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Lush Library Recommends: Anna James' Books for 2018
Variations and fugue on the theme of obsession
Vesna Main disturbs our self-image as educated, reasonable and ironic people who read modernist fiction. She disturbs us because we recognise ourselves in her obsessive and bloody-minded characters as they are pushed to the extreme. But they are only too human and seek love, just like us.
This is a collection of twenty short stories of different lengths and written in a variety of styles. Main writes about characters whose passion borders on obsession and who are seeking love and companionship but are doomed to remain alone, with their sense of personal failure as the only company.
Summary
This is a collection of twenty short stories of different lengths and written in a variety of styles. Main writes about characters whose passion borders on obsession and who are seeking love and companionship but are doomed to remain alone, with their sense of personal failure as the only company.
Report
In the opening pages of Vesna Main's short story collection we meet two women - both objects of the male gaze but under very different circumstances. The first story references EastEnders, the second the Salon des Refuses, challenging the reader's moral perception and demonstrating the nuances of consent. Themes like these emerge throughout the otherwise disconnected 20 stories in the Croatian author's collection. They are introduced with a quote by Alberto Manguel from his novel All Men Are Liars: "It is strange that no reader ever understood that my only subject is love." The desire to be loved runs throughout Temptation, but there are no happily-everafters here.
Antonia Charlesworth Big Issue in the North
