The Skeleton’s Holiday by Leonora Carrington

The Skeleton’s Holiday Reviews

• 
  Paula Mota

  Não sei se Leonora Carrington consta dos livros de Pénélope Bagieu que ainda não li, mas garanto que podia coabitar com as suas “Destemidas”. Tendo convivido em Paris com grandes vultos do surrealismo como Salvador Dalí, Picasso, Joan Miró e o seu namorado Max Ernst, disse posteriormente a artista de origem inglesa numa entrevista: “Eram um grupo essencialmente de homens, que tratavam as mulheres como musas. Isso era bastante humilhante. Por isso, não quero que me chamem de musa de nada nem de ninguém. Jamais me considerei uma mulher-criança, como André Breton queria ver as mulheres. Nunca quis que me entendessem assim, nem tão pouco ser como os outros. Eu caí no surrealismo porque sim. Nunca perguntei se podia entrar.”
  Sabendo que tinha o seu próprio caminho a trilhar, quando Ernst foi detido e enviado para um campo de concentração durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, Carrington fugiu, e depois de uma curta estadia em Lisboa, local de passagem de tantos exilados na altura, instalou-se no México, onde escreveu e pintou, tendo vivido até à provecta idade de 94 anos.
  Os setes contos que constituem esta pequena colecção são a expressão de um surrealismo verdadeiramente desembestado, com uma pontinha de crueldade e uma enorme dose de humor negro a que nunca fico indiferente.
  
  While the hyena was eating, I looked out the window. A few minutes later she said, ‘I can’t eat any more. Her two feet are left over still, but if you have a little bag, I’ll eat them later in the day.’
  ‘You’ll find a bag embroidered with fleurs-de-lis in the cupboard. Empty out the handkerchiefs you’ll find inside, and take it.´'
  
  Eleonora Carrigton é bem capaz de ser a detentora das melhores frases de abertura, como pode comprovar-se aqui em baixo; e mesmo num número reduzido de páginas consegue criar um pequeno universo original e irrepetível em clara comunicação com a sua pintura, sendo o seu “Auto-Retrato” a manifestação pictórica de “The Oval Lady”, com o seu cavalo de madeira, e de “The Dubutante”, com a presença da hiena, os meus contos preferidos.
  
  White Rabbits-4*
  
  Uncle Sam Carrington-4*
  Whenever Uncle Sam Carrington saw the full moon he couldn’t stop laughing. A sunset had the same effect on Aunt Edgeworth.”
  
  The Debutante-5*
  When I was a debutante, I often went to the zoo. I went so often that I knew the animals better than I knew girls of my own age.
  
  The Oval Lady-4*
  The Seventh Horse-4*
  
  My Flannel Knickers-3*
  Thousands of people know my flannel Knickers, and though I know this may be flirtatious, it is not. I am a saint.
  
  The Skelton’s Holiday-3*
  The Skelton was as happy as a madman whose straitjacket had been taken off. He felt liberated at being able to walk without flesh.
• 
  Lisa (NY)

  I could not connect to the morbid humor in these surrealist stories.
• 
  Blair

  'Never mind,' I told myself, 'it's only a nightmare.' But then I remembered that I'd never gone to bed that night, and so it couldn't possibly be a nightmare.
  
  Knowing nothing at all about Leonora Carrington’s writing, I came to this with no preconceptions. I found a set of playful and weird folk tales that often made me smile at some strange mental image.
  
  'White Rabbits' is a vivid and bloody piece of horror that makes a perfect opening. The narrator is drawn into the weird world of her opposite neighbour, who keeps a pack of carnivorous rabbits.
  
  In 'Uncle Sam Carrington', a little girl sets off in search of an unconventional way to solve the problem of her embarrassing aunt and uncle. On her journey she meets fighting vegetables, a talking horse and a pair of witches.
  
  'The Debutante' is the memorable tale of a spoiled debutante who, tired of attending balls thrown in her honour, sends a hyena in her place. You can probably guess how well that turns out.
  
