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Where is My Mask of an Honest Man?
Where is My Mask of an Honest Man? is a powerful collection of short stories set in and around Notting Hill or W11. Short and sharp, ideal for today’s audience.
This wonderful book was launched on 29 September, enjoy the pictures!
Though the stories share a common setting, they deal with a wide variety of issues and range from stark realism to the surreal.
‘Dark Angel’, part 1 set in 1951 and part 2 in 1982, could be seen as the author’s commentary on her debut novel The Furnished Room, filmed by Michael Winner.
It covers similar ground but now seen through the prism of the author’s wickedly evolved style.
The main protagonist, Joseph Kuhlman, and his girlfriend, Tanker, are vividly described. His eyes, set close together, were the colour of holy oil or dirty engine oil; untrustworthy and fervent as a hip descendant of a tribe of lying prophets and psychotic visionaries.
1951’s Tanker: Tanker had a pale moon face. Her skin was satin, her features peaked. Especially her left eyelid drooped; the eyelashes drowned downwards like the legs of insects and Tanker in 1981: She had been fat with mousey hair. She was now a skinny bleached blonde with amphetamine eyes like flies.
Several of the other stories feature Kuhlman. In ‘Rape of the Soul’ we find out whether Kuhlman really murdered Fr Quinlan with a ballpoint pen – or do we?
In ‘Notes on Time’ Kuhlman appears to have become a doctor and is observed through the eyes of one of his patients, or indeed it may well be the other way around.
I was confounded. I am misanthropic because I cannot love humanity when the weight
of its numbers oppresses and depresses me. Humans are all over the streets, the parks. They lack rarity value.
‘The Woman with Crocodile Teeth’ is surreal, akin to a story by Franz Kafka. Yet while the woman in the title is clearly a monster, Dr Kuhlman – yes, him again – plays a dubious role too. The story is also a scathing comment on the plight of the elderly.
‘J Krissman in the Park’, included in the Best British Short Stories 2013, published by Salt Publishing, deals with the travails of an ageing writer, contemplating his rejections while surrounded by happy families in a park.
‘The Professor A Katz Memorial Evening’ is a hilarious account of Elizabeth Woolacott, a large-boned, energetic woman, giving a talk to mathematicians. You need a writer like Laura to carry this off: Numbers and women had been his dominatrixes.
The title story, the longest, is perhaps the most autobiographical. In it 78-year-old Joan Byker develops a severe crush on her 38-year-old landlord, Harry Brightling. Set in the present day, the story is again beautifully observed, and you feel you’re there with Joan and Harry in the key scene on the roof of Vernon Crescent. Their conversations keep taking you by surprise:
He tempted, ‘Now tell me something about yourself.’
‘Well, when I was at school I usually got the answers right because the questions were logical. Parsing a sentence or solving an equation are exercises in logic: one concentrates and works them out. Also the noun ‘student’ has no gender. I was OK as a subject, but it
turned out I was no good as an object.’
‘No good at what, Joan? I may call you Joan?’
‘Men; and fucking. Yes, you may. I was useless at all that. A complete dud. Now I’m old
I’m free to do my own thing again.’
Laura’s skill in describing people and her gift for writing dialogue makes this a collection full of breathtaking observations about life.
Where is My Mask of an Honest Man?
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