Helpful Score: 2
These stories are quintessential (or should I say septessential, if thats a word) Coward! The stories are taken from two prior books: To Step Aside (1939) and Star Quality (1951). In his introduction, the author tells us that he loves dearly Aunt Tittie while he detests Mrs. Radcliffe. You will probably come to the same conclusion after reading them. The first story, A Richer Dust, parodies Hollywood. The last story, Star Quality, is a satire on the interrelationships among the playwright, the director, and the leading lady. In it he explores the politics of casting supporting roles in the play, the authors acquiescing to script changes to suit personal whims, and completely rewriting the denouement. In What Mad Pursuit? we follow an author on a lecture tour during which he is sidetracked through countless libations, soirées and drunken wanderings. Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill, follows the appointment of a British Resident to a relatively unoccupied Pacific island, the isolation and fall into obscurity: forgotten until the eleventh hour when the island is finally abandoned. In This Time Tomorrow documents the protagonists air flight between London and Jamaica. It brings the reader back to the early days of Trans-Atlantic flight with its delays, trepidations, and misgivings, but with success in its finality. All in all, there is a bit of everything in these delightful narrations.
