Ann Quin (1936 – 1973) is one of the great British writers of the Twentieth Century – a brilliant working class modernist whose work has had something of a revival in recent years, due in no small part to the efforts of Jennifer Hodgson (who edited this collection, much of which was previously unpublished and unknown) and And Other Stories, who republished Quin’s four novels alongside The Unmapped Country.
‘A Double Room’ tells the story of a young woman in the 1960s taking a train to a seaside town with a married man to have (or continue) an affair. From the off the tension is high, but not exactly with romance ‘If people stopped to look, they would think we were father and daughter on our way to an aunt’s funeral.’ Told from the young woman’s perspective, the couple arrive at the hotel, attempt to have sex, drink whisky, eat steaks, take a walk on the beach, and engage in a few more rounds of unsatisfactory lovemaking and pub exploring. Through the unnamed woman, Quin expresses a complicated set of feelings related to the search for romantic love and illicit thrills – want, disgust, awkwardness, shame, excitement, raging sexuality, boredom – and despite the disappointment experienced throughout, ends on a slightly ambiguous note. Though the story ultimately explores the distance between a desire for a transcendent experience and an underwhelming reality, there is a lot going on underneath surface, a complicated mix of feelings. It feels very 1960s Britain but also kind of timeless – a timeless bad date? The Unmapped Country is a great way into Quin’s writing – read this collection and then her first novel Berg.
Collected in The Unmapped Country: Stories & Fragments, And Other Stories, 2018
A Personal Anthology 