Lawrence Block has edited a good number of short story anthologies. This is his most recent anthology, and the theme of this one is games. I read the first four stories and all of them I read were complex but not confusing, and very entertaining, each in their own way.
Patricia Abbott's story, "Seek and You Shall Find," features the children's game of Hide and Seek. While shopping at a plant nursery, Kitty notices a man playing hide and seek with a young girl. To her, the behavior seems inappropriate. She thinks back to playing hide and seek in her family home, and the small hidden area in the closet that she had discovered. Later in the day, she sees the man and the girl at a resale shop; the girl is trying on a dress that the man buys for her. She thinks that the man may be preying on the girl, and informs the local police department of her concerns. Days later, the man confronts her and insists she has jumped to the wrong conclusion, but has she? The ending is left open, and I was fine with that.
"Game Over" by Charles Ardai involves video games and two teenage boys who play them whenever they have some quarters. A man working at the video store plots to steal the money from the video machines, and blame the theft on one of the boys. A sad story.
"King's Row" by S. A. Cosby uses the game of checkers. It is a short, bleak story about Maurice, an ex-con just released from prison for bank robbery. He goes looking for the only person who knows how to get access to the loot, Calvin Parrish, and finds him in a sanitarium. The two men play a game of checkers, while Maurice tries to convince Parrish to share the information with him. Along the way we learn more about Maurice, Parrish, and their families and fellow bank robbers. A very clever story.
Jeffery Deaver's “The Babysitter” involves Candyland (and other children's board games). This is the longest story in the book at 32 pages. There are four main characters: Kellie, a teenage babysitter; Rachel and Erik Winston who she babysits for; and a hit man, Michael. The story takes several twists and turns, and is told with humor.
This anthology has a total of 21 stories, so I have 17 more to read. If all of them are as good as these, I have a lot to look forward to. The Introduction by Lawrence Block was a pleasure to read.
Two recent reviews of this anthology and some stories in the book are at Patricia Abbott's blog and George Kelley's blog. George's post includes the Table of Contents, if you would like to check out all the authors included.
18 comments:
Oh, Lawrence Block writes so well, doesn't he, Tracy? He writes great short stories and terrific novels. I admit I've not read this particular collection, but it does sound interesting. I like the way you describe his work, too: complex but not confusing.
Margot, the previous anthology that Block put together was about collections. That one sounds interesting too.
I love short story anthologies, especially when edited by one of my favorite authors as this one is. "Playing Games" is going on my list to see if my library has it. Unfortunately, my local branch is doing a particularly bad job in the last couple of years when it comes to finding good collections, but we'll see...
I think Margot took this one to be a Block collection rather than mostly original anthology (except for the Block and Silverberg stories). But what applies to his editorial choices does apply to his own writing.
He also has at least one memoir out, if you want further examples of what LB thinks about himself and his career, Tracy.
Sam, I hope you are able to get this anthology from the library, although I heard from someone else that their library did not have it. I tend to buy anthologies because I read through them much too slowly. I have gotten a good number of them from the book sale though, at a good price.
Todd, I had not heard that Block had written a memoir. That would certainly be interesting. I will be looking out for that.
Hi Tracy,
Mystery anthologies are a great way to sample the various writers that are out there and Lawrence Block would certainly know how to choose gripping stories for this collection. Reminds me that having stalled a bit on the Matthew Scudder series I need to make a change and read some of Block's other novels. Maybe a stand alone or the series involving Bernie I believe his name is, the gentleman thief.
I don't know if it is my limited experience with short stories, or if it is true, but it seems to me that a lot of short stories are disturbing. Maybe I haven't read enough authors, but...
This seems interesting. I don't think i have seen such a theme anywhere.
This sounds like quite an unusual collection, 'games' sounds an unusual basis for stories to me anyway. I would think Lawrence Block's choices would be quite reliable too.
Kathy, that is one reason that I like anthologies. They are very likely to have a good number of authors that I have never read before. And sometimes I find that I have read novels by an author but their short stories are different in tone.
I too am having problems making progress on the Matthew Scudder novels by Block. I hope I do better later this year. I have enjoyed some books from the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, recently and many years back. And plan to read more of them.
Nan, I read more crime fiction short stories than other types, and I think I do run into a good number of disturbing stories. And sometimes that applies to straight fiction short stories too. Science fiction or fantasy seem more upbeat usually, or that is my experience. But it seems to me that in themed anthologies like this the stories can go either way, sometimes bleak, sometimes very light and humorous.
Neer, this did seem like an unusual theme to me, but then it usually depends on what the author can do with a theme. I am often surprised by the different ways authors approach subjects.
Cath, I am eager to see what other games are used in these stories. In the introduction, Block notes that no one chose chess, and he was surprised.
I am just guessing, but I think Lawrence Block knows a lot of authors who are happy to write a story for him. All of the stories except his were first published in 2023, so expressly written for this book. I wonder how long it takes from beginning to end to put such a book together.
I love that the theme of this anthology is games! And so many good authors contributing stories. This is one I might acutally enjoy reading. :D
I agree, Lark, and I hope you do try this short story book sometime. In some cases the game that is part of the plot is not central to the story, though.
Oh, there's no lack of disturbing sf or fantasy stories, even if one shies away (as I gather you do) from the horror components of fantasy. And there are no few horror stories which are relatively subtle, humorous or otherwise rather gentle, oddly enough...though in a kind of somewhat/largely publicity-driven split between Quiet Horror and Splatterpunk writing in the '90s, some of the "quiet" stories could well be more disturbing than the in-one's-face "splats"...I had reason to mention (Ms.) M. J. Engh's novel ARSLAN, the other week on my blog, and it remains among the most effective, and disturbing, of novels in some of the ways the title character displays his absolute power over those he's conquered (no worse than those in reality/history who've had similar inclinations), or Gene Wolfe's most famous series of novels, to cite another writer I've dealt with recently, which (in their first sequence) deal with a member of a guild of professional torturers, and use that postulate to comment on a number of facets of human society and the human condition...Wolfe also being a rigorous writer, but not necessarily one who was interested in lulling his readers.
There are, as a result, other writers whose work I return to more frequently!
Todd, I do shy away from horror stories, short or long, along I have read some that are much tamer than I expected.
You are right, I wasn't thinking of horror when I commented on disturbing stories, and the last fantasy novel I read was dark, if not too disturbing.
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