This is my second post in observation of Irish Short Story Month Year VI. My first post was also on two works by Colum McCann (1951, Dublin) from his latest collection, Thirteen Ways of Looking.
My quick thoughts and ranking on the novels by Colum McCann I have so far read and posted upon.
1. TransAtlantic - I love this book
2. Let the Great World Go On Spinning. Huge international best seller.
3. Dancer- a powerful book centered on Rudolph Nureyev. Parts of it are at perfect but not quite as good as the first two selections.
4. Zoli - Good look at post WWII Roma culture.
5. Songdogs - his first novel, parts are really good, parts a bit shaky but very much worth reading. About New York City Tunnel Diggers
6. This Side of Brightness. Interesting work.
"Sh'Khol" is set on the rugged sea coast of Galway, a place I have the great pleasure of visiting. It is about a woman taking care by herself of a mentally challenged preteen age boy she and her husband adopt d b fore they divorced. Her husband lives in Dublin, she in Galway. The story is about what happens when the boy without permission or supervision puts on a wet suit his mother got him for Christmad and goes for a swim in turbulent Galway Bay. He does not return and a very dramatic attempt bybthexauthorties to find him unfolds before our eyes. Her ex husband accuses her of being neglectful and careless. This is a very suspenseful story and I will leave the ending untold.
"Treaty" is told by a seventy three year old Catholic nun, come to Galway to rest. She is shocked to see on TV a man who tortured her thirty seven years ago when she was working to help the poor in Columbia. At time he was part of an extreme right wing group but now he is advocating peace and is affiliated with a left wing organization. She begins to have involuntary memories of the horrible torture she underwent. She tells others around her and they tell her she might be confused, maybe her memories are not quite right. The close of the story is very powerful.
Thirteen Ways of Looking is one of many contemporary continuances of the tradition of the great Irish short story tradition.
Mel u
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