“The Day I Nearly Drowned,” by Dreena Collins, is a collection of remarkable short stories that span the gamut of human experience.
One such story is “A Screech of Seagulls.” Here, in a saline opening, Collins describes a beach.
“To reach it, you had to clamber across many metres of ramshackle, irregular pebble and rock, strands, sometimes heaps of dried, black bladderwrack, husks of crabs and clams. It smelt sour, sharp. Briny.”
Such is the power of Collins’ craft, that one can almost feel the seaspray as it cascades gently onto skin. It is easy to imagine the agony with which each word has been selected, weighed, replaced and set.
Accurate use of language is a skill to be admired in any writer, and Dreena Collins is tremendously gifted in this arena. As a fellow writer, there is always something to learn when reading an artist of Dreena’s calibre.
“The Day I Nearly Drowned,” is a sustained performance of granular virtuosity that will draw the reader through emotion and the painful joy of living.
I would thoroughly recommend both this book and its equally compelling predecessor.
This patchwork of life is an easy 5 from 5 rating. Links to purchase “The Day I Nearly Drowned” and “The Blue Hour” are available in the shop.