22 |BookReviews BookReviews | 23 Completely bursting open ‘Everything agreat the notion of Irishness book should be – utterly original’ Seeing things from other perspectives is what literature is for, and Lucy Caldwell’s anthology of short stories delivers on this with abrilliant multiplicity of fresh narratives In his new novel, William into the internal world of ateenage girl are remarkable–the crashing boredom, the Wall has created acentral vulnerability, the drama of her days and her moods(makingliberal use of capital letters character with apowerful throughout the text to demonstrate these voice who is vulnerable emotions) and thevirtual world she spends Niamh Donnelly the most impressive for their mastery of “fresh narratives, perspectives and multi- much of her timein. craft and ability to refashion the world into plicities that are coming from immigration and unwittingly hilarious Suzy Suzy comescomplete with a BeingVarious:NewIrishShortStories an interesting narrative. to aplace so long and persistently defined glossary of teenage terminology and Edited by Lucy Caldwell Conversely, Nicole Flattery’s Kaf- by emigration.” abbreviations to help the adultreader kaesque portrayal of awoman who falls in The anthology ends up being two-thirds Julia Kelly navigate ateenager’slifeand mind.Wall Faber &Faber, 368pp, £12.99 love with achicken will make you feel she female, one-third Northern, two-thirds capturessoaccuratelySuzy’s anxiety of has invented the short story, and show you born in Ireland, two-thirds currently SuzySuzy seeing her parents not gettingalong, the how far one can throw one’s voice and still resident –amix that’s never going to be By William Wall doll’shousefragilityofthe world around as there ever any remain seated in the ancient form. all-encompassing but still feels representa- her as it begins to implode,the shouting worse advice than Why “ironically”, then? Well, by its name tive of the Ireland of today. Head of Zeus, 304pp, £18.99 and the more disturbing silence: write what you and history this anthology claims acertain We get aman internet dating in adirect “I was supposed to feel safe and know?” asked Kit sameness. Begun by the late David Marcus provision hostel, acountry where the secure because the houseISFULL OF ‘W de Waal last year. and subsequently guest edited by Joseph babies are all replaced by letters, alesbian ymam doesn’t really FUCKING SECRETS. Jesuswept twice. The self-described “middle-aged woman” O’Connor, Kevin Barry, Deirdre Madden with aMuslim girlfriend going home to a look at my dad any It’s like we’rethe fucking government who “visits Tesco and tends to her garden” and now Lucy Caldwell, New Irish Short Belfast family that is “more complicated more.Like maybe except there’s no WikiLeaks.Orasecret writes about no such character in her work. Stories has become something of an idée than Peshawar”. Irish life is flown at from sheneverdid idk but society. ARegan NEVERTALKS.” Inhabiting “other lives”, exploring “the full fixe in the Irish literary scene. Yet editors many angles. ‘M shedoesn’t now. I Suzy feelsisolated and begins to cut range of our imagination and ability” are have always pushed against its definition. But what of the reader, who is likely to don’tknow if she doesn’t want to see him herselfwith her big brother’srazors, but far more interesting and worthy. “New” didn’t necessarily mean young, nor get tossed about amid all this variousness; or she can’tsee him or just to her he’s not sheconfides in two closegirlfriends whom Jan Carson, in arecentessay for the did it mean best. “Short” was as short as a who, as Deirdre Madden observes in the there. But every time Isee her not looking shehas knownsince primaryschool: Stinging Fly, expressed asimilar sentiment. piece of string, and “story”, well, as Kevin introduction to her edition, often gets at him it hurts me.She looksatmeall Holly, who’s“adote” and whose“eyes In workshops,she saw students struggle to Barry observed: “these writers are up to all forgotten in the eagerness to showcase? right. She hatesme.” glow like the stuffinsideaseashellidk “make shitup”, insteadproducing “slightly sorts”. And then the zinger: “Irish”. That Are anthologies for readers at all? Suzy Reganisaworld-weary 17-year-old some kind of pearl” and Serena, whom she amendedaccounts of incidents whichhad false determiner of “us”. What exactly was For all the careful curation, Ifound Dubliner, consumed with self-loathingand doesn’t entirely trustand has afigure that happened them”. Therewas no creative it getting at? myself coming at this work tentatively. anintense dislike of herdysfunctional is “perf” but asmile that “is the smileofa leap,nodeparturefrom the me/my/us, to When Joseph O’Connor edited, he Like amean kid in aplayground Iran family. Her heightened teenageemotions deadpollock. It just doesn’t work.” the “other”.But as any decent writer or poked at the idea alittle. “If you’re Irish towards the friends that looked familiar to oscillatewildlyfrom occasional joy to more reader will tell you, seeing things from other enough to qualify for the Republic of me: Kevin Barry, Sally Rooney, Louise frequent despair. Suzysays she wants to kill Navigatingthemiseries perspectivesiswhat literature is for. Ireland football team, under the one- O’Neill. Ipicked and chose, fixed and her mother: “she has like two registers, as The threegirls are drawninto trying to Both Carson and de Waal feature in grandparent rule, or to cheer for it, even straightened, tried to