The Devastating Boys

Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975) was an English novelist whose work was popular but of uneven quality. I think that her absolutely best novel is _Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont_, a touching portrait of an elderly woman in shrinking circumstances.Taylor had a wry and sometimes morbid and menacing sense of humor. The title story from this collection is about an English couple who take in two little underprivileged black boys for a few weeks in the summer. They wreak havoc on the house, but when they leave, the house has become empty and listless.Taylor's stories are created out of ordinary situations turned haunting. "Crepes Flambees" is set in an exotic locale and touches upon the integration of two cultures. The character Habib lives a life of pretense in order to gain acceptance from his two English acquaintances. His real self/life/home remains hidden, its existence uncertain. Like many of the stories here, the ending is modern and inconclusive. Some readers may enjoy the indecisive endings. Without dramatic action, these stories tend to be more subtle capture of moments in time.