Reviews for The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The average rating for The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-02 00:00:00 Howard Ziehm 3.5 stars This slim collection of short stories was assembled shortly before Penelope Fitzgerald's death and I'm assuming they were written at various times ("The Axe" is from 1975), yet they all hold true to the theme indicated by the name of the title story. Only the last story struck me as having a positive ending, as escaping is sometimes thwarted or sometimes granted to the 'wrong' person in most of these. The settings range from 19th-century Tasmania, Turkey and the Breton coast to 20th-century England and the Hebrides (... no one ever refused a free trip to Scotland.). The prose is deceptively simple as little nuances make these short stories big, including the one written as an office memo that takes an unexpected horrifying, psychological turn. If you're not a short-story fan, you might be frustrated with some of the abrupt endings, but it's my belief that what makes a short story great are the possibilities that open up beyond the page, and most of these do that quite effectively.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-09-06 00:00:00 Jihan Holton My last Penelope Fitzgerald! Unless start on her nonfiction. And there's always the Hermoine Lee biography, I guess. Just imagine if she'd begun writing at the age of 30 instead of 60. Unlike the short stories of Alice Munro, which leave you feeling as if there is nothing more to say, a whole life has been captured in a few dozen pages, these made me almost sad when I turned the page and saw that another story was drawing to a close. They seem almost like sketches written when she just returned from a holiday, or was in the mood for a holiday, though I'm certain she could have pulled quite a few of them into novels if she had wanted to. The last story especially, set in Mexico and, along with 'At Hiruharama,' one of my favorites stories in the collection. They vary greatly in setting, Greece, Mexico, New Zealand, and time period, which is exactly what I have come to expect from her. Here's to the odd magnificence that is the oeuvre of Penelope Fitzgerald. The Means of Escape - 4 The Prescription - 3 Desideratus - 4 Beehernz - 4 The Axe - 4 The Red-Haired Girl - 3 Not Shown - 3 At Hiruharama - 5 The Likeness - 3 Our Lives Are Only Leant to Us - 5