Speaking with the Angel (edited by Nick Hornby)

June 30, 2006

I picked this up on a lark because I enjoy Nick Hornby’s writing so much. Too bad he only has one story in it! Speaking with the Angel is a collection of first-person stories by a kind of who’s who of young, hip writers (mostly from across the pond: Roddy Doyle, Colin Firth, Helen Fielding, Zadie Smith). It’s also a benefit book, the sales of which benefit a school for autistic children. Hornby’s introduction, where he talks about being the parent of an autistic, is genuined and moving. The stories themselves? Not so much. Most of the stories are greatly weakened by their heavy reliance on irony as a comedic device. The narrators are often highly unreliable– and obviously so– inviting the audience to feel smart and hip but not leaving much to think about when the story is over.

That sounds more negative than I mean it to be. Most of the stories are fun, short reads. A good book to read lounging in a chair out in the sun with a cold drink at hand. And it’s money well spent: a worthy charitable cause and a year later you’ll have forgotten everything but the introduction so you can read it again…

Tags: nick hornby, reading log, short fiction