put abit of smacht on my English teacher would say, normal and solveamurder that centres on the new Being Various: New Irish Short Stories, an ironically, when it’s playing against our the place. Which isn’t really the point. Back ballistic”; awomanwho finds her daughter owners of localstately home Ballyshane anthology where “otherness” is abundant- friends in England, you’re eligible for to de Waal: was there ever any worse equally exasperating: “SometimesIcan see House(whichher father has wanted to ly (perhaps, ironically) present. De Waal’s aseat on the squad bus.” advice than write what you know? Perhaps my motherisgoing to hit me but she stops purchase for as long as Suzy can remem- May the Best Man Win paints afilmic read what you know. herself. Like there’salittle tick of bones and ber), allthe while navigating themiseries portrait of aBirmingham pub during Multiplicities Not that those familiar things aren’t muscles and achange inthe way her hands of secondary school,acountry and afamily Muhammad Ali’s last fight, against Trevor But Caldwell seems to burst open wonderful. But the trick here is to match and her body are tilted. ..” in crisis, secrets and affairs, and Suzy’s Berbick. Awhite but black-by-association the notion of Irishness completely, the familiar with the strange, to try alittle Thebook is set in post-Celtic Tiger father’s failing health and financial barmaid, black bus drivers, West Indians in interrogating, first, her own “complicated harder with the ones you’ve never met. Ireland, where Suzy’sproperty developer troubles. trilbies, white strangers with atelevision relationship” with the place she’s from, Anthologies, and the short story as aform, dadis another source of constant irritation “My dad’s heart attackwent well.OrsoI set, aJamaican Berbick supporter –itisa then setting out her wish to portray the are not easy. They will never be the popular and anxiety, withhis unpaid taxes and believe. He gotastentand theytold him to story that hangs on tensions among its kid, the jock, the head girl. They are some- thickening arteries: “We even debated the stayaway fromwork for awhile. Which He diverse cast. thing else. Something other. Which makes housing crisis in religion class...and I Did Not Do.” Carson’s Pillars is amore interior tale them cool. And perhaps awork like this is thinkmaybe my dad is causingit. Like Wallhas ahorror of sentimentality. He about adivorcee struggling after her not for readers at all, but writers. Why not, single-handedly causing the shortage describes himself “as not beingakind and husband leaves her. The world seems when there’s so many on this island of ours; because he owns like gentlewriter”. His prose is beautifully realistic except for the “pillar” she carries – Anthologies, and the when, as Kevin Barry points out in the everything almost.” lyricaland rhythmic, his sentences clean, an indescribable thing that leaves her introduction to his edition: “at any given WilliamWall is amulti-awardwinning everyword weighed. In Suzy he has marked but also, in aperverse way, helps ‘‘short story as aform, moment [. ..]there are ten thousand author, poet and translator, whofirst took created avulnerable and unwittingly her. Our imaginations are forced to make a maniacs battering their laptops with up writing as ayoung boy when confined to hilariouscentral character whose voice, as leap; to see things and people differently are not easy. They caffeinated fingers”. bed with painfuljuvenile arthritis. He it propelsus throughsinister events, is and to try to understand. will never be the This work will shake you up alittle. It will frequently tells his stories through strong everybit as powerful and plausible as DBC Of the 24 stories, these two are neither be like going to a“Foreign Movies No femalevoices; he uses it as adistancing Pierre’sVernoninVernonGod Little or outliers nor representatives. We get popular kid, the Subtitles group”, as two of YanGe’scharac- technique, as away of keepinghimselfout Francie Brady’sinThe Butcher Boy. everything from crime fiction, to young tersdo, or, as one of Lisa McInerney’s of his books, and as ameansofmaintaining Suzy Suzy is everything agreatbook adult, to magical realism, to new modern- jock, the head girl. characters does, dating Gérard Depardieu objectivity.Powerhas always fascinated should be –humorous, poignantand ism. Many of the most realist stories – without speaking any French. You might Wall,and particularly people excluded utterly original.With awickedly funny Danielle McLaughlin’s APartial List of the They are something be expected to recalibrate your balance, to from power.Drawn, like many writers,to central character, agripping and propul- Saved, about an Irishman who brings his else. Something learn and relearn. Which is what’s great describing outsiders, Wall sees women as sive plot,several unsolved mysteries and American ex-wife to his father’s 80th, or about it. You will gain something, if you having been(and possibly continuing to be) real-life, ragged endings, this is the sort of Belinda McKeon’s Privacy, about an other. Which makes hop aboard, look around; as the great the submerged population. book that readers will be immediately Irishwoman in New York experiencing American short story writer Lorrie Moore Wall feels quite assured writingasa absorbed by and whichwriters, like this sewage problems, for example –are also them cool said, “see what can be done”. woman, and withgood reason. His insights one,can only admire and learnfrom.

