Taking What I Like: Short Stories

by Linda Bamber

Linda Bamber has combined her love of fiction from the past with her propensity to shake things up, taking what she likes and gleefully sharing it with us. As entertaining and contemporary as these stories are, they also remind us what we, too, love about the classic texts she takes apart and reassembles. Bamber’s tales, like the best translations, exist independently while reminding us not to forget the plays and novels they treat. Alternating between admiration and attitude, the stories layer their plots with commentary, history, and politics, pausing as they build only to make room for the sanity and wit of the authorial voice. Emotional and genuine, these stories are also playful, inventive, and hilariously funny. From her long study of the Bard, Bamber has absorbed some of Shakespeare’s own empathy, understanding, and expressive flair. It is not too much to say that her work takes its place in the same literary sphere as the works it engages.

Genres: Short Stories

228 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2012

Reviews

[Alise Napp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my full thoughts over at Read.Write.Repeat.

I found Bamber's approach to these characters and stories refreshing. She has created something thoroughly unique. She has clearly put much thought into the motivations of Shakespeare's stars. Her own experience as a professor shines through with several stories set in the academic world. She did a great job gradually giving her reader the information they needed about the original work, just in case they were unfamiliar with it or needed a refresher at times (like I did).

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

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