"Oh Such A Perfect Day" by Paul McCarrick

"Oh Such A Perfect Day" by Paul McCarrick (2012, 6 pages)

Irish Short Story Month Year III

March 1 to March 31

Paul McCarrick

Athlone, County  Westmeath

You are invited to participate in Irish Short Story Week.  If you are interested, please e mail me.

"After a series of five or six enforced turns, I came to a road 

which stretched out seemingly for miles and miles, so I walked and 
walked and still I couldn’t find a place to sit down. And I walked on and I walked on but I still couldn’t find a place to sit down."

I count any day I discover a new to me writer whose career I want to follow a good day and "Oh Such A Perfect Day" by Paul McCarrick has made my day.  It also, in its amazing entry into the consciousness of a homeless man on the streets of Ireland, should make us all fortunate for what we have.  That being said, the literary world is full of stories about the down and out but few force us to see life from their perspective as well as this story.   The man, some would call him a bum or a tramp, is very reflectively self-conscious.   His life style, we do not know how he got there and it does not seem that he especially hates it, has deprived him a bit of what those who fancy themselves as without issues call sanity.

Wanderers are big in Irish literature, just flash to Waiting for Godot.  Wanderers are often used to express truth those in the full day light do not want to hear.   One thing McCarrick's story does is to force us to see the wanderer is as human as we think ourselves.  We do see the sordidness of his life, how he seems almost invisible to others and how much his life is controlled by his addiction and craving of cigarettes but we see he is also able to experience nature in a deep way.  The wanderer is very perceptive, he knows how others see him.  Maybe one day he will find a home and return to what he once was.  Maybe he will be found dead on the streets and put into an unmarked pauper's grave. 
Either way we knew him just a little bit.

This is a really well done story and I hope to read more work by Paul McCarrick.  It was originally published in Abandoned Darlings, an anthology of works by the members of the 2011-2012 NUI Galway MA Program in creative writing.

Author Data

Paul McCarrick is a writer from Athlone, Co. Westmeath.

In 2012, he completed the MA in Writing at NUI, Galway. In March of the same year, his play ‘Third Time Lucky’ was part of the Jerome Hynes One Act Play Series and won Best Production and Best Director (Mary Conroy). It was also featured in the Galway Fringe Festival that summer and also played in Corcadorca’s Festival Nights as part of Cork’s Midsummer Festival.

His short fiction, “Oh, What a  Perfect Day”, and his poem, “You’ve Done It Again, Athlone” appeared in “Abandoned Darlings”, an anthology of work from the MA in Writing 2011/12 class collection.
Another poem, “Make Mine A Double Turn Swing Dip Thing Hey!”, will appear in ROPES Literary Journal later in 2013.

He bases himself around Galway, working through short stories, poetry and theatrical pieces, as well as touching up his novel with the working title of “Happy-Cry With My Brilliant Life.”

Paul has kindly agreed to participate in a Q & A Session so please look forward to that.

Mel u

Abandoned Darlings edited by Maya Cannon

Irish Short Story Week Year 3

March 1 to March 31

Works by members of  MA Writing 2011-2012 at the National University of Ireland Galway.

Abandoned Darlings, edited by Moya Cannon (2012) is an anthology of short stories and poetry by members of the MA in writing class at the National University of Ireland Galway, 2011 to 2012.  I have never been to Galway but I know for a city of under 100,000 people it has produced more great writers than many a city with over five million people.     

There are lots of poems in the collection, I  liked all of them. I do not see much point in posting on short poems one at a time. I think the best way for me to impart a feel for this very exciting collection is to post a bit about some of the stories that particularly struck me.  

Robert Higgins seems to me a writer of extreme talent who was able to create two very well developed worlds in his stories in the collection.  Both deal with young people in very difficult situations, situations made worse by drinking.  Declan Kiberd in his great book, Inventing Ireland:  The Literature of the Modern Nation, says one of the core themes of Irish literature is the consequences of the weakness or absence of the father in modern Irish society and both of Higgins' stories directly face this issue without blinking.  

