England, by Graham Swift

SUMMARY

England is the last story of the collection and it gives the title to the book, so we have to suppose that it is its flagship. But the “spirit” of “England” is in all the stories, because they tell us about ordinary people in their country: their lives, their history, their feelings, their successes and failures. Perhaps, because of the title, someone would think that the author is a bit of a chauvinist, but his stories prove that it is the other way round: he doesn’t boast of his country, but neither scoffs at it.

 

Our story is situated in a remote place in England, in that extreme England border, the ocean, in the geographical sense as in the human sense.

Ken Black, a coastguard in the Bristol Channel, goes to his post very early in the morning, and sees a car stopped on the side of the road with one of its (“her”) wheels in a ditch. He stops to help and finds that the driver is a black man who works as a travelling comedian. For Ken it’s a so extraordinary event (a black man, a comedian, very early in the morning, in this remote part of the country) that he isn’t going to tell anybody about it. The comedian, Johnny Dewhurst, explains that a young deer standing in the middle of the road has caused his little accident. Together they put the car back on the road; then the stranger invites Ken to a coffee from a thermos and explains a bit of his job, that he comes from the north and visits a lot of places doing his show, a kind of entertaining or comical monologue. Even he invites Ken and his wife to go and see him. In the end, the coastguard goes on to his work, not believing what has happened to him and deciding he isn’t going to see his show. The comedian gets into his old car to go on his itinerary.

 

Where is England in the story? Perhaps the comedian (a black man that maybe has ancestors from Jamaica) knows more about England than Ken (a really typical Englishman), because he travels around it. Perhaps he knows more about people because he tries to make them laugh, so he has to know the famous English humour (if that thing does exist), or he knows that one really understands people when one understands their sense of humour. Perhaps the story is a kind of apology for the English people: they do help strangers, they do try to be kind to them, they can accept a cup of coffee from them, but they cannot pay a visit to their performances (that is, as it was their home) … All in all, they are perplexed and shy in front of the alien. Is the English character like this, or is it a topic?

QUESTIONS

Let’s talk about driving. Do you think people drive better or worse than before? Does driving define your personality? Do you think people become aggressive when they sit behind a wheel?

Would you stop to help someone on the road, if you can see they are in trouble?

Did you do hitch-hike when you were young? And now, do you stop your car to take hitch-hikers?

Do you think four-by-four cars should be banned from cities?

According to the narrator, the comedian has “a thick bizarre bonnet of frizzy hair”. Do you know the song Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley? What does “Buffalo Soldier” stand for? Talking about Bob Marley; what do you know about Rastafari movement?

The narrator thinks the black man could be Caribbean. Why? Where do black people in Great Britain come from?

He says he has a “joke voice”: do you know more examples of “joke voices”?

What can you tell us from Ilfracombe?

“He pronounced the word at full-picth and with declamatory slowness.” Do you know any anecdote relative to the way we people talk to foreigners?

“He felt like a policeman”. When do you try to be civilized, do you feel sometimes like being a policeman? Do you think it’s right to act as a policeman?

What literary symbol could be the deer in the road?

When sailors talk about ships, they mention them as feminine: the nautical “lift her”. Do you think that some things are masculine and others feminine?

They say “close contact breeds affection (el roce hace el cariño in Spanish). In this story, working together creates a kind of link between them. Can you tell us any similar experience?

“The only cloud was retirement.” Was or would be a cloud for you? Why?

How do you imagine being a travelling comedian?

What type of cities did the comedian visit in his tour?

Where is the joke here: “Johnny Dewhurst, it no joker’s name, it a butcher’s name”?

What can you tell about Dewsbury?

Do you usually give money to street artists? Why?

How does anybody decide what to be in the future?

Is the narrator going to tell the story to his mates and to his family? Why?

What is the meaning of that: “would that risk having his roadside encounter hurled outrageously back at him”?

What do you think it’s the relation between the title and the story?

