Commissioned stories from Ireland - sometimes entitled "Dislocation". In her Introduction, Walsh writes "There are a number of common themes ... - alienation, isolation, disaffection"; "Not surprisingly, the plight of men in what is seen by many as a post-feminist era is centre stage in these stories"
- Barber-Surgeons (Aidan Mathews) - Bevan is the barber of Roper, a surgeon. They talk at their regular appointments (over several years) about James Bond, Catholicism, etc. Bevan prepares for their conversations. He has trouble trying to get personal details out of Roper, who sometimes disappoints him with his language and opinions. Bevan has to go into hospital. Roper visits. Bevan asks if he's ever married. Roper says he's married with 4 sons. He tells Bevan that barbers and surgeons were once part of the same brotherhood, which makes Bevan tearful. He shaves the barber and cuts his hair. On the way out he's told that Bevan's case is inoperable. At the end he tells the nurse "we were very close. We came within a hair's breadth of each other" [A moving portrait of a longterm friendship.]
- These Important Messages (Blanaid McKinney) - Matt (who's 44, surprisingly) is a priest/teacher in Belfast. 4 months ago a 14 y.o. pupil killed himself. The boy had asked Matt about God. Now he's in London for 3 days with Laura, who he's known since childhood and has started a whirlwind romance with. She works in advertising. They have sex on the bus to her flat. The adverts overwhelm him, giving him a bad headache. They wander the streets on Sunday. He thinks she's secretly snorting coke. In a restaurant he starts to pray. She storms out. He walks the streets alone then sits watching an ice sculptor with a chainsaw make an angel. As it starts melting he walks away. Back at her flat he breaks up with her. She's heartbroken. He returns to work. He's asked to perform the service for the boy.
- It is a Miracle (Eilis Ni Dhuibhne) - 3rd person PoV - Sara, Irish, an immigrant librarian, has lived with Thomas (a novelist who sells 5,000 books a year) for 10 years. He was divorced.They live by a lake. They have separate beds. Her friend Lisa, a divorced mother, tells her she's remarrying - she met a Turk while on holiday. 1st person PoV - Sara's at a conference when she's put on the same table as an Italian man who has a 20 y.o. daughter. He cries when thinking about his separated wife. It's a miracle, he says, that he's found such an understanding person to talk to. She goes with Lisa to a funfair before she leaves for Istanbul. PoV goes from 3rd person to 1st person when they're stuck on the rollercoaster, then back to 3rd person. She e-mails the man she had a meal with abroad, telling him to write. [I'm not convinced. I can't fill the gaps]
- Playboy (Sean O'Reilly) - Ishka, 30, an ex mental patient, is clowning about on Dublin's Grafton Street, offering poetry. Anne-Marie is a nearby flowerseller. He's lost some poems a woman had given him, poems by her late husband. His mother has chucked him out. He goes to Caroline. He'd met her, nearly 40, a year before. She's big, unattractive, from Belfast. She's angry with him again - "Poetry's just a blow-up doll for you," she shouts. She chucks him out too. He pub-crawls, looking for the lost poems, takes E, gets into a night-club, meets Anne-Marie, who can see he's having a bad time. He entertains, performs from the tops of cars - people love him. A group of boys kick him to death. Anne-Marie's there at the end. [I like it.]
- Night of the Quicken Trees (Claire Keegan) - Margaret moves into a cottage. She thinks she's post-menopausal. 9 years before. she lost her virginity to a priest who left the cottage to her - the baby died. She's superstitious. Stack, 49, a bald virgin, lives next door with Josephine, a goat. Margaret starts having periods again. During a powercut at Xmas he invites her in for a meal - eel. A fortune teller says she's going to have another child. She asks Stack for sex and knocks down the dividing wall. She gives birth to Michael and leaves on a boat with him.
- Australia Day (Tom Humphries) - Peter Sheeds runs an Australian-themed bar, "The Boomerang". It's become trendy to people he doesn't much like - e.g. Timmy Boyle (48), head of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, who come in with Maud, once Peter's girlfriend. Peter's worried about some medical test results. A regular tells him it's only gallstones. [several good jokes]
- Ponchos (Joseph O'Neill) - Self-absorbed William Mason has breakfast each workday in a New York eatery. There are some bar-room stories. He's been married to Elisa for 2 childless years. The pressure has affected his sexual performance. Events remind him of maxims. He has trouble in the infertility clinic. When he returns to have another try, he sees Elisa in the rain, wearing her tasselled poncho. She has an umbrella, rain dripping from it to make it look like the tasselled poncho. [Not very much in it]
- Maps (John MacKenna) - After 10 years of visiting his father on Saturdays, the persona finds his father collapsed. He goes into hospital where he stays for years, stroke-damaged. The persona, in retrospect, thinks his mother had an affair. She left for a week. She returned, wanting to be loved, but his father changed, started drinking. She died when his father was 46. The persona had a few weeks notice but his parents had known for years. The persona (whose daughter died) tries to understand what happened - who knew what and when. His father thought his mother returned because she loved him - she'd given him crucial support before the persona was born. The persona thinks that nobody loved him.
- A Nuclear Adam and Eve (Molly McCloskey) - first-person Jane met Nina when they were 10. They became close. Jane's do-gooder mother invited "sad cases" to Sunday parties. Nina had teenage problems - there was a campaign of graffiti about her - dates, lipstick colour, private nicknames - though she was never named. Jimmy saved her when the delayed effect of the graffiti hit her at university. When he (then Nina's fiancé) was in alcohol rehab, Jane offered to be part of his supportive social network. Perhaps they got too close. Jane moved to another continent [My favourite. I like the lyrical style, the analysis of feeling, the wealth of little details, the flash-forward hints, the way the sections aren't in time order. See my article]
- Gracefully, Not Too Fast (Mary Morrissy) - Ruth was good at music when young. She had singing lessons with a blind man. Then she shared lessons with Bridget - prettier, with a better voice, but poor. When Ruth discovered that Bridget was illiterate she took advantage of it. Bridget stopped coming. Before long the teacher suggested that it wasn't worth Ruth coming. Years later she's giving budding literacy tutors an introductory talk. She gives them sheet music and asks them to sing it to show them the humiliation their pupils feel. [these 2 timelines are interleaved. I like the details about the blind man's family, and the classroom of people]
- Grid Work (Keith Ridgway) - He's 7' 2" and hates flying though he needs to do lots of it. Advisors and PAs run his life. His life is full of deals, arrangements, rescheduling, traffic, avoiding head injuries.
No duds and some impressive pieces.
