A Bunch of Fives : Hellen Simpson's Short Fiction

MUTACOES

DO CONTO

NAs

SOCIEDADES

CONTEMPORÂNEAS

ORGANIZACAO

Eduarda

Keating

Cristina Alvares,

Xaquín

Núfrez

Sabarís

Sérgio

Sousa

Rita

Patrício

Marie-Manuette

Silva

Salomé

0sório

Igor

Git

Ana Carvatho

a

r ltlltrral

II II IIT

IT

tI

IT

tll IIII II !t'

ffi

ffiW

r*'re

H&re

Univêrsidade do Minho

MUTAÇOE5 DO CONTO NA5 SOCIEDADES CONTEMPORANEAs Organizaçào: Eduarda Keating, Cristina Álvares. Xaquin Núnez Saoar ís,

Sérgio Sousa, Rita Patrício, Marie lr4anuetle Silva,

Satomé 0sório, Igor Git, Ana CaruaLho

Direção gráfica: António Pedro

Edicão do Centro de Estudos HumanÍsticos da Universidade do Minho

o EDrÇÔES HÚN/uS, 2014

End. Postat: Apartado 7081 - 47 64-908 RÍbeirão - V N. Famaticão

Tet. 92ó 375 305

E-mait: humuslôhumus.com.pt

lmpressão: Papetmunde, SMG. Lda. - V N. Famaticão

1.4 edição: Jutho de 2014

Depósito legat: 37 8659 I 1 4

Á

BUNCH

0F

FIVES: HELEN

SIM

PSON's

SHORT FICTION

.r- ₌ RaqueI Fernandes *

The aim of my paper is to analyse the fictionaI work of the contemporary British writer Heten Simpson [1959). Simpson is perhaps best known for

being a short story writer, aiming her attention at contemporary urban themes. lwit[ be focusing in particuLar on Simpson's most recent cottec-tion oÍ short stories entitled Á Bunch of Fíves: Setected Stories [2012]. The

coItection is especiaL[y interesting because it gathers five stories taken from her five previous short story pubLications - A Bunch ol Flves becomes

an interesting case study not onty because it disptays the writer's quest

for a unity of sub.lect-matter in the stories but atso because it evinces the potentiaI oÍ the short story as a genre.

ü

r

KEYNoTE LECTURE,

entitled'Understanding the Short

Story:

A

i-i:sonal

Odyssey', and

delivered

at the

University

of

Birmingham,

,

:,. last November 2012, Susan Bassnett

mentions:

Try.ing to illustrate the difference between the novel and the short story,

^ frnd myself thinking of a painter like Canaletto. His canvasses of cities

icross Europe are full of movement, light, colour

-

the eye moves across

:reat buildings, water, clouds and patterns of light, which he combines

-r

cleverly to create images of vastness. But if one looks more closely, the

:-rgures all seem to be engaged in different forms of activity. [...] I see the

:ove1 as comparable to the big canvas, with a1l the strands of human activ-:i\. woven together; then if we isolate a single scene, we have something r,)mparable to the short story.t'r

. - .-- Li ULICES, University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies

.;t';.;

Gil Vicente, The University of Birmingham, UK ':r --:sídade Europeia, Laureate International Universities

;,L-:

Bassnett, 'Understanding the Short Story: A Personal Odyssey', Comparatioe

*!:..:r: _{Studies to3 special issue on} Contemporaryt Short Fiction in Translation: the Cases

fi )":r:'-gol, the tlnited Kingdom and lreland, edited by Ana Raquel Ferrtandes and Claire

r .il:;:rs (Edinburgh University Press, October 2oB). Forthcoming.

159

A BUNCH OF FIVESI HELEN

SIMPSON'S SHORT FICTION Ana Raquet Fernandes

1ó0

MUTAÇÔES DO CONTO NAS SOCIEDADES

CONTEMPORÂNEÂS

I find this

an

enlightening definition that

applies perfecr--'

I

Helen Simpson's

short

stories.

In

them we often

find

a

middle-:-ii

setting and sharp descriptions of contemporary

British urbar

--:''

Simpson (London, 1959) is

well-known forbeing

a

short

ston'u:::'-Indeed, except

for

one novella, Flesh and Grass (t99o),br

all

her

:

_-t

lications

are

short

story

collections:

Four Bare Legs in a Bed

A

t''''-stories (r99o), Dear George

Ü

other stories (rgg5),

Hei

Yeah

Righi

--'" :

Life

(zooo), Constitutional (zooS) and

In'Flight

P)ntertainment

\:

-

'-Her most recent

work

entitled,4 Bunch of Fives: Selected Stories

(:'-:-

I especially interesting because it gathers five stories taken

from

e: :':

her five

previous

short story

publications.