 

VOCABULARY

brow, pulled up, gullies, tarmac, seldom, starkly, scoops, overcast, dashboard, plush, four-by-four, dinky, cowering, dip, dodgy, Fookin' 'ell, I is, screechy, hissy, I no, weirdly, de, joost, beguiling, lee-tal, dapples, reversing, manic, swerved, strutting, her, spin, skipper, looped stripe, arse, bumber, wrestler, We don't wahnt you messin' de natty tailorin', dents, fleetingly, skip, log, boot, elated, wizardly, skittering, yanking on, clock on, Tain't, yielding chuckle, glued, huddle, dishes, decommissioned, cackled, personas, topiary, gig, inured, shuddered, hee-hawed, bubbled out, corn exchanges, billing, stranded, dregs, forlorn, yen, buckled, head-in-the-sand, whisked away, SUVs



Do you remember how Jim speaks in Huckleberry Finn?:

You can't learn a nigger to argue 

I never see such a nigger. If he got a notion in his head once, there warn't no getting it out again. He was the most down on Solomon of any nigger I ever see. So I went to talking about other kings, and let Solomon slide. I told about Louis XVI that got his head cut off in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that would ’a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say he died there.

“Po little chap.”

“But some says he got out and got away, and come to America.”

“Dats good! But he'll be pooty lonesome—dey ain’ no kings here, is dey, Huck?”

“No.”

“Den he cain’t git no situation. What he gwyne to do?”

“Well, I don’t know. Some of them gets on the police, and some of them learns people how to talk French.”

“Why, Huck, doan’ de French people talk de same way we does?”

“No, Jim; you couldn’t understand a word they said—not a single word.”

“Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?”

“I don’t know; but it’s so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. S’pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy—what would you think?”

“I wouldn’ think nuffn; I’d take en bust him over de head—dat is, if he warn’t white. I wouldn’t ‘low no nigger to call me dat.”

“Shucks, it ain’t calling you anything. It’s only saying, do you know how to talk French?”

“Well, den, why couldn’t he say it?”

“Why, he is a-saying it. That’s a Frenchman’s way of saying it.”

“Well, it’s a blame ridicklous way, en I doan’ want to hear no mo’ ‘bout it. Dey ain’ no sense in it.”

“Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?”

“No, a cat don’t.”

“Well, does a cow?”

“No, a cow don’t, nuther.”

“Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?”

“No, dey don’t.”

“It’s natural and right for ‘em to talk different from each other, ain’t it?”

“Course.”

“And ain’t it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?”

“Why, mos’ sholy it is.”

“Well, then, why ain’t it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that.”

“Is a cat a man, Huck?”

“No.”

“Well, den, dey ain’t no sense in a cat talkin’ like a man. Is a cow a man?—er is a cow a cat?”

“No, she ain’t either of them.”

“Well, den, she ain’t got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of ‘em. Is a Frenchman a man?”

“Yes.”

“Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan’ he talk like a man? You answer me dat!”

I see it warn’t no use wasting words—you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.

 

A bit of dialogue between Jim and Huck (from Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain)


Holly and Polly, by Graham Swift

Holly and Polly, by Begoña Devis

SUMMARY

Holly and Polly are two young girls who work in an assisted reproductive clinic. Holly is cheeky with men, she likes saying that they work in an introduction business and teasing them, making them guess what they do.

Holly is also irreverent, she likes making jokes, like creating Latin phrases to describe the sexual act, such as “penis in vagina intro-duxit”, and answering “et semen e-mi-sit”, as if it were a chorus of monks.

Polly is amazed at Holly’s nerve. She’s also shocked at his blasphemous behaviour, despite having been raised as a Catholic. But at the same time, Polly is attracted to her. It is the attraction of opposites, as Polly is shy and quiet, meek and mild.

One day, Holly asks Polly out, who realizes that she is also a lesbian, and that makes her very happy, because she has fallen in love with her.

Polly thinks about how unlikely it is that they ever met. It is as difficult as both, the sperm and the egg, meeting at the right time in a pot at the clinic, which they enter the next day as a couple. And she is also thinking about how ironic it is that the fact of playing God creating a new life is in the hands of two lesbians, who never mixed eggs with sperm in their private lives.

