My review of a friend’s latest publication
I have spent many an hour of late reading my friend Pauline Plummer’s latest book of short stories. Predictably men do not come off well in these 20 plus slices of raw felt life, collected under the somewhat disconcerting title ‘Each man is a half-open door,.
The title is taken from a poem ‘The half-finished heaven’ by Nobel prize-winning Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer (1931-2015). In Robert ‘Iron Man’ Bly’s translation the line is rendered as ‘Every person is a half-open door’ but continues, as in other versions ‘leading to a room for everyone.’
And in Pauline’s stories there is room for everyone as she roves the world from England’s draughty North East to sweltering Sierra Leone, and from a bitter winter in Poland to a bitter-sweet visit to the Taj Mahal.
In this myriad of settings, little dramas are played out, mostly to the disadvantage of the women who are her main protagonists. She devotes a special recognition to the difficulties faced by refugees struggling to come to terms with unfamiliar cultures.
The stories dip into and out of cultures through the eyes of those most affected by them whether directly or tangentially, offering little comfort to the men amongst us. These are often painful but tender accounts of splintered relationships and the tenacity of survivors.
It is evident at times that there is poet at work here as well as a story-teller with an acute knowledge that lives are rarely what is observed on the surface. Downbeat though many of the stories may be, there is a generosity of spirit that rewards the courage of those who face up to adversity.
Oddly, or perhaps appropriately I was most touched by the one story told from a man’s perspective of a man. ‘Blood’, set largely in Kashmir, recounts a bereaved son’s trauma but captures the solemn beauty of the landscape in which he finds a kind of peace.
A much traveled poet, Pauline draws on the full range of her life experiences. She describes familiar predicaments with an intimacy that can be unsettling, reminding us that every action by a man can have far-reaching emotional consequences for those closest to him.
‘Each man is a half-open door’, by Pauline Plummer. Postbox Press, 2026. £12. ISBN: 9781918639018