The collection becor:,=''

ir

interesting

case

study not only

because

it

displays the

writer's

.**l

for

a

unity

of subject-matter

in

the stories

but

also because

it e'':;

r'*

the

potential

ofthe

short story

as a genre'

The stories do

not

form

a

'short story

cycle'

-

to use the cr::':a''" r

proposed by Maggie

Dunn

and

Ann Moris

in

their

study Tbe

Clr::'

_'::11

Novel: The Short storg cycle in Transitionbt

-

but they are closelr'r.;irrr''r: and each

individual

story acquires a larger semantic dimension :::.1,u

in

the context of the

whole

collection. Indeed, simpson's 5f6dg§ -'i'-i!r

be classified

as'realist

social-psychological'short

stories,

one

:

:1"

dominant

genres

in British

and

Irish

short

fiction,

as

sugges:':

r

David Malcolm.ral

This

scholar

further

explains:

The realist social-psychological short story focuses on more or 1e'=

: I

plex human characters in their social relationships' It does so u-:::-- r': I' I

conventions of realism: the fictionality of the created world of th= :

'"

i

not stressed; the contemporary material-social world is funda::.i': :rr"

characters may believe

in

a metaphysical realm but no visitors

::

r-

I

call (except, subjectively, to those characters); places are docume: :

t:-'

t

'

Helen SimpsoÍr's Flesh and Grass was published with Ruth Rendell's The S:':-

\t'*

Tree, the first volume in a series of suspense novellas published under the

ge:':--

rtLti'

Llnguaníed Hours. See Simpsorls website: _{'http:lrl444ny.helensjrnpqonyzr:ltqlq::'}

3 _{Maggie Dunn and} Ann Morris, The Composite Nooel: The Short Sto1t Cltcle

ir

I-*::" lrfl'm

(Boston: Twayne, 1995).

r David Malcolm, The British and Irish Short Storj Handbook (Malden,

US'

- '"' '*tr

,

-,

like documented ones; technology is recognizable; and figures have

:

,,r\ ers. (Malcolm 2ot2:

_f{)

:.'. _-ept

for'Labour'

(fromFour

Bare Legs in a

Befi,

an

experimen-'

:i

story subtitled

A

Dramatic

Story observing

not

only the

'

_{:rlian Unity}

of

Time (taking

place

within twenty-four

hours)

-

: _{- :he} later stricter Unities of Place and Action't,r, all other stories

.:= between

first

and

third

person narrations. Nevertheless,

they

-

-::st

the

individuality

of experience and

world

view.

And

from

-

_.ln-five

_{short stories collected, except}

_for

_'IfI'm

_Spared'

_(from

'

':,:ional)

_{and'The Tipping Point' (fromln-Flight}

_{Entertainment),}

'

_.

_{.r,rries display or suggest a female}

_point

_ofview

_{Indeed, in these}

..

,ne

finds

central

(female) characters

displaying (apparently

-

.nv particular

order) women's experience at

different

stages

of

,'. es:

from

the young, adolescent Nicola

in

'Bed and

Breakfast'

'.

-

itr

George), to the successful businesswoman

in

'Burns and the

.. : s' (fr om Heg Ye a h Righ t G e t a Lrfe), the

worn

out mother of three

..

\-eah Right Get a Life' (from the collection

with

the same

title),

.

, _-,nely spinster

in

'The

Door' (from

Constitutional), to

mention

. :=-,r examples.

: short stories are variations on

recurring

motifs. As the

author

rs

in her

introduction

to the collection, an

introduction

which

," _-,1r' a pseudo

-interview:

: ai I am interested in

_-

among other things

-

is how men and women :

_-

children) live together. Or don't. t...1 tTlhe short story form is

par--^-arly good for uncomfortable or edgv subiects because it doesn't ailow

.- :o sink down or lose yourself. [...] [Y]ou have to stay alerl; it's more of

:-rformance. Short doesn't have to mean smal1 or slight [...]. The chal-' _{.:e is, maximum power for minimum length.tor}

:-: that presupposes a certain level ofknowledge in the readership, or at the very

:: kind ofludic/ironic intention on the part ofthe author.

