Vintage Season/In Another Country

I'm not sure when I first read “Vintage season”: the 1960s? The 1970s? Long enough ago, but still long after it was published in 1946 (before I was born). The story is a firm classic, and a rare jewel from a period when most sf was primitive.

The attitudes and assumptions about male and female are somewhat dated, but not as badly dated as they might have been. The author had a forward-looking imagination and did what she could to attempt timelessness. On the whole, the story lasts well, though you should bear in mind that it was written in another era. It still makes a real impact.

The companion piece by Robert Silverberg, “In another country” (1989), boldly attempts to slide another simultaneous plot into the same story. It's a tough undertaking to improve on a classic, but I'd say he manages it: his story is even more moving and disturbing than the original, while having the advantage of a somewhat more modern outlook. Moore was born in 1911, Silverberg in 1935, and he wrote his piece some 43 years after hers.

I give this book only four stars mainly because both stories are tragedies, and I prefer fiction to have a happy ending. But they are fine tragedies and I was moved by them. The other problem is that the original story is unavoidably somewhat dated, and even Silverberg's story feels slightly dated because (a) he remains faithful to the feel of the original and (b) even 1989 is in the past by now.