Nonetheless, they’ve found each other, and Polly thinks they don’t need to be ashamed of being a couple. How can they be ashamed of anything in a place where eggs and sperm pass through their hands all day? They have met in the right place. They are happy there, wearing green, like two peas in a pod.

 

PERSONAL OPINION

My personal opinion is that it is a difficult story to read, because it uses a large amount of colloquial language and expressions unknown to me.

As for the story itself, the author is ironic all the time about the fact that two lesbians have in their hands the ability to create new lives using spermatozoa and ovules.

Deep down, he is ironic about how things happen in life, how unlikely it is that the things that happen to us really happen to us, or that we meet the right person at the right time. Actually, everything is amazing in life.

It is also a reflection on the fact that everyone can lead the life they want, where they want, without being ashamed of it.

QUESTIONS

What can it be, the relation between the title and the story?

What do you think of artificial insemination? And what about being a mother without a father? Or about surrogate mothers? Would you prefer one of these methods, or adopting?

What are the two different meanings of the word “date”, or what is the pun between “dating agency” and “getting the date right” at the beginning of the story?

“How things come together in this world”: what do you think is best, design or random? (Think about deciding sex, eyes colour, skin colour…)

Why is it a joke to come from Kildare and have to wear green?

Why is their job similar to being God?

What can it be, the “touch of red in her black hair”?

Do you believe everyone has their “type”? Is there a different type for every different person?

Why does Polly mention Northern Ireland?

Do you trust in young people for important jobs?

For a couple in love, what is it better, to be opposites or to be similar?

Who can give a better piece of advice, a person that is “in” or a person that is “out”? For example, a catholic priest to a marriage, or an out looker to a player.

What do you know about Wilmslow?

Can you guess at a first sight if someone is in love, or if a pair of friends are “friends with a benefit” or lovers?

Are you able to know someone’s sexual preferences at first sight?

 

VOCABULARY

home in on, edge, give up, fellers, youse, turn-off, turn-on, mucky, comprehensive, B.Sc, scrubs, teasing, brashness, being up for it, plainsong, had me in stitches, shred, smoothie, buck passer, lark, detachment, gash, tilt, toss, scrub cap, pod, bumped, coy, canny

Saving Grace, by Graham Swift

Saving Grace, by Carme Sanz

 Dr Shah, an eminent cardiologist, was born in Battersea, a famous neighbourhood in London. He was a very peculiar man or, better to say, a peculiar doctor, because while he treats his patients, he likes to relate them the history of his own family.

Although he has never been to India, he has the appearance of an Indian man, because his father came from this country.  In those times, India was ruled by the British, that means, before its independence in 1952.

His father was very fond of British culture, because his family was one of the few that really revered the British, and was educated as any boy in Britain. So, when the Second World War started, he fought for the British and, in the D-Day, he was badly wounded in his leg. It was then when he met Dr Chaudhry and, thanks to him, he could save not only his leg, but probably also his life.

Dr Chaudhry came from India too, and, in those times, not many people wanted to be treated by an Asian doctor, no matter how good he or she was. At this point, Dr Shah liked to say that his father was really lucky also because, thanks to his being in hospital, he met his future wife, Nurse Rosie.

Dr Chaudhry became as a family member, and Dr Shah thought he probably became a physician because of his mentorship.

To end up the story, he explained that his father had been a hospital porter for ten years, and then a clerk, in spite of his poor education. And this, thanks to his wife and probably to Dr Chaudhry.

 

As far as I am concerned, this story is easy to understand. The author presents his main character, Dr Shah, as an honest and calm man who likes to explain what happened to his family with all the issues of the immigrant people, but without any anger or resentment, just with the reality of facts. Things such as prejudice against foreigners were very strong in the past and have changed nowadays, although probably less than we’d like to. And eventually, how a man can feel a longing for his country and at the same time be able to start a new life.

QUESTIONS

What do you know about the English rule in India?

“He was born into one of those families who revered the British”. Is it possible friendship between owner and slave, between colonizer and colonized?

Where is Poona? Can you point Birmingham, Bradford or Battersea on a map?