  'The Oval Lady' is like a bizarre dream – or, indeed, one of Carrington's paintings come to life. The same might be said of 'The Seventh Horse', and these two stories come the closest to feeling like Carrington is writing nonsense for the sake of it. There are still striking images and lines to be found in them, however.
  
  'My Flannel Knickers' has a brilliant beginning: 'Thousands of people know my flannel knickers, and though I know this may seem flirtatious, it is not. I am a saint.' It's a dark fable about vanity and social ambition.
  
  'The Skeleton's Holiday' was originally published as part of a collaborative novel, The Man Who Lost His Skeleton, with a group of other surrealist artists. Written in 1939, it is considerably older than the other stories collected here, all of which were first published in 1988. It doesn't make an awful lot of sense in isolation (though I'm willing to bet it doesn't make much more sense in context).
  
  
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• 
  Lauren (Cook's Books)

  I am very sick and on the good good (tesco cold & flu caps) and this was the weirdest fucking trip you could ever experience
• 
  Kirsty

  Leonora Carrington's The Skeleton's Holiday is one of the books which I have been most looking forward to in the Penguin Moderns series. I read her novel, The Hearing Trumpet, last June, and very much enjoyed its brand of absurdity. The titular story was written as part of a collaborative novel in 1939, and the other stories - 'White Rabbits', 'Uncle Sam Carrington', 'The Debutante', 'The Oval Lady', 'The Seventh Horse', and 'My Flannel Knickers' - have all been translated from their original French by the likes of Marina Warner and Carrington herself. The writing here is characteristically Carrington's; each tale is filled with oddity, and surprises the reader at every grotesque turn. Throughout, Carrington has a wonderful knack of vividly setting scenes, and her prose is at once odd and beguiling. There is a dark, startling humour throughout, and an otherworldly sense to her stories. The author clearly had such an imagination; this collection has left me eager to read more of her work.
• 
  Rosamund Taylor

  I admire Leonora Carrington's paintings for their atmosphere, imagination and evocation of fantasy. The very short stories contained in this small volume are similar -- her imagery is captivating and unsettling, and her stories lack internal logic, but are disquieting and memorable. My favourite of these is "The Seventh Horse" -- I don't really understand what the heck is going on in it, but the imagery is very successful. I also admire "White Rabbits" for its extremely unsettling quality. I didn't really follow "The Skeleton's Holiday" -- it was simply too short to explore its idea. I enjoyed these as an insight into Carrington's prose, but I don't know if I would seek out more of her stories. A little goes a long way.
• 
  farahxreads

  Another great author to be explored. A mesh of normality and surrealism, with dreamlike and creepy plot that makes your hair stands at end. Out of seven stories, four stories will definitely stay with me - a secret concealed by a woman who demanded decomposed flesh meat from her neighbour, a story of a filial child who couldnt stand the disgrace brought by his uncle and aunt upon his family, a story of a hyena tearing off a maid’s face and pasted it on its face and lastly, a story of a thin and tall lady who was too old to play with ‘horses’.
  
  Incredibly dreamlike, detailed in parts, creepily operating on its own logic. A great read.
  
  Actual rating: 3.5 stars for The Skeleton Holidays by Leonora Carrington!
• 
  Eleanor Eden

  I enjoy Carrington's morbid humour. I liked the use of surrealism throughout all the stories, using it for humour in some, and for suspense in others. Having read the Hearing Trumpet recently I've grown quite fond of Carrington's writings, I'm glad this was as good as I was hoping.
• 
  Dylan

  reads like a fever dream in a good way
• 
  Bart Van Overmeire

  Heerlijk boekje uit de Penguin Modern reeks, met bizarre, surreële en creepy verhalen.
• 
  Bloodorange

  Probably a better painter than a writer at this point of her career, although "The Debutante" was fantastic.
• 
  Brian

