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“Twelve Red Herrings”
Aug 29, 2007 05:24 AM 9869 Views

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‘It’s hard to know exactly where to begin. But first, let me explain why I’m in jail.’ That is how the first story of this book begins, and following Archer’s model, I’ll start by telling why I am writing this.


I had the opportunity to read this book at school, in Literature. I first thought that the book wouldn’t be good, but my ideas soon changed. This is a book about human nature. Every story in it shows something about people’s characters.


Trial and Error is the largest story of the book, and I would say the most gripping. Richard Cooper meets Jeremy Alexander and become associates. Jeremy has an affair with Rosemary, Richard’s wife. When Richard finds it out, Jeremy and Rosemary make up a plan to be together without the interference of Richard.


They make Richard look as if he murdered Jeremy, which makes him go to jail. In there, he promises himself to take vengeance and studys the meaning of the legal term ‘autrfois acquit’. After I started reading it, I couldn’t stop, so I would definitely say this story has no low points.


Going on with the book, the next story that appears is Cheap at Half the Price.  This was the first story I read. Consuela lives with her husband, Victor. Her birthday is coming and she wants to find the best gift.


She is the kind of woman who only cares about men because of their money and sees no bad in having a secret romance with other wealthy men. The story hast an intelligent ending, but I regret that it makes it look as if cheating on your couple was a good thing to do.


Now I will pass on to Chunnel Vision, for I won’t be able to comment on every story and I’ve selected only a few. This wasn’t exactly what I would call a good story. Maybe I didn’t quite understand it. Duncan and the narrator are good friends.


Duncan has written a story and spends most part of the story telling its plot. Duncan is some sort of playboy and is in the middle of a breakup. At the end of the story (which I won’t be telling you) you kind of understand the idea, but it seems too impossible to believe it.


The last story, One Man’s Meat, is a special one. You can pick from four different endings. I suggest that you read all of them in the given order. The four titles of the different endings could be associated with food (Rare, burnt, overdone and a point, which would explain the title of the story). They are all about Michael and Anna, and the way they meet and how their story ends.


The last one is definitely the best one. And I liked this story because of how the author changed little things and a whole new story came up.


The only story I regretted reading was You’ll Never Live to Regret it. Maybe the end was too shocking. But I’ll leave to you to decide whether you like it or not, for the only thing I didn’t like is exactly part of the ending. Don’t worry, you’ll realise what I didn’t like as soon as you read it.


So, all in all, these short stories are lovely to read when you’re bored traveling on the subway or plane. You don’t need to make a great analysis to understand them, but if you want to, you’ll find there’s more in them to see that what meets the eye.


by Clarisa María Gashu (Course: Advanced Literature - BACS)


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