Why sometimes a foreigner speaks the language better than natives?

According to your opinion, which position had to be the Indian position in the WW2, pro or against Nazis, pro or against British? Remember that Gandhi said that the British should not offer resistance to the Nazis, even when he knew about the genocide.

Do you think our lives are directed by the chance, or that we can decide our destiny?

What do you know about the D-Day?

He had an injured leg, and then he couldn’t go back to fight. Is that good luck? What do you know about SIW?

What can you tell us about amputations?

“If they let him do, he could save them”, being “he” a foreigner. What would you do in your case?

What does “Krupp” refer to?

“His home was in England now”. If you don’t live where you’ve been born, how do you know where is “your country”?

What do you think about following one's parents' trade? Is it a good idea?

He said cardiology was the glamour field. What is it now the glamour field in medicine?

Do you trust in foreigners when it’s an important job? Why? Did you have any experience with them?

 

VOCABULARY

awash, cut up rough, consultant, chapter and verse, on the mend, slot, overtook, mishap, whizzed, saving grace, stump, disadvantaged, pinstriped, against all the odds, disclaimingly, beam, dexterous, worked up, puny, plumply


Tragedy, Tragedy, by Graham Swift

Tragedy, Tragedy, by Lídia Gàllego

 

In the morning break, Mick talks about the improper use of the word “tragedy” in newspapers. As an example, he gives the case of Ronnie Meadow, who died of a heart attack. Concerning this, Bob also has doubts about the use of this word. Ronnie was a colleague who had a heart-attack driving a fork-lift at work. Mick thinks that newspapers use the word “tragedy” when they don’t know what to say.

Bob remembers the moment when the ambulance came and Ronnie’s wife came too. Mercer was there and said to Mrs Meadow that it was tragic, unknowing what else to say.

Mick begins a reflexion around the term “tragedy” and tries to imagine how to describe the death of a mountaineer while trying to climb. He thinks the better term to define the situation would be “heroic”, while Bob thinks the adjective could be “mad”. Mick thinks that all mountaineers dream to die climbing a mountain, but, in the other hand, he thinks it’s tragic when a mountaineer dies climbing up some easy-peasy little mountain. Bob can’t understand Mick’s reasoning and decides to ask him the killer question, “why?” Mick give him a quick answer with whom Bob disagrees. But all the discussion causes Bob beginning to think about what can be considered tragic or not. Finally, he realizes that all the thoughts that Mick express were only the expression of his fear.

The discussion ends, and Mick believes his argument has won. But Bob finally understands that people use the word tragic because they can’t use the word they ought to say: comic.

QUESTIONS

-Talk about the characters

Mick

Bob

Ronnie

-The place somebody dies: Do you feel a kind of awe or respect passing by it? (Remember the bouquets of flowers by the roads)

-Do you think there are “glasses’ faces”, that is faces where glasses (or earrings or a tattoo, or a haircut, or a lipstick colour) suit perfectly?

-Do you think that a change in your style of dressing or in the complements you wear can change your life?

-What is the best way, according to your opinion, to “quit the fags”? Were you a smoker? How did you quit it?

-What can you tell us about Hamlet? Have you read or seen the play?

-What do you know about the Lake District?

-What is for you the “killer question” when you want to decide about a film, a friend, some clothes, a lover, a dish…?

-What do you know about Beano and Dandy? Did you use to read comics? What was your favourite comic / comic character? Why?

-Are / Were you a newspaper reader? What is your favourite newspaper?

-Could you really say “comic”, or even think, about somebody’s death?

 

VOCABULARY

canteen, half-rims, fork-lift, headline, drumming, lawn-mower, gasping, mouth off, quit, pallet cover, skirting round, dawdling, fags, nipping off, daft, wipe, easy-peasy, hankering, killer question, search me, keel over, slumps, dotted, zonker, talking cobblers, score, scrunched


As Much Love as Possible, by Graham Swift

As Much Love as Possible, by Nora Carranza

“As Much Love as Possible” explains an apparently eventless evening when two old friends, Alec and Bill, spend a few hours drinking whisky.