::;rrpson, 'Introduction', r{ Buttch of Fiztes (London: Vintage Classics, zotz), pp.

161

A BUNCH OF FIVESI HÊLEN

SIMPSON'5 SHORT FICTION

'162

MUTÂCÕE5 DO CONTO

NA5 SOCIEDADES

CONTEMPORÂNEÀS

The

individual

and psychological focus of most of the stories ia --:',

collection brings together the protagonists, who become very

similr

:

each other, sharing the same life experiences. Simpson

further

explai:-i

In a way I imagine stories are less likely to be autobiographical than

r

'

els - by their very nature they are likely to draw more heavily on ger.:- '

experience and less on the idiosyncracies ofindividual characters. [...]

l:

"

stories I've been interested in writing recently have been those whert

::*

experience is common or typical - as in a song [...]. (Simpson zorz,

xl:

This

tommon

or

typical

experience' is also conveyed

through

--:,r,

use of

orality

in

writing,

as a matter of fact: '[a] strong

orality

effect \',:-l make the reader more aware of the presence of a speaking subject'

a::

consequently of the subjectivity of discourse.'tur This is true, in particu-=r

in

stories such as 'The Bed'

(ftom

Four Bare Legs in a Befi,

which sta:::

in

a very conversational style: 'Let me tell you how a piece of

furnir':r

changed

my life'(Simpson

2012: 45); 'Give

Me Daughters

Any

Da''

(from

Four Bare Legs

in

a Bed),

in which

the

opening question

of --:i

grandmother

signals her speech tone: 'Does he haoe to be here?

s:' :

her

grandmother' (Simpson2ot2:3r),

or the elision at the

very

beg---ning

of

'Constitutional':

"'I just think

she's a

bit

passive-aggressi',':

said the woman to her

friend. 'In

a very sweet way. D'you

know

rvh:.:

-mean? "' (Simpson zor z: 3zz) (fr om C ons ti tuti o na I). These brief examp -=*

help

to create a

mimetic

effect. Since the stories

in

the collection

_-:

realist one must keep in

mind

that: 'Realist stories [...]

will

emphas'-:

a closeness to

woÍds

as they are produced

in

the

vernacular

lang'uai:

idiolects,

sociolects,

abbreviations, distortions

will

be used

in

orc:1 to make the reader experience a closeness

with ordinary

characÍEri

of a certain

period

or

milieu'(Lepaludierzoo6). Furthermore,

there :.r

also a clear

political

and ideological agenda

in

Simpson's

writing

-

h.:

texts are

feminist

and

portray

women's every-day lives in â contemF':

-rary

urban

environment. Work,

love,

family

life, motherhood,

genc.:

? _Simpson, 'Introduction', ,4 Bunch of Fiz-tes, p.xxii.

s _{Laurent Lepaludier, 'What is this Voice I Read? Problematics of} orality in the Sl-:

-Story' , in Journal of the Short Storl in English 47 (Autumn zoo6) [online] available .:

I

::rtity

and social roles,

cultural

memory and even climate change are

i

-

:ecurrent motifs

that are juxtaposed

in various forms.

Indeed, the

-::Étition

generalizes characters' experiences and fates.

The

length

of the

short

stories

in

Simpson's collection varies

sig-rÉ:antly.

Some (few) short stories are quite long, such is the case

with

. _{-=ar.r,Weather',}

drawing

on Thomas

Hardy's

classic noveTJude, The

t"::ure (rBqS); other short stories are indeed short and could

fall

into

l:-: :âtegory of

micro

fiction

or

are

simply short short

stories. Three rn=: examples

aÍe:'To

Her Unready Boyfriend'

(fromDear

George)

-:e

Tipping

Point', and 'Charm

for

a

Friend

with

a

Lump'

(both

:-

,:.

In-Flight Entertainmenl).