  The greatest difficulty was to find a way of disguising the hyena’s face. We spent hours and hours looking for a way, but she always rejected my suggestions. At last she said, ‘I think I’ve found the answer. Have you got a maid?’
  ‘Yes,’ I said, puzzled.
  ‘There you are then. Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we’ll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I’ll wear her face tonight instead of mine.’
  ‘It’s not practical,’ I said. ‘She’ll probably die if she hasn’t got a face. Somebody will certainly find the corpse, and we’ll be put in prison.’ [16–7]
• 
  Callum McLaughlin

  I'm a big fan of Carrington's surrealist artwork, but it seems surrealist writing simply doesn't work quite as well for me. The first story, White Rabbits, was brilliantly creepy, and The Debutante very striking in its sinister absurdity, but the other 5 stories did nothing for me, sadly, and I don't think they'll stay with me.
• 
  P.S. Clinen

  Weeeeeeeird.....
• 
  Amy

  I need to read everything by Leonora Carrington
• 
  Liam O'Leary

  I did not dislike these but it kinda feels like she's acting out? All stories are shocking but pointless. "Moody goth teen" stories which try too hard to disturb, and forget that there's a narrative to be had before the scare! It's impossible to relate to any characters here because there's too much description!
  
  Maybe it is just me, but I have a feeling Penguin Modern have misrepresented Carrington's ability much like they did Daphne Du Maurier, by adding their odd unpopular horror stories to this collection?
• 
  Dylan Kakoulli

  I think this just goes to show, surrealism probably works far better when it comes to painting, than writing.
  
  That said, I did think 'The Debutante” was bizarrely -and bloodily (quite literally) brilliant!
  
  2.5 stars
• 
  Caitlin

  I love Leonora Carrington's paintings and her short stories do not disappoint - they seriously have the exact same vibe.
• 
  JK

  I loved these bizarre and ridiculous stories. Having no experience of Carrington, I wasn’t sure what I was going into, and I’m still not sure what I’ve come out from. But the level of macabre here has spoken to me, and despite making no sense, the stories were utterly delightful.
  
  From carnivorous rabbits to fighting vegetables, hyenas wearing human faces to flannel knickers, each of these had an exquisite dark humour with a playful and cheeky creepiness, whilst threatening danger at every moment.
  
  I’ll be exploring Carrington in more depth in future - what a brilliant mind.
• 
  Paul

  EDIT 9/4/23: I must have read this out of order last time because I ended up reading it again, and while I remembered the creepy and horror-adjacent "White Rabbits" and "The Debutante," the rest I might as well have been reading for the first time, so forgettable were they the first time. Always nice to discover I agree with myself from two years ago!
  
  _________
  This is a weird collection of stories, surrealism par excellence. None of the rest rises to the level of the opening "White Rabbits," unfortunately. That's a creepy bit of surrealist horror, and "The Debutante" amps up the surrealism while keeping an unsettling edge. The other stories, alas, are mostly words strung together.
  
  Well, that's not totally fair. Gertrude Stein's poetry in this same box set is truly just words strung together, and is nigh unreadable. Carrington strings sentences together in a style that is readable and compelling. It's just that a lot of the time, the paragraphs seem to be from different stories. Overall, I enjoyed reading them, but I was hoping for better after the sterling opening.
• 
  Miss Bookiverse

  This collection contains 7 of Carrington's surrealist short stories. I had never read surrealist literature before and while reading this collection my recurring thought was "OMG, WTF did I just read?" It's like Alice in Wonderland on mind-enhancing drugs: weird, colorful, often brutal, sometimes ridiculous, sometimes melancholy. Anything is possible and sometimes it's hard to follow (or find) the actual storyline. But it's still so much fun because it's so unique and reminded me of twisted fairy tales and I'm sure a lot more could be gained from some in-depth analyses.
  My favorite story was The Debutante about a young woman and a hyena attempting to switch places. The only thing that bothered me was how in White Rabbits leprosy was used for shock value and the people suffering from this illness were depicted as creepy and insane.
• 
  Rita