Alec invites Bill to come home and share a bottle of an old and appreciated Macallan, considering that his wife Sue would be out with her friends. Bill was also alone, his wife being away with her parents.

When Bill arrives, Sue is about to leave, and looks fantastic, it seems she has a kind of shine in herself. She welcomes Bill with a generous hug.

Years ago, Bill didn’t try to make any move to approach Sue, he considered she was the right girl for Alec, and gave the precedence to his good friend.  It was a good decision and, in a short time, he met Sophie, they got married and had two kids.

Alec and Sue took some years before they had twins, probably they enjoyed that time just for them together. By now, the twins were 4 or 5 years old, Bill wasn’t sure, although he was their godfather.

Alec had forgotten to call the taxi for Sue, but Bill offered himself for a ride to the restaurant.

But when Bill drove to the restaurant, he felt as if he and Sue were a couple having a date. Sue was grateful to Bill, explained about her two friends, they all had gone to the same hair academy, and now each one had her own salon, financed by Alec.

Bill asked himself when he and Sue will be together in such an intimacy and exclaimed, “I love you, Sue. I love Sophie, but I love you. Don’t you think there could be as much love as possible”? As an answer to that, Sue approached and gave Bill a soft kiss.

They say formal goodbyes, but Bill remarked, “I can see down your top when you lean”.

Later, Bill and Alec spent the informal evening drinking the Macallan and eating the pie Sue left for them.

Bill knew he had to stop drinking alcohol, he wanted to go back home driving his car, and avoiding having to sleep in the spare bedroom in that house.

Nothing notorious seems to have occurred during the facts described in the story.

Finally, Sue returned home at about half past eleven, not very late in Alec’s opinion. She looked as before, with her natural inner light, after the “girls” night out.

When Bill asked Sue about her evening, she replied she had the “most wonderful evening”.

 

I think that, as in many other stories of this author, we can imagine different motives for the actions of the characters. Perhaps Bill was moved by old feelings, hidden in his heart, that reappeared at that moment of unexpected proximity with warm Sue.

Bill was moved when he saw the twins sleeping, remembering his own children. Was he resenting his words to Sue? Was he thinking about his friend Alec, who ignored what had happened?

And Sue, why was she so happy, because of her time with the girls, or because the feelings she provoked in her husband's friend?


QUESTIONS

-There is a word repeated several times, “decent”. What does this word mean for you?

-“Girls night”, “boys night”: what do people do in these nights? Why are they different?

-Alec says that the bottle of whiskey fell off the back of a lorry. Do you think it’s true? If not, why does he say that?

-Do women tend to dress more carefully than men (they are only wearing “woollens”), more “decorated”? In this sense, do you think women use more icons than men on the whatsapp conversations?

-Why didn’t Bill marry Sue? Don’t you think he excused his decision with poor arguments? So, why does he feel something for her now?

-Usually, people get less attractive when they grow old (they say). How can they reverse it? Or is it the way we see people?

-What made you suspect that that night she had tender feelings for Bill?

-Bill felt attracted by Sue’s attire (she shimmered). But there was also something in her personality that seduced Bill: what was it?

-We’re having again a question we’ve debated before: is it possible to love two girlfriends / boyfriends… at the same time?

-Why do you think she kissed him when he told her he loved her? Was his love for Sue platonic? Was it a loving kiss, or a compassionate kiss?

Why wouldn’t Bill like to spend the night in their spare room?

What do you know about the film Un rencontre (“Reencontrar el amor”, in Spanish), starring François Creuzet and Sophie Marceau?

Why do you think she wasn’t awkward in any moment?

Do you think she came earlier from her dinner because she wanted to see him?

In your opinion, her wonderful evening was because of the girls’ night or because what Bill said to her?

