Ice Cream

Book Group Choice April 2024

Book Club Choice Ice Cream by Helen Dunmore is a selection of short stories published in 2000.  The stories range through a number of genres but all are well observed and blend the real with surreal settings and outcomes.  Some of the characters appear in more than one story, in particular Ulli who is featured a number of times but not in a normal chronology.  However most of the stories stand alone and cover a wide gamut of relationships and scenarios – parent-child; same sex; teenage angst; carers and cared for.  Some stories resonate with the reader more than others and will stay with the reader for some time to come.

For many of the group this was an introduction to Helen Dunmore’s writing and whilst all agreed that she writes well and the prose is beautiful, almost poetic at times, for some of the group the subjects of the stories did not appeal.  In some cases the format of the short story left people wanting the story to have been developed further.  However the stories did capture disparate moments in an acutely well observed manner.   Some of the stories were humorous in particular Ice Cream in which a woman is out celebrating her birthday and has the urge to eat ice cream but her personal trainer warns her only have a double espresso. As a child she loved ice cream and has managed to curb her appetites in order to  become a supermodel. Ultimately she succumbs and eats the ice cream.  

The most popular stories amongst the book group were The Clear and Rolling Water in which two families live harmoniously beside a river.  When one family falls into debt the other buys some of their land next to the river and a feud begins which ends tragically but predictably.  Leonardo, Michelangelo, Superstork is the dystopian tale of two pregnant women suffering in hot weather at at time when natural conception is no longer legal and state-sanctioned cloning is the only option.  Unfortunately one of the two women followed the illegal route and leaves her community to protect her child.  Swimming into the Millennium covers the story of woman gifted a three-month trial to a gym. However she is not motivated to use the gym but realises that the use of the swimming pool is also included.   She starts swimming and two youths who frequent the pool then help her and encourage her to Swim for the Millennium. One member of the book group described this story as “as beautifully written, and as crystal clear as the water.”  In My Polish Teacher’s Tie a school caterer hears that the headmaster of her school is asking for penfriends for Polish teachers to improve their written English, for a future teacher exchange. She is half Polish and starts correspondence with a Polish teacher and when he later arrives he naturally believes her to be a teacher at which point she reveals her true employment. 

Underlying all these stories, is a deep disquiet about the way society works and the darker side of human relationships.   Undoubtedly it is best to limit consumption of these stories to one per day in order to reflect on the subject and appreciate the prose but as one member of the group said “The book was like a bar of dark chocolate. I started by promising to have one small piece every evening but ended up devouring the whole bar within couple of days. Beautiful prose and I hope to read more of her writing.” Following this introduction to her work, many of the group have been inspired to read other novels by this author.