This collection is bizarre at first but, gradually, it reveals itself as each story expands on the themes of the last. The common thread running through the collection seems to be a concern with what it takes to live a satisfied life. There are disillusioned discussions of family, parenthood, art, sex and marriage, and the tone vacillates between jaded and sentimental throughout.

The initial absurdity of the stories is largely contributed to by their estrangement from any specific sense of time or place, and by the blurring of the metaphorical and the literal. Once I'd started analysing a little more attentively, and understood the connections between the stories, I was less bewildered but maybe also less engaged.

My highlights:
• I enjoyed the playful structure of 'A New Story Told Out of an Old Story', which I think/have decided repositions the Red Riding Hood fairytale as an oppression of female desire and autonomy.
• 'Flowers in Water' was my favourite. It speaks to unachievable dreams, missed connection, nostalgia and regret. It's poetic and sad and honest. This is the story that clicked the collection into place for me.
• 'Blue' which describes a woman noticing her skin is slowly turning blue, noticing that others around her are also turning blue. What could it mean.
• ‘The Birthday Gift’ was arguably the most overtly tragic story in the collection. It ruminates on connection, grief, and loneliness. Via a sex doll.

All the stories use abstraction and symbolism to veil universal human desires, fears and regrets. I love Modern Times as a collection. The stories amplify and clarify each other brilliantly. Individually though, most of the stories are a challenge to extrapolate meaning from. This is why I wish 'Flowers in Water' had been placed earlier in the collection, cus I was mostly taking those first 10 stories at face value and was consequently scrambling around for the subtext like a potato with a face.

Could be a me problem. Am I the drama?