(21) Kevin Barry, That Old Country Music
Library ebook, short story collection, Canongate 2020
This is Kevin Barry's 3rd collection of short stories, set in small town and rural Ireland. I have a couple of his novels TBR but this is the first book by Kevin Barry I've actually read. I thought many of the stories were about people looking for a way to deal with loneliness by making connections with others. In The Coast of Leitrim, Seamus is attracted to a Polish woman working in a café in town, and asks her out, but the idea of a relationship after being on his own for some time is kind of scary. In Roma Kid, a girl runs away from the responsibility of looking after her little brothers and finds a new life with an informal adoptive father figure.
These and other stories in the collection are interesting, but the characters remain a little too shadowy and mysterious for me.
Rating: 3.4*
(23) Sam Selvon, The Housing Lark
Library ebook, Penguin Modern Classics, first published 1965
A short novel about a group of young Caribbean migrants (mostly from Trinidad, like the author) living in London in private rented accommodation, who struggle to find the rent , who dream of getting together the money to pay the deposit and start to buy their own house, with more space for all to live in.
The story is told from several alternating viewpoints, though clearly Battersby and his sister Jean are the central and most memorable characters. The racism and other issues they face is shown, and the characters dream of how they can improve their luck, but the tone is quite witty and entertaining. I thought Selvon's portrayal of how the women in the novel realise they have to really take charge of collecting up the money and taking charge of things if it's not to be squandered on cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, girlfriends and general frivolity. Even in such a short book, characters who might have just been caricatures, female as well as male, felt quite real.
Rating: 4.1*
(24) Anne Sebba, Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy
Library hardback, 16 pages of black and white photographic plates, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2021
I've wanted to know more about the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953 for espionage for many years, so was keen to read this book when I heard of it. Anne Sebba focuses on the life of Ethel and the trial which led to her conviction and death. I wasn't sure to expect, as I was a little bit disappointed by the other Anne Sebba book which I've read, The Parisiennes, and Sebba's previous writing CV included Britain's more conservative broadsheet newspapers and magazines and books about wealthy and rather right wing socialites.
I was particularly interested in Sebba's portrait of Ethel Greenglass's early life, her family, schooling and life as a factory worker, trade union activist and talented singer/musician. However, after marrying Julius Rosenberg, she seems to have settled into a very traditional wife and mother role, reading child rearing and psychology books for guidance on the best way to bring up a challenging young son and deal with the issues they faced. I found this quite sad and frustrating, as I think the author perhaps did from a 20th century feminist perspective. Other 50s leftist American women perhaps pushed the boundaries of traditional roles more, but then, that may just be the women whose lives and experiences are better documented (by themselves or others) because they wrote or were reported on. Of course Ethel Rosenberg attracted lots of newspaper coverage but it was mostly extremely hostile.
Overall, this is a very interesting exploration of how Ethel Rosenberg came to be executed for espionage in favour of the Soviet Union, including research into her husband and family, the difficult issues of how the children might be raised by a family who didn't hate their parents. In this case at least they were adopted together by a supportive and loving couple - their adoptive father was the author of the poem Strange Fruit, about lynching, made famous when recorded as a song by Billie Holiday (her recording was banned for some years).
Sad, thought provoking and highly recommended, whether your views are broadly liberal in a US sense, liberal feminist (like the author), socialist feminist and even Communist influenced (mine) or something else.
Since reading I've bought it as a Kindle deal, but I'm disappointed by the lack of page numbering, and I'm quite glad to have had the chance to borrow a library copy to look at the photos, refer to notes etc.