Review: Nicely told, well-plotted, and clever too.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 29, 2013
The American Oscars are on TV and the unknown English actor is hoping a rather more famous English actor will garner an award. There’s a nice touch of name-dropping and name-twisted in this short, neat tale, together with an all-too-plausible storyline of drama and soap.Oscar glamor contrasts brightly with an old has-been watching pay-per-view in the small hours of an English morning, a contrast that carries through to plausible hopes and lost dreams, and then to the story of that failed actor’s life. But success and failure are closer together than they seem. The old man, for all his losses, has achieved most of his dreams, and just one remains.There’s a sting in this tale that makes it well worth the read. And references to the author’s longer novel (fictionally turned into a movie) blend perfectly into the mix of real and imagined Oscar delights. A short tale filled with contrasts, sad and funny, sweet and sour, all perfectly combined.Disclosure: I’ve not read the novel, but I certainly enjoyed this free short story.