From Havana to Tehran, the Reading the City series by Comma Press has ranged far and wide since it’s inception in 2006. This year it landed on a city that’s very close to my heart with The Book of Cardiff.
Just like the 30 plus other titles in the series, The Book of Cardiff contains short stories by authors closely connected with the city in question. The idea is that they
“offer diverse and conflicting impressions of the city, exploring its many distinct boroughs and neighbourhoods as well as uncovering its different historical layers, unlocking the subcultures and secrets that ultimately make it the city it is.”
Most of the stories in the collection came as a result of a call out by the editors. They’re bolstered by one specially commissioned piece, The Stink of a Lie , by Iraqi-Welsh poet Hanan Issa. Through a pseudo news interview, Issa reflects on a society in which lying is endemic.
…most people prefer lies to the truth. It’s like comfort food — we know it’s doing bad things to our insides but it doesn’t stop us, does it? And i’ve heard evry type of lie there is: the “little white lies”, the politician-speak, protests of innocence, fibs, fraud, deception, the lot.
Fittingly, the first story, The Power of Love, comes from the best known of the featured authors — Dannie Abse. This tale of a boy’s inexpert attempts to win a classmate’s affection has a wonderful down-to-earth tone.
The subjects range far and wide, from concerns about homelessness, drugs, and binge-drinking to “friendly” rivalry and snobbishness between neighbouring suburbs and instances where the city pulls together behind a shared goal.
Co-editor Dr Martha O’Brien says in the introduction that the idea is for The Book of Cardiff to give a glimpse into the essence of the city. That insight feels dated however with many of the stories set in the past. “John Paul Who?” for example recounts the experience of two teenage girls in 1982 when the Pope visited Cardiff. “Digging for Victory” imagines a day in 1955 when Winston Churchill sailed into the city’s docks and his warship collided with the lock gates, He invoked his renowned war time rhetoric to summon the help of Cardiffians — “this is a test of our national character, .. our resolve…”. None of that actually happened since Churchill never visited Cardiff but it makes for a good yarn.
Readers hoping to get a sense of the city as it exists today may feel as short-changed as I did. There’s a whiff of nostalgia about elements of the city lost through the relentless march of development, like the Paddle Steamer pub in the story of the same name.
But reading this collection didn’t give me much of a sense about where the city goes next. Only the last tale — Cardiff Afterlife — looks to the future. And it’s a pretty bleak picture with one version of the city destroyed by a bomb and its twin in a parallel universe threatened by the same fate.
Fortunately the moments of darkness are outweighed by the quirky humour found in tales like Bring Me the Head of the Llanishen Bear. Reading The Book of Cardiff gives a sense of a city that has it problems yet never loses its sense of humour.
My thanks go to Comma Press for giving me the opportunity to read this collection in exchange for an honest review.
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