Of his two stories, if I had to pick a favorite, it would be "Copper".  This story is told in the first person by a young woman, late teens or early twenties it seems, who is in a relationship with the worse kind of man, a thief, a drunk, a drug user who abuses her and puts his friends above her. She left her mother's home to live with him, he goes by the name of "Chicken" and she has not seen her mother in a year. Chicken and his mate make their money by going into vacant houses and buildings and stealing all the copper wiring so they can sell it. I imagined people coming home to see all the wiring, even their water heater, stolen from their house! Higgins does a great job of letting us be there for the robbery. There is a lot of plot action in this wonderful story. The girl reunites with her mother and she does something big at the end and we are left hoping for the best for her.  I will not tell more of the plot but Higgins made this very real for me. There is a great feeling of sadness hanging over this poignant story.

Trish Finnan has contributed two very interesting short stories to the collection. I admit when I read them the first time I was reminded of the style of A A. Milne. Both of the stories center on Susie, who seems like a young child living in a rural setting. As there are hares and honey beehives in the story it certainly would not make sense set in a mega-city environment. I also think, though I have not researched it, that the word "hare" is falling into arcane status, and the usage of the term gives the stories an old fashioned tales from the hedgerows feeling.  Of her two stories, I think my favorite is "Susie on the Mountain".  

In "Susie on the Mountain" we find out that Susie likes to go exploring in the mountains near her house. She has been told it is not advisable to tramp in the woods when the mist is up but she has met a hare who will guide her. She and the hare have some interesting philosophical conversations, now are we in the world of the wonderland. The hare gives her guru-like advice such as "Your doubt is a kind of precaution against disappointment or fear of disappointment but your excitement has no precaution in it. The two are like a balance, a pair of scales".  OK, our hare has read a few koans. This is a very interesting story and I greatly enjoyed the conversations with the hare.  I liked how Susie's perception of the hare changed as she got to know him more and how, still staying in a young mind, tried to understand what he was saying. This is a first-rate interesting and entertaining story.

"The First Man in Space" by Mark Ryan is about two Irishmen working on upgrading the Delta Airlines Transit Lounge in the  Moscow airport. The Irishmen have formed a bond in their efforts to cope with the violent, horribly cold city of Moscow.   One of the ways they cope is with drinking and hanging out in hooker bars. As the story opens they are riding in taxi when men with automatic rifles stop the cab at a check point. The driver panicks and scream out "Mafia" and the Irishmen take off running; they hear shots.  When they get back to the work site everybody has an idea as to what went down. Some people think it was the Russian army who took the Irishmen for deserters.   

"I won't abandon you until
I am done with you"
Carmilla

There is a young man of eighteen and an older fellow, who is trying to help him cope with Moscow.   Heavy supplies of Guinness are part of the coping strategy.  They have even found an Irish bar in Moscow, one with lots of pretty young girls, most all hookers run by the mob. The young man is not used to strange girls sliding their hands up his thigh and flattering his good Irish looks.   

Welcome-
Rory

Ryan does a very good job in just a few pages of showing us how the Irish workers live, how they cope with the very foreign, very cold, very lonely environment. They are supposed to stay in a compound set up for non-Russian workers but they have learned how to sneak out, they are so bored and unhappy.     

"The First Man in Space" by Mark Ryan really brings us into the world of Irish workers in Moscow.   It is very much a work of in the tradition of hard boiled Irish noir.

Hi, glad to see you-
Ruprecht

"Death Road" by John Duffy was one of my favorites in the collection.  You might have seen a National Geographic Channel program about the terribly dangerous road through the Andes in Bolivia that the narrator in this story crosses in a bus ride sure to scare anyone out of their wits who is not from there. The first person speaker is an Irishman out for an adventure in the wilds of South America and he happens to hook up with a beautiful and delightful sounding "French girl of Lebanese extraction".   Some cynics say the reason the English conquered India was because they could do things and have adventures there that they could never do at home. I think that is part of the deeper theme of this very interesting, marvelously cinematic story.   

The best part of the story is the wonderful account of the bus trip and the descriptions of the Bolivian Indian women in their bowler hats. I think one think also sought in this great work is a contact with a wilder, darker, more dangerous beauty than Ireland can provide the narrator. Duffy has another story in the collection, "Frightened Hen" and I liked it a lot also. 

