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How Shall I Know You?: A Short Story
"She looked up and smiled. She had a face of feral sweetness, its color yellow; her eyes were long and dark, her mouth a taut bow, her nostrils upturned as if she were scenting the wind."In "How Shall I Know You?," a melancholic and ailing writer reluctantly travels east of London to give a lecture before a literary society. Mr. Simister, the organization's secretary, lures the world-weary novelist turned biographer with promises of a modest stipend and lodging at a charming bed-and-breakfast for her trouble. Nevertheless, on that rainy day she meets Mr. Simister at the train station, she wonders why she ever agreed to come in the first place. Driving past steel-shuttered windows and Day-Glo banners, Mr. Simister takes the writer to her hotel for the evening, which turns out to be crumbling and isolated rather than picturesque. As she crosses the threshold into the dank stench of Eccles House she is faced with the feral porter, Louise, and suffers through an evening that may be more than she bargained for.From Hilary Mantel's brilliant and darkly comic collection of contemporary stories, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, comes a tale told with her distinctive blend of subversive wit and gimlet-eyed characterization. "How Shall I Know You?" showcases the extraordinary genius of Hilary Mantel, called one of our "greatest living novelists" (NPR).
26 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 26, 2014
26 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Hilary Mantel
111Ìýbooks7,624ÌýfollowersHilary Mantel was the bestselling author of many novels including Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Bring Up the Bodies, Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy, was also awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Book Award. She also wrote A Change of Climate, A Place of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, An Experiment in Love, The Giant, O'Brien, Fludd, Beyond Black, Every Day Is Mother's Day, Vacant Possession, and a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Mantel was the winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and her reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 20, 2016
What the hell did I just read?!?
June 5, 2022
Reflections and lessons learned:
“I stood and breathed in - because one must breathe tar of ten thousand cigarettes, fat of ten thousand breakfasts, the leaking metal seep of a thousand shaving cuts, and the horse-chestnut whiff of nocturnal
emissions. Each odour, ineradicable for a decade, had burrowed into the limp chintz of the curtains and into the scarlet carpet that ran up the narrow stairs�
Aha - ok, I get this - lovely writing style of vivid characters and descriptions - short story of course but established quickly and memorable - maybe I would like the works of a local girl after all�
“I stood and breathed in - because one must breathe tar of ten thousand cigarettes, fat of ten thousand breakfasts, the leaking metal seep of a thousand shaving cuts, and the horse-chestnut whiff of nocturnal
emissions. Each odour, ineradicable for a decade, had burrowed into the limp chintz of the curtains and into the scarlet carpet that ran up the narrow stairs�
Aha - ok, I get this - lovely writing style of vivid characters and descriptions - short story of course but established quickly and memorable - maybe I would like the works of a local girl after all�
September 8, 2014
This short story by Hilary Mandel is what I could call a perfect short story. Rich in detail with setting and character I felt transposed to an author's life in one of her most uncomfortable stages.
I highly recommend this very fast read. Which is something I love to do when I am between books or have too many going, I need a short story or novella to ground me, this was perfect.
August 26, 2017
OK there is a review which does detail the story as it happens. Eye colour and basics of appearance in 'the girl' and Mr Simister the speaker host. The odds'n'sods assortment who comprise the audience.
However, this tale also seems to be about the feelings of being trapped. In the case of the writer, trapped into the expected rounds of dreary speaking engagements, the likely entrapment by would-be writers and their manuscripts 'bulging packets under their chairs' and the sense she has of stasis. Of making no progress with her writing whilst she undertakes such outings. She feels she is moving sideways all the time. However the engagements are necessary to spreading her words amongst library groups and book circles. These in turn will request her books or buy them if they can. She cannot afford to take too superior a stance, although she cannot help but do so. It is her nature.
The girl, who is in fact a crippled young woman is trapped in quite another sense. She is physically hunched and lumbered with a 'boot' foot which necessitates her shuffling sideways because she has no other way to get about. She is anxious for the experiences of one such as the writer. She is envious of the small overnight case and anxious to please the writer who, with her head- cold and cold eyes upon the rooms in boarding-house different from the one promised, is hard to please. This is not the pretty, fresh or charming residence reflecting her value as a visitor. That place is under refurbishment. Instead she is consigned to an attic floor of a down-at-heel and kitchen smelling residence, largely frequented by travelling salesmen.
The young woman makes every effort to find greater comfort for the visitor despite lack of evident thanks.
They are both trapped.
The writer though fights her existence, feeling it is not a measure of her true value. The young woman has no other standard, accepting her place in life as nothing more than she should expect. It is both her nature and her experience that this is so.
She, though, has a perspicacity, a skill, in reading people. In seeing through to their feelings. She voices the thoughts as she senses the elements in another.
This is an unsettling skill for those who would hide behind petty distress and formality.
At the finish, at the end of her allocated stay of around 36hrs, the writer escapes in hurried and uncomfortable haste. a she does so she sees the young woman still attempting to assist her by bringing her small luggage and gazing into the taxi cab.
They recognise each other in that moment, recognising in one the longing for a more free and handsome life and in the other a dissatisfaction which is mean and petty by comparison. The resolution is one common to our society today. The writer can do nothing more, will do nothing more, than hurriedly thrust a large denomination note into the hand of the young woman and hope it brings some physical comfort and go some way to easing both their forms of mental anguish with the life they have.
A short, insightful modern observation of life between floors.
