The Not-Dead and the Saved and Other Stories by Kate Clanchy, book review: Matters of life, death, and Charlotte Bronte’s bun

E M Forster once flirted with the idea that his characters retained a degree of freedom, that they were “full of the spirit of mutiny”. Nabokov dismissed this as whimsy: his characters were “galley slaves”. If the title of her debut short story collection is anything to go by, Kate Clanchy keeps a similarly tight ship. The question of independence looms large – whether in terms of parenthood, cultural autonomy or Scottish politics. And yet, to be a character in Clanchy’s stories seems to be in a peculiarly passive position. You’re either not-dead, waiting to be killed off, or saved by the author’s good grace.