"Crossing the Dunes" by Ruth Quinlan is a beautiful work that in just a few words makes us feel the immense pain the death of her father causes a woman.  One of the things I really liked about this work was how the later part of the work forced you to rethink your reading of the first part and in so doing made you see the sad beauty of the Irish countryside. As I read it I was brought to mind of "Elegy Written in A Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray.  The narrator of this story walks along dunes along the Atlantic, near the great cliffs of the shores of the West of Ireland.   She, I am just assuming the narrator is female, recalls a man who once walked the dunes with her.  The woman is walking barefoot among the stones, she wants to feel pain to be sure she is still alive, she wants to feel the cold of the ocean, maybe she wants physical pain to over-mask her heartbreak.  

This story is only two pages, and, just as I would not try to "sum" up Gray's magnificent poem, I will let you discover this for yourself.  It really must be read several times so you can fully picture the whole the story in your mind and see how the parts connect.  This is a wonderful, very moving story that speaks with the verisimilitude of lived pain which may show the beginning of real wisdom. Quinlan has another longer story in the collection, "Moon-Kite" that I also loved

This book is a wonderful introduction to brand new Irish short fiction and it gave me a strong sense that the Irish will continue to uphold the tradition of being the greatest short-story writers in the world. There are 14 stories in all in the collection as well as lots of wonderful poems so it is good value. I have not commented on the poems as my knowledge of contemporary poetry is not great but I totally relished all of the selections.

You can find more information on the book on Amazon.

Here is the publisher's description:

Abandoned Darlings is a collection of poetry and prose from thirteen members of the MA in Writing 2011-2012 at the National University of Galway, Ireland. They are Megan Barr, Laura Caffrey, John Duffy, Fiona Farrelly, Trish Finnan, Eric Hanley, Robert Higgins, Helena Kilty, Paul McCarrick, Ruth Quinlan, Mark Ryan, Olivia Snider, and Christian Wallace. 

It is a rich collection of work, as diverse as its individual contributors. The writing takes us from the dust bowls, urban landscapes, and lakeshores of North America, across the searing cold of the Russian winter and the treacherous roads of South America to the wind-lashed Atlantic coast and boggy midlands of Ireland; from the darker aspects of what drives us to the start emptiness of loss and the enduring strength of family bonds. 

Within these poems and stories lies not only immediate satisfaction for the reader, but also a tantalizing glimpse of future promise.

Abandoned Darlings has my complete endorsement.  As a side benefit, it will also, if you like, give you an insight into some writers whose careers you might enjoy seeing develop.   

Mel u

"Crossing the Dunes" by Ruth Quinlan

"Crossing the Dunes" by Ruth Quinlan (2012, 2 pages)

A Collection of Poetry and Prose from the 2011-2012

National University of Ireland at Galway MA in Writing Class

Edited by Maya Cannon

Ruth Quinlan

My Prior Posts on stories from Abandoned Darlings

"The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes,The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes"  Thomas Gray

Not long ago I read and posted on all of the short stories in 30 Under 30:  A Selection of Short Stories by Thirty Young Irish Writers edited by Elizabeth Reapy.  One of the very big benefits to me, aside from the pleasure of reading some great stories, is that it created a base of young Irish writers whose careers I could begin to follow.    My thinking was if this is done for a relatively long time you could develop a sense of the way modern Irish literary culture works and I could see how writers develop themselves or how they abandon their craft.   

Abandoned Darlings, edited by Maya Cannon (2012) is an anthology of short stories and poetry by the MA in writing class at National University of Ireland at Galway.  I have never been to Galway but I know for a city of under 100,000 people it has produced more great writers than many a city with over five million people.  You can find  countries with a population of over 100,000,000 million whose literary output would be put to shame by Galway writers.  I will review and post one at a time on all of the short stories in the collection, fourteen in my quick count.

 I do not especially like posts on anthologies of short stories that just rave on about them in general.  When I visit a forest I do not just like to see the trees, I like to see the moss that grows on them, the vines that climb them and listen to the birds that make them their home.  I like to peel the bar from the trees to see the insects that bore into the trees, I like to study their roots. Sometimes I like to climb to the top of the trees and survey the environment   once in a while I build a tree house and stay awhile.    I  prefer to post on short stories one at a time rather than generalize about a collection.