However, this tale also seems to be about the feelings of being trapped. In the case of the writer, trapped into the expected rounds of dreary speaking engagements, the likely entrapment by would-be writers and their manuscripts 'bulging packets under their chairs' and the sense she has of stasis. Of making no progress with her writing whilst she undertakes such outings. She feels she is moving sideways all the time. However the engagements are necessary to spreading her words amongst library groups and book circles. These in turn will request her books or buy them if they can. She cannot afford to take too superior a stance, although she cannot help but do so. It is her nature.
The girl, who is in fact a crippled young woman is trapped in quite another sense. She is physically hunched and lumbered with a 'boot' foot which necessitates her shuffling sideways because she has no other way to get about. She is anxious for the experiences of one such as the writer. She is envious of the small overnight case and anxious to please the writer who, with her head- cold and cold eyes upon the rooms in boarding-house different from the one promised, is hard to please. This is not the pretty, fresh or charming residence reflecting her value as a visitor. That place is under refurbishment. Instead she is consigned to an attic floor of a down-at-heel and kitchen smelling residence, largely frequented by travelling salesmen.
The young woman makes every effort to find greater comfort for the visitor despite lack of evident thanks.
They are both trapped.
The writer though fights her existence, feeling it is not a measure of her true value. The young woman has no other standard, accepting her place in life as nothing more than she should expect. It is both her nature and her experience that this is so.
She, though, has a perspicacity, a skill, in reading people. In seeing through to their feelings. She voices the thoughts as she senses the elements in another.
This is an unsettling skill for those who would hide behind petty distress and formality.
At the finish, at the end of her allocated stay of around 36hrs, the writer escapes in hurried and uncomfortable haste. a she does so she sees the young woman still attempting to assist her by bringing her small luggage and gazing into the taxi cab.
They recognise each other in that moment, recognising in one the longing for a more free and handsome life and in the other a dissatisfaction which is mean and petty by comparison. The resolution is one common to our society today. The writer can do nothing more, will do nothing more, than hurriedly thrust a large denomination note into the hand of the young woman and hope it brings some physical comfort and go some way to easing both their forms of mental anguish with the life they have.
A short, insightful modern observation of life between floors.
January 25, 2025
Okay where to start. Have you ever been at a dinner party and you are stuck with that person who talks endlessly about nothing and says all these things that are suppose to be funny and show you how smart they are and they are just not? That is what this character is and after reading this short story of 26 pages I felt like I had read a book of 800 pages. Reading other reviews I have gathered you either love this book or hate it. I am in the second. This book was just some character spewing drivel. I guess there might be some deep hidden meaning somewhere but if so it was hidden so deeply that I didn't see it.
May 5, 2019
I loved this book
Hilary Mantel has the ability to describe people and places unlike any other author. Both funny and sad i feel that I can actually relate to the author and how she makes me want to read more and more of her books. She has a genuine ability to see things beyond our normal world and it makes me feel so glad that there are writers out there who are brave enough to put these thoughts and experiences into a book which I could not stop reading.
Hilary Mantel has the ability to describe people and places unlike any other author. Both funny and sad i feel that I can actually relate to the author and how she makes me want to read more and more of her books. She has a genuine ability to see things beyond our normal world and it makes me feel so glad that there are writers out there who are brave enough to put these thoughts and experiences into a book which I could not stop reading.
January 10, 2020
Dark mood short story
I appreciate the coherence in style, the darkness and heaviness that are a trademark of Hilary Mantel. Easily recognizable and dependable. What I miss is the “why?�. Could not figure the reason of the story, why write it, what was it meant to convey.
I appreciate the coherence in style, the darkness and heaviness that are a trademark of Hilary Mantel. Easily recognizable and dependable. What I miss is the “why?�. Could not figure the reason of the story, why write it, what was it meant to convey.
July 2, 2024
Fabulous descriptions with a generous dollop of creepiness. Great fun for me to read, a horrible experience for the main character - who seems more intent on whining than in finding a way to have fun.
December 29, 2018
A sweet and mysterious short story!
February 19, 2021
That last line? Wow.
October 17, 2022
Wonderful mysterious short
September 20, 2023
Creepy and evocative.
November 27, 2023
A hellish overnight trip with a speaking engagement in a squalid guest house.
July 31, 2024
Quirky short story.
April 27, 2024
This was a short story that is part of a larger collection. called 'The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher'. I grabbed a copy of this via BorrowBox the digital lending side of my local Library.
This was a well written short story that took me back in time to my twenties. Life was different back then, but we can all say that about any snapshot in time during our life.
A great short story to blow the cobwebs from a readers mind. It drew this reader in as I was intrigued to find out what was happening.
This was a well written short story that took me back in time to my twenties. Life was different back then, but we can all say that about any snapshot in time during our life.
A great short story to blow the cobwebs from a readers mind. It drew this reader in as I was intrigued to find out what was happening.
March 2, 2015
Interesting short by Mantel about an author's experience in her travels to a reading group event as well as the events that take place upon her arrival. Witty and even dark little read with moments of melancholy and snappy tongue-in-cheek humor. It's from her short story collection, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher and since I'm still burning here waiting for the third of the Cromwell series with my love of not only that story, but her storytelling, I'll be reading the collection very soon.
August 18, 2015
From the collection "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher," but released separately as an e-book. In the context of the collection, this story did stand out, having a slightly different tone (somewhat sci-fi/horror fiction, to be honest) intwined with dark, creepy, slightly confusing imagery with a deadpan witty narrative voice. Like a really good Martin Amis, this one is.
September 27, 2014
Not my kind of story.. I was confused for a bit. I may read The Assassination of Margret Thatcher.
July 7, 2016
This is an interesting story with a twist to it.
August 17, 2016
Everything you could want from a short story - intrigue, atmosphere, unforgettable characters, strong narrative voice, flashes of laugh out loud humour, pathos and economy of perfectly chosen words.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
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