THE IRISH TIMES | Ticket |Saturday, May 4, 2019 THE IRISH TIMES | Ticket |Saturday, May 4, 2019 OLD Gloriously life-affirming tales of failure FAVOURITES NIAMH DONNELLY ROB DOYLE

HOWTOFAIL ELIZABETH DAY The Dispossessed (1974) Fourth Estate,352pp, £12.99 URSULA LE GUIN fIwere to buy abook for afriend who’s going through atough time –abreak-up, maybe, or acareer setback –ornot even a Let’sbreak science-fiction into threebroad Itough time, just the general erosion of life: and non-exclusivecategories:there is the its expectations and rug pulls; maybe this sort that dealswith the trulyOther; the friend has reached adreaded birthday and isn’t “hard” sort that cleaves to actual science, the person their childhood self had envisioned; and the sort that utilises the genre’s imagina- maybe they’re not having as much fun as tive freedoms to comment on contemporary they’re “supposed” to be having, not ticking society. Ursula Le Guin’s work tendstofall the boxes they’re “supposed” to be ticking; into the thirdcategory, though she bristled maybe they’re childless, divorced, living with atthe science-fiction label, telling aParis their parents; maybe they’re none of these Review interviewer: “My tentaclesare things but still feel totally at sea ...I’d press coming out of the pigeonholeinall direc- How to Fail by Elizabeth Day into their hands. tions.” Towards the end of her life, Le Guin Take this, I’d say, and go away somewhere. championedyounger trailblazers such as (Day went to LA when everything went ChinaMiéville, and campaigned against belly-up for her –why not there?) And they science-fiction’sassumed inferiority to the would go. And they would read. And, as they genreof“literary fiction”. read, aflood of strength would fill their body – Le Guin’s novels explored her manifold heart pumping, muscles knitting and growing Elizabeth Day: intellectual passions, which included –and slowly but surely, they would feel whole If this book is Taoism,feminism, anthropology and and new and able. an instructive political philosophy. The Dispossessed’s I’m not being schmaltzy here, or maybe I exercise, then helical structure bounces us back and forth am, but I’m also being sincere. like all good between two very different planets: Urras, There are books that help people in very real teachers, Day with its cruel“propertarian” hierarchies; ways and often these are not the literary makes herself and Anarres, aparched moonrun on beacons of excellence we exalt, but true stories the fool so anarchistprinciples. The set-up facilitates an told with humility. How to Fail is just that. that we enduringly profitable thought experiment: Described as “part memoir, part manifesto”, it might learn. how wouldlife under capitalism appearto is Day’s first non-fiction title, and is sure to be a PHOTOGRAPH: someonewho did not take its ideology and wildly popular accompaniment to her hit JENNY SMITH mode of living for granted? podcast of the same name. PHOTOGRAPHY Shevek is aphysicistofAnarres, where “I’m aware of the irony,” Day admits,in renegades from Urrasestablished independ- referencetothe fact that apodcastabout failure heart-breaking account of her experience stem-cell transplant. These are just some of ence more than acenturyago. Stifled by the was the most successful thing she’sever done. trying to conceive. She recounts loss – the people who found solace in Day’s How to all-too-humanpettiness of his Anarresian Day’s CV further bolsters this irony. A break-up, divorce, death –but never dwells on Fail podcast. comrades, he travels to Urrastofinish Cambridge graduate who went on to become her own misfortune. She is measured, wise developing ameans of instantaneous an accomplished journalist for the Observer and generous to those who have wronged her. Openandunfiltered communication. Welcomedlikearock star and publish four novels to date, she hardly The words “raw”, “brave” and “honest” Likewise, the book is life-affirming and and invited to live the Urrasian way, Shevek seems qualified to proselytise on failure. Her come to mind. (This is aconfessional tome, permission-giving and will help anyone who doesn’t