 

VOCABULARY

ushered, soldiered, yersel, cardiganed hug, shepherd's pie, dastardly, woollens, ditzy, shrewd, best man, hitched, shimmer, puffa, tumblers, quandary, breast-beating, sparko, buster, contritely, scoffed at, bogus, rueful, bubble, sloshed, cane, mop it up, waxing, Caledonian, haggis, mon, schoolmasterly, slobs, garbled, wee, smarting, blunder


Half a Loaf, by Graham Swift

Half a Loaf, by Glòria Torner

The story has four parts:

PART I. PRESENTATION

The first words we read, “half a loaf”, are the repetition of the title and also the synthesis of all the story.

The narrator is remembering the last lovely night he spent with his girlfriend, called Tanya, and he is imagining how she is returning home alone, as many times, after making love with him. He is thinking that everybody is looking how beautiful his lover is while she is walking along the street and descending to the Tube. He is waiting for the next time he will reach out and touch Tanya.

After that, he describes how important has been for him in his life the religious influence of his strict father, who was a churchman, and also the drastic opinions of her mother wishing him happiness, although she used to say: “all good things must end”.  

PART II. ERIC, THE OSTEOPATH

Now, we know that the narrator, called Eric, is a widower osteopath who has lost his wife, Anthea, three years ago. He describes how sad he felt when his wife died, until he fell into a deep depression. At that time, he only thought about ending his life and thus being with his dead wife.

PART III. TANYA, THE PATIENT

While he was suffering this mental breakdown, he met a new patient, Tanya, a young woman, twenty-six years old. He quickly cured her of a lower back problem and began a love affair with her. Following the story, Eric asked her to have dinner with him and they began a relationship spending since then a night together every week. He sought solace in the company of Tanya, all the while imagining and reconnecting with his dead wife, who encourages him saying “go on”. He can’t disconnect himself from his past.

But Eric has a presentiment: he thinks this love affair will end soon.

Part IV.  NATHAN, THE BOYFRIEND

Following the story, two months later, we clearly notice that Tanya has a regular boyfriend, Nathan. Eric, who isn’t jealous, shares her with her boyfriend. Now, he tries to understand if it’s possible to share his lover with Nathan and not to lose her, although he believes that there will come a time when this love affair will be quite impossible, a real obstacle, like “a stone”. The last words of the story imply that there will not be another night together.

SOME REMARKS

This story is quite different from the others we have read because it’s the first story we read only about love with sensual and sexual feelings.

The story doesn’t follow any linear order from the beginning to the end because Eric, the narrator, wants to mix his memories, thoughts and desires together, until reaching a possible, perhaps uncertain, end.

After reading this sad and conformist story, I finish my work with three questions:

Must he accept less than he wanted? Do you think he wants to share his lover? Or he prefers to finish his affair?

QUESTIONS

-What is the meaning of the title? Is there a pun with the word loaf”?

-“All good things come to an end”. According to your opinion, is this saying true for everything?

-Talk about the narrator: family, job…

-Why do you think the narrator tells us about his father being a churchman?

-“Certain female patients didn’t exactly go to see him for their back problems”: do you think it’s true?

-Describe his love for Tanya.

-Tanya’s decision to bed with him, could be a paraphilia? (Perhaps she was attracted by crying men)

-What you invite someone, what is it best: to go where you like, or to go where you think the other person will like?

-Is there only a kind of love (sexual, not friendship or family love)? How many kinds of love are there? Does love change along the centuries? For example: jealousy. A true love, does it have to be jealous?

Does Tanya love him, or she feels pity? What do you know about the novel Beware of pity, by Stefan Zweig?

-What can you say about Zeppo’s?

-What do you think about Tanya’s morality (she has a boyfriend and gets laid with the narrator)? Have you seen the French film À l’abordage?

-“The young are a mystery, a different species”. What sense is this true in?

-Men “might eventually resort to prostitutes”. Is this a cliché for men? And what about women?

-How do you think their relationship will end?

-What is the stone at the end of the story?

 

VOCABULARY

bay window, ammunition, dwell, unaware, swamp, nonchalantly, on tap, get-out card, balm, rehearsing, arouse, breakdown, sheer, vouched, NHS, blubbering, spectacle, unclad, delude, fee, aegis, doomed, allowance, stray, unprompted, period, crust, bereft, lack, egging me on