"The Cook and the Star" A Short Story by Anne O’Leary - included with Cork Stories - Edited by Madeleine D’Arcy & Laura McKenna - 2024 - An Irish Short Story Month Work

 

Irish Short Story Month- XIII- 2024

I have decided to extend Irish Short Month XIII for 2024 through at least April.

There are just too many great stories I want to feature to confine the event to one Month,

Whether you are just getting started in Irish Short Stories or have been and avid reader for fifty years, Cook Stories, published by Doire Press, will delight you with 18 Stories.

Today's Story, by Cork Native Anne O'Leary, "The Cook and the Star" is set in the vicinity of Cork and centers on a  woman temporarily working as a Cook for a Hollywood movie star there making a picture.

"The first time she sees the Hollywood star, he is cautiously descending the staircase. He has not noticed her standing in the kitchen doorway and his large body is tilted sideways as if he is negotiating a steep hillside. He is snorting with the effort, fingers gripping the banister. Halfway down, he spots her. Immediately, his wheezing stills and his back straightens.  ‘You must be my saviour,’ he says. His famous, velvet voice is gentler than she expects."

As the story develops, the cook becomes important to the star, a man with drinking problems mourning the recent death of his son.  He loves a big Irish breakfast, who doesn't, and often needs a reason to get out of bed. Without him fully functional the movie won't get done. This will stop the counted for tourist activity,  There are heartbreaking revelations about the cook.

This is my first encounter with the work of Anne O'Leary but there will be more.

See Anne O’Leary website for additional information on her work 

https://anneolearyblog.wordpress.com/about/

Mel Ulm 

The Reading Life