Wednesday 22 August 2018

'Job Start'

Some of the stories in Sparks from the Fire fall into the broad category of mainstream literary fiction. This is a bit of a problem for your humble ghost story reviewer. 'Job Start' is a good example. 

The plot - young graduate living in shared house is under pressure to find work. He ends up travelling to the suburbs to become a part-time gardener/handyman for a nice, middle-class family. The husband loses his job, they sack the young man, but then the family's fortune recover and they take him back 

A slightly odd aspect of the tale is the fact that the couple have small twins who sometimes sing in strange harmony. But this really goes nowhere - kids are weird, after all. The final sentencde breaks convention by shifting the point of view, and implies that something is about to happen. 

All in all, this one didn't score on my fiction-meter at all. Never  mind - onward to the next tale!

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