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All the Rage: Stories
All the Rage: Stories
All the Rage: Stories
Audiobook4 hours

All the Rage: Stories

Written by A. L. Kennedy

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

All the Rage was named to the shortlist of Best Short Story Collection by The Frank O’Connor Prize

A.L. Kennedy, the author of The Blue Book and Day, writes like a force of nature. Claire Messud says she’s “one of Britain’s most iconoclastic and fiercely independent talents.” Richard Ford calls her “a profound writer,” and Ali Smith dubbed her “the laureate of good hurt.”

All the Rage is Kennedy’s riveting new collection, a luscious feast of language that encompasses real estate and forlorn pets, adolescents and sixtysomethings, weekly liaisons and obsessive affairs, “certain types of threat and the odder edges of sweet things.” The women and men in these dozen stories search for love, solace, and a clear glimpse of what their lives have become. Anything can set them off thinking—the sad homogeneity of hotel breakfasts, a sex shop operated under Canadian values (whatever those are), an army of joggers dressed as Santa. With her boundless empathy and gift for the perfect phrase, Kennedy makes us care about each of her characters. In “Takes You Home,” a man’s attempt to sell his flat becomes a journey to the interior, by turns comic and harrowing. And “Late in Life” deftly evokes an intergenerational love affair free of the usual clichés, the younger partner asking the older, “What should I wear at your funeral?”

Alive with memory, humor, and longing, All the Rage is A.L. Kennedy at her inimitable best.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 29, 2014
ISBN9781480584778
All the Rage: Stories
Author

A. L. Kennedy

A.L. Kennedy is the author of The Blue Book, What Becomes, and several other novels and collections. Twice named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, Kennedy won the Costa Book of the Year Award for Day. She lives in London.

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Reviews for All the Rage

Rating: 4.013587093478261 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A convoluted mish-mash of bad guys, good guys, evil intent, good intent, and an old monster "acquaintence" gives an especially fast 488 pages.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Repairman Jack is a man who has lived without an identity for most of his life. When police and other authorities are no help, people hire Jack. He stops bad guys from doing harm. He doesn't like publicity, so it's word of mouth for people to find him. Junie needs a ride to visit Ifasen, a psychic. Jack and his girlfriend Gia give Junie a ride and sit in on the session. While there, an earthquake happens, centered under the psychic's house. An evil spirit/ghost starts doing damage in the house and scaring people. Ifasen believes other psychics are trying to run him out of town because he took some of their clients. He's been shot at and almost hit by a car. He also believes the spirit/ghost may be a trick by the other psychics. Ifasen hires Jack to stop them. More pieces of the "Otherness" puzzle are given here, but the complete story has yet to be revealed. A good plotline to keep readers coming back for more.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This installment of Repairman Jack lost me in places. Like Legacies, I didn't feel like I got enough of Jack. The other characters took up too much page time and some of the - Nadia, Doug, and Luc - were just so unlikeable that I didn't care if they lived or died. Nadia and Doug weren't evil - just the opposite. They were good - too good, and I kind of wanted them to get eaten. This book's connection to the rest of the series also seems thin. Yeah, a Rakosh is involved, but only peripherally. I'm going to continue with the series, but I hope more of the books are Jack-centric.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Another great novel in the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A new designer drug that makes people very aggressive. A medical researcher hired to work on stabilizing a mysterious molecule who fears her boss is being threatened by a notorious gangster. A travelling freak show. Repairman Jack makes a horrifying discovery as his recent cases tie all these together.Still as addictive as popcorn--and about as filling.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Paul Wilson has discivered a unique character in Repairman Jack. He is very skilled at juggling multiple subplots and beringing them together in an unexpected ways. A great sequel to "The Tomb", and it will make you rinse out your coffee mug carefully before drinking!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    great...loved the rage
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    RJ is, as always, the man. The plot centers on a great concept -- a drug that makes people violent, paranoid, and angry to the extreme, like PCP on PCP, with a coke and acid chaser. If you're already a Repairman Jack fan, what are you waiting for? If you aren't, don't start here -- start with The Tomb and go in order.