The remarkable thing, though, is that the language is so hypnotically poetic, I know I'll keep returning to the dysfunctional shopper till I get it. For me that moment came with Trams and Pies, seemingly about a woman with mothering issues abusing a sales assistant but I'm sure there's more lurking, awaiting my ability to piece it together. She mentions her parents saying they enjoyed all the stories, even those they couldn't understand and I see where they're coming from. However, although each of Tania Hershman's stories has a point, not all are immediately apparent. While others, such as the deeply affecting account of domestic violence, Colours Shift and Fade, will take root in your memory and refuse to leave. Some of the stories are topical, like The Google 250, concerning celebrities demanding privacy whilst getting off on their fame. My husband, a theological student, also tells me that it's a reworking of the argument between the Enlightenment and the other lot but we don't need to know that to enjoy it. Contrastingly (in style not beauty) The Painter and the Physicist is a lovely little vignette, comparing viewpoints and showing the value of diversity. Yes, it sounds odd put like that, but in this author's hands it's one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. The title story itself is a tale of sad longing as the narrator imagines her dying mother as a piano. Most of the stories are less than two pages long but size doesn't matter (honest) as each story provides food for thought that's still enjoyed and digested after the final word's been read. This second collection of 'flash fictions', Upright Piano (for short!) may be a tiny tome, but it's excellent value providing us with 56 stories in 132 pages. In fact her first collection The White Road was commended by the Orange Prize judges of 2009. It may be difficult but, apparently, not downright impossible as Tania Hershman has nailed it with honours. Imagine, therefore, telling an entire story in prose conveying depth and meaning in fewer words than this review. It's said that the art of short-story writing is totally different from that of novels as the writer only has ten or so pages to accomplish what others do in two to three hundred.
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