"Fabulous" by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (4th Estate, 2019)

Stories based on myths which are summarised at the end of the book.

• Orpheus - A man, Oz, is worried when a woman (his wife? Eurydice?) walks a dog withe friend Milla. She's pulled underground, ends up in hospital. He has a remarkable, classical, voice, giving concerts. He goes to her bedside, sings. He disappears underground, meets her. He's resuscitated. She dies. People help him with his grief. (No. I don't like the way myth and life have been mixed)
• Actaeon - The narrator (married to Sophie) is in a team of estate agents lead by Acton (gay, living with William). Acton's boss is Diana. They redevelop a London warehouse, sell off the apartments one by one. They party on the roof. Acton starts watching Diana have sex with her female lover. When Diana learns about this she talks to each of her team, makes them aggressive. At the next party they throw him off the roof.
• Psyche - The beautiful pysche has no friends. She works at the library. Quiet, pretty Crispin talks to her. The local boys help Crispin's rough cousin Mackeson to take her to a cave. He can't rape her. She feels sorry for him, and he for himself. He leaves, Crispin rushes to help her. They meet each evening in the cave, Psyche pretending not to know it's Crispin she's making love to. Mackeson tells her the Crispin has a secret. When Crispin's asleep after sex she lights a match to check Mackeson's claim. Then in the story an "I" appears, telling us that she marries the head librarian and has an affair with Mackeson.
• Pasiphae - Minos controls a gang, competing with the Danaans for control. When someone needs to be killed as an example, a bull's head is put on them. Dee-Dee is his fixer. They're involved with illegal immigrants who are at first hidden in tunnels, then work in clubs, etc. Passify (Paz) used to be one. Now, 11 weeks later, she's his preferred partner. He suggested that she manage the new club he's opening - The Cow. She starts watching a handsome man swim - a Danaan. Dee-Dee suggests that she employ him as a dancer. She makes lover with him. When she become pregnant, Minos chucks her out. The dancer is arrested. She moves in to the tunnels under Dee-Dee's house. He flees (we learn that he's Dedalus). She gives birth to twins - one Minos's, one the strangers'.
• Joseph - "Uncle" Joseph fell in love with Maria when she was a toddler. He emigrated to London, becoming a window cleaner. When 38 he was offered a room in return for looking after the house. He moved into the basement and returned to his homeland to ask for Maria's hand. She was pregnant and single so she moved to London with him. He was evicted. They tried fruit-picking for a while, then found a room. He picked apple blossom for her. (No)
• Mary Magdalen - She works in a beauticians, reads in a pub, and swims regulary. At night she's a whore in a cemetery. In the cemetery one night a man's dying. She tries to revive him with the help of his friends (who have disciples' names) and cocaine. Yobs take him away. He's buried - digging the grave takes 3 attempts. Later, she sees the cemetery gardener. But actually it's the man, saying "don't touch me."
• Tristan - Mark Corwall (an antiques dealer) tells his intern Tristan to collect his wife-to-be Izza (Isolde) from the airport. She arrives with Bronwen. Tristan fall in love with Izza (he's drugged). He used to fancy Mark. Bronwen loves Izza. mark finds out about Izza and Tristan. To his surprise he's jealous. The women move to Lisbon. Izza becomes a num. A decade later, Mark (married to Brian) and Tristan meet. Tristan wonders how strong the various loves were. Did he and Mark both make Izza up to some extent?
• Piper - He lives in a double-decker bus by an airstrip in Suffolk and works as a vermin exterminator. Kids like playing in his bus, imagining journeys. He plays the sax. The town has tunnels and waterways beneath it - there were floods about twice a year. Sylvia's a single mother, with a little son, Billy (who's deaf, we learn much later). There's a rat infestation. People stay indoors. He rigs his van with his old disco equipment and drives it through town. The rats follow. He drives them into the sea, then gives the town the bill. There are many communists in the town. The town's richest man has a daughter called Jazz. He says that the town can't afford the bill (Piper's an outsider anyway). Next day he drives the bus into the square where there's a festival and starts playing. The adults get amorous. Immigrants and outsiders continue his performance while he leaves in his bus that's full of children. The bus is never seen again, though there are rumours. (I think this is the best of the stories. It certainly has the best passages, the outsider theme being a welcome addition)

Sometimes more of the myth is added to the story than reality can cope with - the stories are more Realism than Magic Realism.

Other reviews

• Johanna Thomas-Corr (All eight tales demonstrate a peculiar anti-knack for storytelling. ... Modern Britain is rendered in broad brushstrokes, the happy-hour cocktails and spaniels carried in handbags doing little to make these tales feel relevant. ... The writing is so drunk on its own capriciousness, it’s difficult to pick out any unifying themes, except for perhaps the randomness of life. For random is what these stories are. )
• Kirkus reviews (Each of these stories has its charms, but none is particularly successful. ... “Actaeon” suffers from two issues that are endemic in this collection. There is a heavy reliance on exposition, to the point that these tales read more like outlines for novels than short fictions. And these stories only come to life when knowledge of the source material isn’t necessary to find the story compelling)
• Townsend Walker (The lack of subtlety is repeated in the story of “Joseph.” He sees the young Mary with pale gray eyes and “from that moment Joseph was hers for life, for ever and ever amen.” The lack of trust in the reader is further portrayed when Joseph breaks off flowering sprays from a wild apple tree to carry back to Mary ... The basic issue in this collection of stories is that the author does not have a good sense of the segments of the myths that work in the context of a modern setting and those she should leave behind.)