|
Post by Carfilhiot on Nov 24, 2017 21:12:43 GMT
All I remember about it is this:
The protagonist asks a woman some question or other and she replies "You'll have to ask my mother, she's in the next room" Protagonist enters the indicated room, finds the old lady tucked up in bed, and puts the question to her. He receives the very same answer and duly proceeds to the room next door where he discovers her mother.... who gives him the same answer. On to another bedroom and another even older lady.... the ladies get older and more spooky as he proceeds....
I seem to recall the story was somewhat fairy-tale like, might even have been a translation of a foreign legend or such.... hope someone can help, it really is bugging me!
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 24, 2017 21:31:16 GMT
It usually turns out to be William Sansom's "A Woman Seldom Found," but your memory of it seems particularly distorted.
|
|
|
Post by Carfilhiot on Nov 24, 2017 21:40:53 GMT
No, it's not the Sansom story unfortunately.
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Nov 25, 2017 13:27:40 GMT
I don't know about a spooky version, but this sounds like a variation on the "pot roast story" or "allegory of the ham" - a staple of "self-help" books, "life coaches", "business analysts", and the like.
|
|
|
Post by ramseycampbell on Nov 25, 2017 14:14:32 GMT
I think it may be "A Song at the Party" by Dorothy K. Haynes. I bought it from her for New Terrors.
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Nov 25, 2017 14:58:05 GMT
I think it may be "A Song at the Party" by Dorothy K. Haynes. I bought it from her for New Terrors. I think you are right.
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 25, 2017 15:32:19 GMT
Interesting. I read all of NEW TERRORS (the omnibus version) when it came out, and then enthusiastically lent my copy out to a friend, along with a document with detailed commentary on each story (the sort of thing dem does, it now strikes me). Nevertheless I have no memory of this story.
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 27, 2017 13:36:14 GMT
Interesting. I read all of NEW TERRORS (the omnibus version) when it came out, and then enthusiastically lent my copy out to a friend, along with a document with detailed commentary on each story (the sort of thing dem does, it now strikes me). Nevertheless I have no memory of this story. Nor do I.
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Nov 27, 2017 17:10:16 GMT
Apparently it was in the UK (Pan) version but left out of the US (Pocket) version. Based on the following, from www.goodreads.com/review/show/1665686542, Ramsey seems to have the right story - 'A Song at the Party' has a nicely macabre recursive theme where each increasingly older woman tells the young girl protagonist to go and ask her (old woman's) motherFrom what I read somewhere else online, the question the girl is asking has something to do with the origins of a song that is sung at her birthday party (which would explain the story title).
|
|
|
Post by Carfilhiot on Nov 27, 2017 21:27:41 GMT
Ah, Dorothy Haynes. It seems blindingly obvious now in retrospect! I must have encountered it in the New Terrors Omnibus. Thanks everyone.
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Nov 28, 2017 2:30:43 GMT
Dorothy Haynes is awesome, and that story sounds juicy! Thanks, Ramsey!
H.
|
|