Review of Sea Wall by Simon Steven and A Life by Nick Payne
The stories here were okay, and may have seemed better to me had I read them in print. Hard to say.
“Sea Wall” felt like the ramblings of a drunk who can’t help but make the most important event of his life sound dull. The narrator is a dick, which is okay but he couldn’t even ben an interesting one.
“A Life” was a bit more enjoyable though trying to address a common trope (death and birth intertwined) by leaping back and forth between two narratives. The plot is a little confusing at times, but the story resolves satisfactorily.
The two good actors reading here may have hurt the delivery of the stories, but that might be a matter of direction. I don’t know. What I do know is that I did not enjoy either of these stories as much as I think I should have. At this point, I certainly have no interest in re-experiencing either.