like what he sees:it’sall hangovers podcast guests –Sebastian Faulks, Dolly after all.) But what she’s owning up to here is has ever felt less-than, regardless of circum- and infidelityand contempt for the poor. Alderton, Deborah Frances White, David not failure –not really –but is failure’s shame- stance. It’s tempting to describeThe Dispos- Nicholls and more –are no deadbeats either. ful alter ego, desire. That’s the raw, brave and The prose is open and unfiltered. sessed as aclassic of leftist science-fiction Of course, irony is part of the game: the idea honest part. It’s embarrassing to tell your “I failed at exams and adriving test.” but, due to its integrity as anovel,itisn’t that that failure and success are so intertwined they reader that along with wanting to be a “I failed to make the boy Iliked fancy me simple.Iread it when Istill suspected that are almost the same thing. “kick-ass alpha female in the office”, you also back.” my anarcho-punk friends might be right “This is apodcast about learning from our “wanted to do all the domestic stuff” because “I failed to fit in at school.” abouteverything. WhileThe Dispossessed mistakes and understanding that why we fail you thought it made you into aperfect speci- “I failed at amarriage and was divorced by rammed home the ways in which capitalism ultimately makes us stronger,” goes the men of womanhood. It’s embarrassing to say 36.” mutilates us, life in the anarchist“utopia” of tagline. “Because learning how to fail in life you made yourself available for an ex who had “I failed to have the children Ialways Anarres–all hard labour, dust, andaggres- actually means learning how to succeed broken it off just because you were desperate thought Iwanted.” sively policedmediocrity–made me wonder better.” to convince yourself you were lovable enough. Maybe there is potential for ugliness, for if capitalism wasn’t the best of abad lot. But Day does, and I, for one, am glad. being misunderstood as petty or naive. But Upside-down Others will be glad, too –the woman who sensitive readers won’t see it that way. Is that how we should read the book, then –this had been told at 15 she would never be able to The humble “I” –“Ifailed” –can bend and thing whose title literally appears upside-down have children; the advertising executive refract. Through it, we see the expectations of on the front cover –hold it up to arear-view signed off work with chronic fatigue; and the awhole society: one must pass exams, be mirror and it might read How to Succeed? person who was in intensive care after a fancied, fit in, marry and have kids. Maybe. We could try. Like afad diet, it would If this book is an instructive exercise, then work for awhile. But Ithink there is more to like all good teachers, Day makes herself the this book than can be contained in acute fool so that we might learn. tagline. Besides, mirrors don’t work that way. Ultimately, though, there is no lesson here, Let’s take Day’s life, for starters. It is surpris- or whatever lesson exists has nothing to do ingly varied and interesting. Never slow to with failure or success. acknowledge her privilege, she still hits us with It’s embarrassing to say you Rather, it is about what happens when we sucker punches of adversity, and if not adversi- made yourself available for are vulnerable. In that “I” is the possibility for ty, then peculiarity. ‘‘ connection: “I failed, too” –“we failed”. Chapters range from How to Fail at Fitting an ex who had broken it off The real manifesto is empathy: “If you turn In, an account of her childhood as an English just because you were the final page having in some small way girl in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, recognised yourself and felt less alone, then to How to Fail at Being Gwyneth Paltrow, an desperate to convince that makes me happy,” says Day, in the account of acommission she received to spend yourself you were lovable afterword. aweek living life as Paltrow, vagina steams and So try it: hold this book up to the rear-view all, to How to Fail at Babies, aforensic and enough. But Day does mirror. You might just see yourself.

