Abolisher of Roses by Gary Fry

Part of my almost-done-with-the-PhD-treat is reading things that don’t involve Proust or Salaman or Cixous or anything else that has the potential to send me to sleep while broadening my mind. Okay, that’s unfair on Salaman, she’s delightful and lovely to read … but Proust I would like to choke with one of his crumbly little biscuits and drown in a cup of tea.

So anyway I finally got to one of my wonderful chapbooks from Spectral Press, the fabulously titled Abolisher of Roses. T’is a wonderful portait of a marriage in decline, although one partner doesn’t realise it. The strength of the work is in the characterisation, particularly that of the wife, she’s drawn with a very fine hand. The tale is nasty, haunting and not a little creepy.

Highly recommended!