Lying In Bed - Hardcover

Samson, Polly

3.6

72 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1860496687 ISBN 13: 9781860496684

Publisher: Virago, 1999

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Do you cover up or reveal it all; seek revenge or just reassurance; let the truth be naked as the day or cloaked in a night-time story? Vengeful wives, jealous husbands, femme fatales, reluctant fiancees, daddy's girls, secretive nannies, worldly children - the men and women of Polly Samson's debut fiction all have stories to tell, pasts to forget, futures to forge. Manipulative or meek, used or using, all are aware of the power of truth, deception & little white lies to get what they want or sometimes what they deserve. Some are concerned with the economies of speech, those little 'kindnesses' which protect our loved ones but really ourselves; some investigate the warped logic which adults serve out to children to keep them 'innocent'; all are concerned with the beds we make & the lies we tell in them. . .

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Polly Samson's first collection of short stories reveals a woman steeped in the psychodrama of emotional manipulation. Even the youngest of her narrators are expert in beguiling their parents into a false sense of security, only to spring a fiendishly executed surprise on them which overturns the false assumptions of their adult world. In "Subterfuge", a minx of a teenager hoards lacy knickers at the back of her cupboard whilst meekly offering her navy blue pants to Mum for washing. The ruse is perfect, until sex and drugs rear their ugly head and Mum realises her little madam is a thorn in the family's side and swiftly removes her. Elsewhere, a thirtysomething woman regrets the child she will never have and settles for her childishly demanding husband--an open-ended denouement that hints at the endless mental agony of unfulfilled dreams. Meanwhile, her friend in "The Mermaid's Purse" makes her choice, finds a sperm donor and wreaks havoc in everyone's life but her own. Selfishness pays out, it seems, and the casualties are left to wreak revenge, or suffer in silence. Samson's skill lies in digging beneath that silence to communicate the warped tales we tell ourselves in order to survive. --Lilian Pizzichini

Review:

Polly Samson is no minor talent ... prose that makes you miss your bus stop (GUARDIAN)

Highly intelligent, fresh and compelling. Samson has definitely made her mark (THE TIMES)

Samson's writing is fluent ... She has a slyness that occasionally recalls Roald Dahl (SUNDAY TIMES)

Samson is a sympathetic and observant narrator... these are clever, elegant pieces, complex, compact and memorable. (INDEPENDENT)

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.