There are lots of poems in the collection, I have already read several.  I liked them all.  I have posted on collections of Eastern European poetry but generally speaking I do see much point in posting on short poems one at a time.   The only poets I have read extensively are Yeats and Whitman.  I have read broadly in older English language poetry but not much contemporary work.    I will thus be posting only on the short stories in the collection.  

"Crossing the Dunes" by Ruth Quinlan is a beautiful work that in just a few words makes us feel the immense pain the death of her father causes a woman.    One of the things I really liked about this work was how the later part of the work forced you to rethink your reading of the first part and in so doing made you see the sad beauty of the Irish countryside.   As I read it I was brought to mind "Elegy Written in A Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray.  The narrator of this story walks along dunes along the Atlantic, near the great cliffs of the shores of the West of Ireland.   She, I am just assuming the narrator is female, recalls a man who once walked the dunes with her.  The woman is walking barefoot among the stones, she wants to feel pain to be sure she is still alive, she wants to feel the cold of the ocean, maybe she wants physical pain to over-mask her heartbreak.  

This story is only two pages, just as I would not try to "sum" up Gray's magnificent poem, I will let you discover this for yourself.  It really must be read several times so you can fully whole the story in your mind and she how the parts connect.  This is a wonderful very moving story that speaks with the verisimilitude of lived pain which may show the beginning of real wisdom.

Quinlan has another longer story in the collection, "Moon-Kite" and I will post on it soon.

I will follow her writing career as best I can from the other side of the world.

Author Data

Ruth Quinlan is from Tralee, County Kerry. She worked in IT before taking a break in 2011 to try and scratch the writing itch and she has just completed the MA in Writing at NUI Galway. She was shortlisted for the 2012 Cúirt New Writing fiction prize and longlisted for the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition. Her work has been published by Emerge Literary Journal,Thresholds, SIN, Scissors and Spackle and as part of the current Irish Independent Hennessy New Irish Writing series. She has also recently contributed towards two group anthologies, Abandoned Darlings (fiction) and Wayword Tuesdays (poetry).

She blogs here.    She talks about the personal genesis of "Crossing the Dunes" and I suggest you read it after you have read the story at least twice.  

"Death Road" by John Duffy

"Death Road" by John Duffy (2012, 6 pages)

A Collection of Poetry and Prose from the 2011-2012

National University of Ireland at Galway MA in Writing Class

Edited by Maya Cannon

/

John Duffy

My Prior Posts on stories from Abandoned Darlings

Not long ago I read and posted on all of the short stories in 30 Under 30:  A Selection of Short Stories by Thirty Young Irish Writers edited by Elizabeth Reapy.  One of the very big benefits to me, aside from the pleasure of reading some great stories, is that it created a base of young Irish writers whose careers I could begin to follow.    My thinking was if this is done for a relatively long time you could develop a sense of the way modern Irish literary culture works and I could see how writers develop themselves or how they abandon their craft.   

Abandoned Darlings, edited by Maya Cannon (2012) is an anthology of short stories and poetry by the MA in writing class at National University of Ireland at Galway.  I have never been to Galway but I know for a city of under 100,000 people it has produced more great writers than many a city with over five million people.  You can find  countries with a population of over 100,000,000 million whose literary output would be put to shame by Galway writers.  I will review and post one at a time on all of the short stories in the collection, fourteen in my quick count.

 I do not especially like posts on anthologies of short stories that just rave on about them in general.  When I visit a forest I do not just like to see the trees, I like to see the moss that grows on them, the vines that climb them and listen to the birds that make them their home.  I like to peel the bar from the trees to see the insects that bore into the trees, I like to study their roots. Sometimes I like to climb to the top of the trees and survey the environment   once in a while I build a tree house and stay awhile.    I  prefer to post on short stories one at a time rather than generalize about a collection.


There are lots of poems in the collection, I have already read several.  I liked them all.  I have posted on collections of Eastern European poetry but generally speaking I do see much point in posting on short poems one at a time.   The only poets I have read extensively are Yeats and Whitman.   I will thus be posting only on the short stories in the collection.  