And

besides

their

length, they do share

u:: . --:er feature: all three narratives become almost a soliloquy, the

first

Iri::-:-,n narrators deliver their innermost thoughts, however they're

not

: ,-"ious of

their

addressees: lovers

unready

to

commit

and

friends

tu

:

- àre eventually

drawn

apart.

i:.i an article entitled

A

Short

History

of the Short Story',br

Will'am

1,.,

:

recalls

Virginia

Woolf and mentions towards the end of his

text

.r,

tr:-

i'eature of the short story:

-

::3'inia Woolf was not a particularly accomplished writer of short stories

, :ich was perhaps why she was so jealous of Katherine Mansfield) but she ,

=s an avid and talented amateur photographer. She said ofphotography,

--.:

_{t it odd how much more} one sees in a photograph than in real life?"

l.-:s gives us, I think, a clue to the enduring power and appeal ofthe short ,:

,1-they

are snapshots of the human condition and of human nature, i:-.: n'hen they work well, and work on us, we are given the rare chance

;-

in them more "than in real life.'tlor

I::s

is

true

of Simpson's short

fiction.

The

writer's

short stories,

r : :

Í

í,:itten

in

a

very straightforward

style, allow us to see everyday

uri,i:

j:t

in a different, more complex,

intriguingmanÍter.

The stories

-,-: :,: also quoted by Susan Bassnett in her essay 'Understanding the Short Story:

,,"-, ::- odyssey'. See note t.

lüíilrirni":i,.http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/wi11iam-boyd-short-history-,

.' :::-story/#.UhI199K1FB4'. [accessed zo August 2oB].

1ó3

A BUNCH OF FIVESI HELEN

SIMPSON'S SHORT FICTION Ana Raquel Fernêndes

16t,

MUTACÕES DO CONTO

NÁ5 SOCIEDÁDE5 CONTEMPORÂNEÀS

collected

in A

Bunch ofFiaes,

although published

in

separate

r

tions, reinforce a

vision

of the

world

-

the very

title

suggests a u:.,

-connection between the stories selected.

And

although the chara --,

experiences may be

individual, individual

stories and the coliÊ -:

as a

whole

contextualize and generalize those experiences. As

-

:

Malcolm

suggests:

Collections, thus, offer a context for reading short stories. Ther' :+

-.-universalization of theme and vision. They also permit

ambigu:.

.,.-complexity. Stories reinforce and contradict each other, and the r=. -

,-experience is enhanced and broadened. (Malcolm 2c12: _ef)

This presentation

has

sought to comment on Helen

Sim:;

-fiction,

focusing on her collection ofselected

short

stories

Á

8t,..

,

,

Fives.

Known

as a

short

story

writer,

aiming

her

attention

to cc :, . : -:

porary urbân

subject matters, Simpson has

written

short

fictic:.

' _{: r,}

not only

portrays

everyday experience

but

also amplifies

it.

Her

"

'

*

stories, thus, become

interesting

case-studies,

evincing

the po."',.,'

the short

form.

References

BessNBtt, Susan (zor3),'Understandingthe Short Story: A Personal

Od1....

I

Comparatioe Critical Studies to.3 special issue on Contemporarg Shorí F: .-'

,

,

n

Translation: tbe Cases of Portugal, the Un;ted Kingdom and lre land, editec

:

. "r

Raquel Fernandes and Claire Williams (Edinburgh University Press.,,

:-zor3). IForthcoming.]

Boyn, William (zoo6),

A

Short History of the Short Story', in Prospec: -

-(zoo6) _lonline] available at <http://www.prospectmagâzine.co.uk/.ma::: ',

william-boyd-shofi-history-of-the-short-story/#.UhI199K1FB4r. Iacc...

:

r

August 20131.

DUNN, Maggie and Ann Morris (tggs), The Composite Noz,el: The Short Stoq',

-

r,

Transi ti on, Boston, Twayne.

HplBN SilrpsoN OFFTcTAL WEnsmr, available at.http. i//w.lvw.helensimp!_:.

-

"

com/>, accessed on or-o9-2o6.

:DIER, Laurent (zoo6), .What is this Voice I Read? Problematics of orality

in úe Short Sto 17/ ,inJournal of the Short Sto4t in English qZ (Autumn) [online]

erailable at < http://jsse.revues .ory1799' [accessed on ot-09-2013]'

,ilr,lror,u,

Dav id (zorz), The British and lrish Short Storg Handbook'Malden'USx;

fford,

WileY-Blackwell.

rüE=or§, Helen (zorz),,4 Bunch of Fioes, London, Vintage Classics'

1ó5

À BUNCH OF FIVES:HELEN

SIMPSON'5 SHORT FICTION Ana Raquel Fernandes