The Quarry

The blurb about this book intrigued me. A series of interconnected short stories about men on a west London estate. The variety of topics here struck me as interesting and seemed to indicate something more real than some stories I read. Right from the start this felt like authentic writing to me and the characters in the stories were vivid in the main.

Set in west London these stories are generally written in colloquial voices. Indeed there were times when I found words that were strange to me. However in the words of Jacko in the first story I am "well north of forty" so I guess that is not surprising! Either way the stories felt like they were about real people who you might actually come across.

Taking Jacko's tale as an example, his father left when he was younger. He definitely still has issues surrounding that. Jacko has issues about a lot of things and might be described as "angry" quite a bit of the time. Most of the men in these stories can be angry at times. Worth noting that in this and other stories the language might be best described as adult in case that is an issue to anyone. I guess Jacko's story acted life a brick between the eyes - it got my attention!

Some of the stories concern addiction in one sense or another. For me these were the darkest of the tales I think. It's not that I didn't enjoy them but they opened a window on troubled times. Pretty much all the stories got me thinking. Not least would be the fact that I am lucky. However there are plenty of people out there who are not despite how much people would prefer to pretend otherwise. I'm left with the feeling that Ben Halls has at least come across all the characters in these short stories.

Edgy is to me a rather overused word however these stories really are edgy at times and very dark too. They took me to places that I might rather not be on my own. I've read relatively few short story books recently. In general I've found that only a few really work for me and too many don't. This collection restores my interest in short stories. One aspect of this book that I liked and certainly kept me reading was how the stories sometimes interlink. That intrigues me and was done well as far as I am concerned. Every one of them worked to some degree at least. The best of them will stay with me for sometime to come.

The Quarry is a book of short stories about people living on an estate in London. I really loved this and thought it gave such great insight into poverty and working class lifestyles- but without making it the sole focus of the story. The only problem with this book is that I found myself getting really into the individual stories just as they finished. Would definitely recommend!

A series of connecting stories that packs quite the punch.
The quarry seems lime the sort of estate not everyone wants to live in,little money,low paid jobs,no prospects,a pub always full of drinkers.
In other hands it might be slightly depressing,but this read as a great slice of life for many characters.
Halls is one to look out for in future I think.




*normally I'd review on goodreads,but can't find a listing for it.... so I created one.
It's a bit lacking in detail.

The Quarry is a collection of short stories all told by men and centred around a housing estate in West London. The Quarry Lane estate is a pretty generic estate: dodgy pub, club that changes name, bookies, and people dealing with lost families, addiction, sexuality, and relationships. The stories are all centred around the estate and the people who live there, with locations and people straying across stories and building up a picture both of modern Britain and of the different ways people from the same place live.

Short story collections can sometimes feel disjointed and not part of a whole, but this isn't the case in The Quarry, which has a real focus and a sense that it could almost be a novel that just happens to only show small snippets of each person's life. Some of the stories end with a twist or revelation and others are more meditative, like the postman returning to the estate he grew up on for the first time. Halls tells these characters' stories in individual voices, trying to get across the sense of different ages and lives, but it comes together well in a way that makes the stories gripping rather than too fleeting or not fleshed out enough.

The Quarry is an impressive thing, as a short story collection that feels very much like a whole work. It is at its best when tackling things like addiction, but also very good at showing the ways that the male characters don't realise what things are like for other people in their lives.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Dialogue Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am not usually a fan of adult contemporary books in general. There's nothing wrong with them but it's very rare for one to catch my eye. The Quarry stood out to me because it focused exclusively on telling stories of men living in a desperately poor and unpleasant area. I had no idea of what to expect but I am so glad I took the chance and picked this up.

Halls' writing is truly phenomenal. It took me a few stories to get into the style and tone of this anthology but as an author, he pulls no punches with topics. Almost every character is vibrantly brought to life with his prose and he gives weightier issues all of the focus and nuance that they deserve. There are common themes throughout the stories-addiction, poverty, troubled relationships-but the content never feels repetitive and almost all of the stories earn their place here. Some of my favourites include the ones focused on the postman, alcoholic, gambling addict and the final story. All of them are good but these had the strongest sense of heart.

Several of the stories intertwine with each other but I'd actually hoped for a bit more from this element. A few stories have open endings and I half-expected them to be subtly resolved in later stories in the anthology. This sadly wasn't the case which left some endings a little unsatisfactory but I understand, that is how real life goes. The worst offender was the first story which felt like it would have had massive ramifications (for example, I would have expected a story from the POV of the manager left to deal with the fallout) but instead is never mentioned by anyone ever again. These are minor niggles but they did prey on my mind whilst reading which was a shame.

Overall though, I was incredibly impressed by this anthology. As a debut book, this has made me very excited to see more of Halls work and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes character-focused stories with a unique twist. This is a tightly-written, wonderfully themed and very enjoyable collection and I am so glad I read it.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

A brilliant and original collection of stories documenting modern working-class existence, told through the intertwined narratives of inhabitants of one small, deprived town. It's an impressive evocation of the boredom, yearning, desperation, economic malaise and systemic issues which so often plague forgotten neighbourhoods such as this - and its stories are all the more stark and urgent in the context of austerity-crippled, modern British society. I particularly enjoyed the embittered, contrasting glimpses into elite London life - illustrated all the more boldly by The Quarry's relative deprivation, despite its close proximity to the capital.
My one gripe was the collection's strong lack of leading female characters/narratives. Women were confined to minor roles in each story, playing tired cliches (the antagonist, the otherworldly love interest, etc.) Given how brutally women are usually hit by socio-economic hardship, it really was a shame to reduce this aspect of the book's political and moral message.

A series of linked short stories provide a variety of perspectives on life in The Quarry. Halls skilfully captures the zeitgeist through the lens of disaffected youth and toxic masculinity amidst deprivation and lack of opportunity. Despite the darkness of the novel, there are moments of warmth and humanity. His characters are vivid and I loved all of them, even the shady ones. The writing is vibrant, the stories expertly woven together. I thought it was great AND it's given me the gift of Arab Strap. Bonus! All hail Aidan Moffat and huge thanks to Ben Halls for jumpstarting my serotonin. Just booked tickets for the author event at The Mitchell in March. Yaaaaaaaas! One of my best books of the year so far, "The Quarry" is a stupendously stonking debut! For the benefit of fellow Scots, I felt it was reminiscent of Chris McQueer.

Really excellent collection of short stories that negotiates brilliantly the tricky territory of describing the lives of people facing all kinds of disadvantage without patronising them or losing our sympathy for them (largely). It also very funny in places while lamenting the loss of all kinds of certainties and supports. All the stories, some of which overlap, are set in an around the Quarry of the title, a housing estate in decline. They features stories of struggle, addiction and loss but Halls manages to keep us engaged and even entertained throughout. They also tell us something about our current political. Grateful for having been able to read this - highly recommended.