Saturday, April 6, 2019 |THE IRISH TIMES | Ticket |33 Try finishing this book and not feeling braver afterwards

Annie Ernaux: her NIAMH DONNELLY no intention of keeping it, and no idea how to work is important. procure an abortion in aFrance where this is Not just because illegal. Time starts ticking. of her subject HAPPENING Ernaux has long been celebrated as one of matter, but ANNIE ERNAUX France’s best, in agenre where the French because of the Translated by Tanya Leslie excel: autobiography. This événement perme- way she hands it Fitzcarraldo Editions, 96pp, £8.99 ates much of her work, at times obliquely, but over: the subtle Happening is adirect investigation of “the contradictions; reality of this unforgettable event”. her dispassionate When Iwas 22, Ilived across the hall from a Two questions prevail: how and why. How to stoicism, mixed French girl. Often, she would come over and tell astory that is untellable, from aperspec- with savagery; her sit in our kitchen talking about sex. Being “the tive that is inherently untrustworthy? And detailed telling, French girl”, she was the only one capable of why? What good will it do? mixed with spare, talking frankly about it. One day, she declared Ernaux’s work is an attempt at truth. Not a fragmented text her greatest sex-related fear was contracting narrative bend on truth, but an “endeavour to Aids. My roommates and I, Irish and naive, revisit every single image”. Even the coffees Ernaux’s work is important. Not just Things have changed since Iwas 22. Ireland admitted we would be far more nervous of she has each day at the student bar, even the because of her subject matter, but because of is different. Awareness around Aids is not getting pregnant. knitting needle she inserts into her vagina, the way she hands it over: the subtle contradic- there yet, but improving. Of the five women “But Aids is more serious than pregnancy,” even the curtains over the window in the tions; her dispassionate stoicism, mixed with who sat in my kitchen, four now have reproduc- she argued. We knew this, yet we were united abortionist’s. It is indiscriminate telling. savagery; her detailed telling, mixed with tive freedom. One, who is from the North, does in our twisted logic. We couldn’t explain it. The most brutal of these images is one of her spare, fragmented text. And, most saliently, not. Idon’t pretend to know what she would Ireland was different. bathroom abortion. No gory detail is spared. the depiction of her roommate “O”, who as vote, if it came to that. Ionly know that like In the first scene of Happening,Annie For the reader, it is distressing. Again, we ask: Ernaux notes, has “bourgeois ideals” and “O”, she would have been there for her Ernaux’s 2000 memoir, now translated by why? Why read this painful thing? This thing perhaps even “anti-abortion views” but who roommates had anything happened, just Tanya Leslie and published in Britain, the whose subject matter is hard, whose form is will not be spared or protected by these when as we would have been for her, standing by her narrator waits for the results of atest she is strange. This thing that professes uncertainty. the reality of the event insists itself upon her. side, our small faces crumpled with tears. certain will reveal Aids. She contemplates the This “issue” thing. This woman’s thing. When Ernaux lies haemorrhaging on her bed, These are not things we vote for. These are lovemaking –the “dance of death” –that led Of course, there is no “should”, only what “it was she and she alone who stood by my not things we judge. These are things that her here. When the doctor says “the tests are might happen if we do. Try finishing this book side ...her small face crumpled with tears”. happen. Are happening. negative”, she bursts out laughing, relieved, and not feeling braver after. and tells herself “once again Ihad been saved”. Then, how? How to take it on board. Can I Thus, we are brought back to the “last time” enjoy it? Can Iuse the word “comforting”, –the event (or L’événement,asthe French title when others might say “harrowing”? How can would have it) that, years previously, induced Ijudge abook like this? “the same feelings of horror”. The thing that, Perhaps by its cover. Designed by Ray Everything IKnow in the end, was just as liable to kill her. O’Meara, it bears the signature Fitzcarraldo 1963. Rouen. Ernaux, astudent of 23 waits sparseness: blank white space, blue lettering, for aspot to appear on her underwear and raised white logo. No images. Nothing enticing Book About Love writes “Nothing” in her journal each day it or leading, just aliterary plainness and the Club does not. It will not. She is pregnant. She has sense that what’s in there is important. by Dolly Alderton POEMVONAGROARKE AgainstLoneliness €7.SAVE Time was, the rain brought nasturtiums, like alover, WHEN YOU 00 BUY but now is not August any more THE IRISH ONLY TIME and the rain comes empty-handed S which is fine by me. €4.99

There are so many flowers already, so many spoons and shoes and candlesticks to be accounted for. VonaGroarke’s Atrue-to-life, veryfunny andsometimes heart-breakingmemoir from journalistDolly SelectedPoems Aldertonabout growing up, growing olderand navigatingall kinds of love along theway. (GalleryPress)won Imake lists for company the2017PiggotPrize. of all the objects in the world ‘Deeply funny,sometimes shocking, and admirably open-hearted Sheiscurrentlya that bloom the way nasturtiums do CullmanFellowat and optimistic’ Daily Telegraph NewYorkPublic loudly, brazenly. Library.Anew collection,Double The rain doesn’t care so much for lists. from 16th February to 1st March Negative,isdue Tonight it calls by the house late Offer available in Eason ROI stores only, with something important to say. while stocks last.

Its words end in all double letters Be Inspired that lean in, like italics, close to each other so nothing comes between.

Saturday, February 16, 2019 |THE IRISH TIMES | Ticket |35