THE
MADONNA OF THE POOL BY HELEN STANCEY
2017 • 142 pages •
Fairlight Books
In most
short story collections, an overarching theme is usually present in each of the
narratives which help each story gently flow in to the next. In this
debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointments,
achievements, and complications that each of us experience through everyday
life. She draws attention to the small events and decisions that can both
disrupt and significantly alter the lives of others and ourselves, all while
maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughout.
This is
certainly a quiet collection of stories, in that it doesn’t feel as though
you’re being bombarded with dramatic imagery or metaphors. Instead, Stancey has
pieced together a collection that feels subtle and truthful to the human
experience without feeling overwrought. Each story follows a different
character – or group of characters – as they deal with a significant event in
their lives, usually one of disappointment or loss but the significance behind
each of them is how the characters move on from their experience. Overall, it’s
a realistic portrayal of human endurance captured in twelve short stories, each
intently focused to create a snapshot of the characters’ everyday trials and
triumphs.
I find
short story collections great when you want a bit of variety in your reading
and whilst Stancey has a poetic and dreamy way of writing, very few of these
stories stuck with me. As I said, this is a very quiet collection which draws
attention to the small yet challenging events in life, but I confess I did find
some of them quite dry. The story that I enjoyed the most was Shall We
Dance? which followed the character Anna as she attended her mother’s
funeral, where she quietly reminisced on her childhood memories of her mother.
Whilst a sad story it brought focus to Anna’s own relationship with her own
children, and how with death comes life – an inevitable cycle we are all a part
of. I found it to be the most thoughtful story in the collection and the one
that I was moved by the most.
The other
stories, while good, didn’t strike me as especially memorable and I think short
story collections are subjective depending on their reader. Stancey’s style is
certainly readable and effortless in its execution but I just wasn’t wowed by
it, which is what I was hoping for. However, I did enjoy the similar tone that
ran throughout each of the narratives; each story has a feeling of melancholia
wrapped within it but simultaneously there is also a hint of hope and ambition
beneath the sadness. I guess what Stancey was hoping to get across from this
collection is that where there is disappointment, there is also optimism. For
me however, where there were one or two memorable stories in this collection,
the rest were simply okay.
My copy of The Madonna of the Pool was sent to me by The Bookbag and my review originally appeared on their website.
Overall
rating: 2 stars