy Huggins is a cheeky, touching narrative about a moment of teenage romance that has unforeseen consequences and delivers in the ending what is promised at the start.
Les Petites Curies by Jane Austin is written in the first-person voice of Madame Curie s daughter; set in 1914 France, it combines historical and personal drama to great effect.
Whatever Happened To Sarah-Jayne? by Kathryn Lund is a daring, experimental, funny, Kafkaesque story that traces and undermines the identity, or non identity, of Orson as he disappears.
The international feel of From Where You Are In The Machine by Rosa Campbell, set in contemporary hi-tech Saigon, about a couple s complex relationship, intriguingly weaves together social, personal and historical narratives.
