As always , Penelope Lively writes with a pointed pen in light and sensitive strokes. Making it Up is a collection of eight short stories. Before each one Lively recounts an occasion in her own life. She then shows what took place when a character in the story makes a different choice; walks down a different path.
The results are interesting in themselves, and also instructive to someone trying to learn to write.
I was particularly interested by “Number 12 Sheep Street.” This is a once elegant house, now sadly neglected, which contains a priceless collection of books about which the present descendant neither knows nor cares. When the knowledge of this library gets around various people in the village try, in various ways, to get their hands on them.
Lively calls her book an anti-memoir, and ends with a rollicking satire about a character with her own name, Penelope. It is a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey told in trendy, cocktail party chat.
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