Whatever Happened To…..Jayne Anne Phillips?
A-pro-po of bugger all; I introduce a new and irregular series (which, frankly, hasn�t got that much mileage in it) ruminating on past literary loves of mine gone AWOL.
Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips was a revelation to my precocious, pretentious, moody and mardy sixteen year old self. A series of short stories set amongst the emotionally gutted, the dislocated and forgotten teetering on the fringe of US society; it seemed a God-send at the time. It had a peculiarly feminine dynamic of haunting vulnerability with an amazingly lyrical sensibility to match. In case its poetical flights took it too airy it remained grounded in profoundly deadbeat settings, with a profound sense (especially in the title story) of the seedy glamour of the outside.
In short, it�s appeal seemed at the time like a cross between the very different attractions of my two favourite bands of the moment; The Smiths and Throwing Muses. Yet more intellectual tissue to wipe my angst into. Ah, happy misery. Still hadn�t been getting any obviously, not that it improved things too much when it finally happened…….
Ahem. Anyway, fluttering to other things, I never got round to reading anything else by her. Looking at her website I see her last book Motherkind was in 2000, with nothing since.
I could say I�m desperate for her long-awaited next effort, but perhaps I�d best be sure and read another of her works before I stake that claim. I�m not too distrustful of my mid-teen self though. The Smiths and Throwing Muses still sound great to these ears now its twelve years on. So come on Jayne. Show us you care ma�am!!
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Spike Update
- The Last Word Well, judging from the length of …
- Cool as Kim (and Kelley) Deal Have just added s…
- Fresh Meat
- A Humument by Tom Phillips
