The first story in the collection was promising, but the following few were overwrought and the flowery writing obscured any meaning or understanding of the content.
I would perhaps read something from this author in the future, but would not recommend this one unfortunately.

<p><i>A writer of great descriptive power</i> says the blurb on the front. Okay. Description. Except I don't really enjoy reading description. Description reads heavy and unnecessary. From the name of one of the stories -- <i>Sylvia Wears Pink in the Underworld</i> -- I knew immediately it would be about Sylvia Plath, so much description is extraneous. A story with Diana in the title would be about Princess Diana. I think the titles do more than the stories, since they are short and snappy. The stories are pretty, but as I said, heavy. There's no overall theme, except when there is (which we'll say is <i>beloved ghosts</i>, like Diana and Sylvia and a great aunt who drowned in Cape Breton and Chekov and Angelica Garnett), and then the stories that don't fit in with this theme (like <i>In Praise of Radical Fish</i>) are, like all the description, extraneous.</p>

<p>I liked the bits I liked. But then most of it is going to fade away like an empty spirit.</p>

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/18880826/book/150507992">All The Beloved Ghosts</a> by Alison MacLeod went on sale May 30, 2017.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

This is a collection of short stories with the theme of death, dying, ghosts and loss. This may sound depressing, but it is not at all and many of the stories are very life affirming. Although many of the stories in the collection concentrate on someone famous – Sylvia Plath, the Bloomsbury Set, a trio of stories linked by Anton Chekov, Princess Diana, Tony Blair – celebrity is often viewed by others and so you have fame, but often with a twist.

These stories take you from an oddly moving love story set during a riot in Tottenham, from a racist rant on the London Underground, to a ‘pre-Jihad team building weekend in a seaside resort,’ from Russia to Nova Scotia, from hospitals and graveyards to the bedroom of someone dying. Although most of the stories deal with deep and, sometimes, dark topics, they are often also full of humour and love and memory.

My personal favourites were the Chekov trilogy, “The Heart of Denis Noble,” about a Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology waiting for a heart transplant (although, to be fair, it was partly due to the silly pleasure I always find when an author writes something set in the area where I live), “In Praise of Radical Fish,” and “Dreaming Diana.” A very enjoyable collection and one I will certainly return to. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

This is a wide ranging collection of short stories and meditations on the themes of death, ghosts,and the space between life and death. A number are set in Brighton and there is a trio of stories on Anton Chekov. They veer between the slight to the more substantial. They probe history, literature and delve into the lives of well known figures. I was caught by the insight, evocative and atmospheric prose of the stories although I admit that I wished some tales had more substance to them.

Marjorie Genevieve has a beautiful and expensive beaver coat. She dances with a black musician from Alabama and is offered a lift back by Charlie Thompson only to fall prey to the hazards of the thaw. The disappearance of Valentine and her family amidst riots in Tottenham is the subject of speculation. A professor of cardiovascular physiology awaits a new heart at the Radcliffe Hospital looking back at his time as a researcher and his relationship with Ella. He ponders on his understanding of the physiology of love and that it resides everywhere not just in the physical heart. A conversation with Sylvia Plath at her grave takes place. Several people on a underground train focus on the precious things they hold whilst a mother spouts an anti-immigrant rant. Princess Diana are Oscar Wilde are topics. In Brighton, a call is awaited by three men, Omar, Hamid and Lim, only for events to change course when they are in a aquarium. How to Make a Citizen's Arrest goes through the procedure with the arrest of Tony Blair. And all the beloved ghosts of the Bloomsbury group appear for Angelica Garnett.

This is an intriguing collection stories that I enjoyed reading. However, this may not appeal to all readers as they are largely insubstantial tales. My favourites were the Chekov trio, In Praise of Radical Fish, The Thaw and the Sylvia Plath tale. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

Recently I've started to read more short story collections - this endeavor is mostly going great and I have discovered brilliant books that I might otherwise have missed. So I was pretty pleased when I received this collection of short stories but I have to admit I really struggled this time. The stories in this collection have similar themes - people at the brink of death, ghosts looking back, and in general people dealing with death. It is a theme that had great promise - and the first story of this book really delivered. I really enjoyed the way Alison MacLeod mixed autobiographical parts with imagined parts and I was sure I would enjoy this collection vey much. But sadly, the rest of the stories fell extremely flat for me. Quite often I wasn't even sure what was happening at the time and I am sure there are several stories where the motifs went completely over my head. The theme that I enjoyed in the beginning became repetitive and predictable, and some stories felt like they were working towards the last sentence, the punchline so to speak (which is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to short stories). My main problem, however, were the characters - as in I did not feel like they were characters, fully fleshed-out and human, but rather two-dimensional protagonists only there to get to that aforementioned punchline.

Also, I hate to be the person to do this, but the way this arc was formatted was dreadful and it really made reading these already difficult stories nearly impossible.

So overall I am only giving this two stars because the first story was really great and because sometimes there were phrases or paragraphs that were intensely beautiful and showed what a collection this could have been.

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I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!