  Utterly bizarre, charming, humorous, and dark, these stories were a bright spot in my lackluster reading as of late. As with most short story collections, I enjoyed some more than others; some I loved and some I absolutely did not care for. My favorites were "White Rabbits," "The Debutante," and "My Flannel Knickers." I'm definitely interested in reading more by Leonora Carrington in the future, as I'd never heard of her before and only bought this on a whim upon reading the collection's title. Her writing style is wry but beautiful and descriptive, and her imagery and surrealism reminds me of a cross between Lewis Carroll and Angela Carter. I don't think this is for everyone, especially those who are looking for more of a straightforward plot sequence or resolute endings, but this really worked for me.
• 
  Eloísa Nogaroli

  Olha, valeu a pena ler, achei o estilo bem diferente. Gostei muito do "The Debutante" e amei ameiiii o "The Skeleton's Holiday". Os outros contos me deixaram desinteressada, talvez pela maneira bem desconectada da escrita. Só que pelo jeito essa que é a pira mesmo. Mas (tirando os dois bonitinhos que eu citei antes) essa pira num foi muito minha não.
  Um pedacinho do The Skeleton's Holiday
  "The skeleton didn't like disasters, but to suggest that life did have its hazardous moments, he had placed an enormous thimble in the middle of his fine apartment, on which he sat from time to time like a real philosopher. Sometimes he danced a few steps to the tune of Saint-Saëns's Danse Macabre. But he did it with such grace, with such guilelessness, in the manner of midnight dances in romantic, old-fashioned graveyards, that nobody seeing him would have thought of anything unpleasant." lindo demaissssssisisii
• 
  equinox

  i absolutely adore surrealism in all its forms, it's always refreshing to see something so unrestricted and unbothered by the established rules of literature, art or even logic. the surprising turn of events are linked together with great skill and thus make the reading of the stories flow smoothly and dream-like. i really enjoyed the macabre humour and modern gothic-ish elements too, and this volume reminded me a little of mariana enriquez's the dangers of smoking in bed, only more light-hearted and playful. i also loved the multidimensionality of every work, where you can take it at face value as an absurd and surreal story or interpret it in multiple ways of social critique and allegory.
• 
  andreea.

  .
• 
  Barrie Evans

  How can I give Leanora Carrington anything other than five stars? The short stories are very short. And they are just a tiny glimpse into how Carrington saw the world. Or, at least, how her views played off the other surrealists mentioned in the front matter.
  
  There’s a statement noting that “The ‘Skeleton’s Holiday’ was written in 1939 as part of a collaborative novel with Hans Arp , Marcel Duchamp, Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Georges Hugnet, Gisèle Prassinos, et al, called ‘The Man Who Lost His Skeleton.’”
  
  I can only imagine what the entire book was like. I feel the artists in the surrealist movement still have so much to offer us. As a simple example think about these major artists getting together to collaborate on a novel! When have you heard of any other group of artists else doing that?
  
  Yet, here we live in a most interconnected age. I’m sure there are artists’ collaboratives out there who are feeding each other in their effort to create a an artistic movement.
  
  Please tell me who they are so I can pay attention, listen, learn. And maybe even experience a feeling that is currently unknown to me.
• 
  Kristin

  I knew nothing about Carrington’s personal writing style going in, and needless to say the first story knocked me over the head. These absurdist folktales are fascinating and jarring and funny and completely nonsensical in a familiar sensical way. It’s delightful finding the references to other kinds of story structures within, and also to just go along for the ride, because the story will never take you where you think it’s going. And although the writing is incredibly visual, Carrington blurs the lines with characters: is she a woman? A horse? Both at once? Are both these characters the same thing? Every time you think you are going to get a clear answer, she dodges, leaving you with beautifully weird scenes in your head with big black holes in them, the part you can’t quite comprehend. That is essentially what reading these stories feels like.