{"id":12806,"date":"2025-01-10T10:39:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T09:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806"},"modified":"2025-01-08T19:42:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T18:42:01","slug":"ailsa-cox-precipitation-reviewed-by-paul-anthony-knowles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806","title":{"rendered":"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles."},"content":{"rendered":"

Domestic Gothic stories where the sinister behind the everyday is centre stage.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Confingo: \u00a36:00 plus postage and packaging.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Paul Knowles.<\/p>\n

Cox\u2019s Precipitation <\/i>is a masterclass in capturing the unsettling eeriness that sits behind the mundanity of the domestic. All three stories in Cox\u2019s collection explore the hidden secrets and unspoken truths, thinly veiled by the routines of the everyday that include book clubs, planning weekend breaks away in the country, jam making, cleaning, shopping, dog walking and grandparents craving more time with their grandchildren. The collection\u2019s stories slowly build up tension like a raindrop sliding down a condensed window on a bleak winter\u2019s day and though, as readers, we know we should avert our gaze and look away, the stories pull us in, and we are powerless as we watch on.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Precipitation\u2019s<\/i> first story, \u2018Heavy Showers and Thunder\u2019, a former son-in-law drops in on his in-laws after he is caught out by a storm whilst mountain biking in the hills. At first glance, the story seems to be a social commentary on the lack of access grandparents have to their grandchildren when relationships fail between their children and their partner. But \u2018Heavy Showers and Thunder\u2019 takes a much more unsettling turn as we are drawn into the world of Barbara and George who are mourning the death of their daughter, Cass, after a mysterious climbing accident. Luke (their former son-in-law) has remarried and both George and Barbara are missing their granddaughter, Jess, who rarely visits them. Cox\u2019s writing brilliantly captures the awkwardness of Luke dropping in on them unannounced; both parties struggle to communicate with each other without Cass. What makes the story a tour-de-force in the domestic eerie is the unresolved questions around Cass\u2019s death and how the characters hold unspoken resentment towards each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the collection\u2019s second story, \u2018Stan\u2019s House\u2019, the couple, Fleur and Jon, \u2014 an aspiring poet and university lecturer \u2014 move to a hillside terrace on the quaint street of Bethel Brow in a former Lancashire mill-town. Fleur\u2019s happiness at moving to the countryside is captured in the story\u2019s opening as she meditates on the beauty of the autumnal landscape that surrounds her new home. Fleur\u2019s bliss is short lived as she has a nasty encounter with the old woman at number 13 who calls her a \u2018little girl who has never grown up\u2019. Fleur imagines the range of gothic scenarios that may have made the woman in number 13 so inhospitable. Where the gothic imaginations of Fleur are shown as always being farfetched flights of fancy by Cox\u2019s writing, the real sinister threat to Fleur is one she struggles to see as increasingly intimidating: Jon \u2014 who is struggling to deal with his new commute to the university and the increasing pressure being placed upon him by a swelling workload \u2014 is slowly reaching his snapping point. The story simmers with domestic menace as Jon\u2019s growing detachment to Fleur is captured in his increasing silence and lack of response to her requests. As readers, we hold our breath as Cox\u2019s story induces the same feeling as waiting for a kettle to reach boiling point, or the slow sense of menace we feel when we are waiting for a summer storm to break. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The collection\u2019s final story, \u2018The Empty Quarter\u2019, is a meditation on loneliness, unfulfilled potential and how a home can become a trap that is hard to escape. Jason, an unexpected travel writer, has always dreamed of visiting the Arabian Desert and The Empty Quarter ever since childhood where he watched films of shifting sands with his father in his Morecombe home. We now find Jason entering middle age and struggling to write his second book. He has the idea of writing a travel book, without actually visiting the places he is going to write about and thus needs to disappear to create the illusion of him travelling. He retires to a rundown cottage in the Welsh countryside to complete his book. It is Jason\u2019s inability to escape the cottage \u2014 due to the fear that his ruse will be discovered \u2014 that adds a sense of foreboding to the cottage and the surrounding countryside. Cox\u2019s use of pathetic fallacy (the trees and bushes outside the cottage are always dripping with freshly fallen rain) acts as a perfect metaphor for Jason slowly unravelling. The story leaves readers questioning what the real emptiness in Jason\u2019s life is.<\/p>\n

All three stories in Cox\u2019s Precipitation <\/i>are slow burners but they had me hooked with their quiet intensity. Things are never quite what they seem, and the reader is left with a sense of uneasiness for all three main protagonists throughout the stories. Precipitatio<\/i>n is a collection that offers a masterclass in the domestic gothic and produces stories that will linger in your consciousness long after reading.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Domestic Gothic stories where the sinister behind the everyday is centre stage.\u00a0 Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Confingo: \u00a36:00 plus postage and packaging. Reviewed by Paul Knowles. Cox\u2019s Precipitation is a masterclass in capturing the unsettling eeriness that sits behind the mundanity of the domestic. All three stories in Cox\u2019s collection explore the hidden secrets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nAilsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles. - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles. - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Domestic Gothic stories where the sinister behind the everyday is centre stage.\u00a0 Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Confingo: \u00a36:00 plus postage and packaging. Reviewed by Paul Knowles. Cox\u2019s Precipitation is a masterclass in capturing the unsettling eeriness that sits behind the mundanity of the domestic. All three stories in Cox\u2019s collection explore the hidden secrets […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-10T09:39:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-08T18:42:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806\",\"name\":\"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles. - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-10T09:39:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-08T18:42:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"The Manchester Review\"},\"description\":\"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles. - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles. - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Domestic Gothic stories where the sinister behind the everyday is centre stage.\u00a0 Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Confingo: \u00a36:00 plus postage and packaging. Reviewed by Paul Knowles. Cox\u2019s Precipitation is a masterclass in capturing the unsettling eeriness that sits behind the mundanity of the domestic. All three stories in Cox\u2019s collection explore the hidden secrets […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2025-01-10T09:39:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-08T18:42:01+00:00","author":"The Manchester Review","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Manchester Review"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806","name":"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles. - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-01-10T09:39:49+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-08T18:42:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12806#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc","name":"The Manchester Review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"The Manchester Review"},"description":"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-3ky","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12807,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12806\/revisions\/12807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}