François André Camoin

I picked this one up while browsing the university library shelves for some fiction. The title intrigued me, and I was not disappointed. I rarely read short stories, and I do not quite know why. If they are all as good as this collection, I should get into them more.

I wish I had a room full of literature-minded people to discuss these stories with. I know that there are layers and layers to these stories that I have only scratched the surface of, not really uncovering the whole of them on my own. Symbolism runs throughout but what exactly they are symbols for I cannot be entirely certain.

All of the stories deal with men and women on various levels, but the major recurring theme, in my view, is the men's point of view of the destructive nature in loving women. When men love women, it destroys a part of them, a part that they want to destroy but regret having let go of. It leaves them with a conundrum of never being completely fulfilled.… (more)