You might have seen a National Geographic Channel program about the terribly dangerous road through the Andes in Bolivia that the narrator in this story crosses in a bus ride sure to scare anyone out of their wits who is not from there.   The first person speaker is an Irishman out for an adventure in the wilds of South America and he happens to hook up with a beautiful and delightful sounding "French girl of Lebanese extraction".   Some cynics say the reason the English conquered India was because they could do things and have adventures there that they could never do at home.   I think that is part of the deeper theme of this very interesting marvelously cinematic story.    As I read the account of the bus trip on the world's most dangerous road, the slightest miss turn takes the bus over a cliff and the chickens on the bus I thought of the pretty scary and dangerous cross island buses of the Philippines.  

I was able to pretty directly relate to this story as I have also traveled in the back roads of Latin America on roads not much better than the one talked about in this story.

The best part of the story is the wonderful account of the bus trip and the descriptions of the Bolivian Indian women in their bowler hats.   Their description reminded me very much of experiences I have had in the highland of Guatemala, often considered the most beautiful place in the world.

I think one think also sought in this great work is a contact with a wilder, darker, more dangerous beauty than Ireland can provide the narrator.  

Duffy has another story in the collection, "Frightened Hen" and I liked it a lot also.  

Author Data

John grew up in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland.  He graduated from the National University of Ireland Galway in 2011 with a Bachelor's degree.  His writing career has included poems, short  fiction and travel writing.  He draws his inspiration from the landscape and people of West Ireland.  He is currently working on a collection of short stories.

I hope to one day post on a collection of short stories by John Duffy and will follow his career as best I can from the other side of the world.


Mel u

"The First Man in Space" by Mark Ryan

"The First Man in Space" by Mark Ryan  (2012, 5 pages)

A Reading Life Project

A Collection of Poetry and Prose from the 2011-2012

National University of Ireland at Galway MA in Writing Class

Edited by Maya Cannon

/

Mark Ryan

My Prior Posts on stories from Abandoned Darlings

"And Mulloch the Older began to snore, as if he were in bed in their room at the dingy hotel, filled with Irish tradesmen and laborers  Russian truckers and whores, while the cockroaches climbed all over the squat toilet in utter darkness'"

Not long ago I read and posted on all of the short stories in 30 Under 30:  A Selection of Short Stories by Thirty Young Irish Writers edited by Elizabeth Reapy.  One of the very big benefits to me, aside from the pleasure of reading some great stories, is that it created a base of young Irish writers whose careers I could begin to follow.    My thinking was if this is done for a relatively long time you could develop a sense of the way modern Irish literary culture works and I could see how writers develop themselves or how they abandon their craft.   

Abandoned Darlings, edited by Maya Cannon (2012) is an anthology of short stories and poetry by the MA in writing class at National University of Ireland at Galway.  I have never been to Galway but I know for a city of under 100,000 people it has produced more great writers than many a city with over five million people.  You can find  countries with a population of over 100,000,000 million whose literary output would be put to shame by Galway writers.  I will review and post one at a time on all of the short stories in the collection, fourteen in my quick count.

 I do not especially like posts on anthologies of short stories that just rave on about them in general.  When I visit a forest I do not just like to see the trees, I like to see the moss that grows on them, the vines that climb them and listen to the birds that make them their home.  I like to peel the bar from the trees to see the insects that bore into the trees, I like to study their roots. Sometimes I like to climb to the top of the trees and survey the environment   once in a while I build a tree house and stay awhile.    I  prefer to post on short stories one at a time rather than generalize about a collection.


There are lots of poems in the collection, I have already read several.  I liked them all.  I have posted on collections of Eastern European poetry but generally speaking I do see much point in posting on short poems one at a time.   The only poets I have read extensively are Yeats and Whitman.   I will thus be posting only on the short stories in the collection.  

"The First Man in Space" by Mark Ryan  is a about two Irishmen working on upgrading the Delta Airlines Transit Lounge in the  Moscow airport.    The Irishmen have formed a bond in their efforts to cope with the violent horribly cold city of Moscow.   One of the ways they cope is with drinking and hanging out in hooker bars.   As the story opens they are riding in taxi when men with automatic rifles stop the cab at a check point.   The driver panicked and scream out "Mafia" and the Irishmen take off running, they hear shots.  When they get back to the work site everybody has an idea as to what went down.   Some people think it was the Russian army who took the Irishmen for deserters.   

There is a young man of eighteen and  older fellow, who is trying to help him cope with Moscow.   Heavy supplies of Guinness are part of the coping strategy.  They have even found an Irish bar in Moscow, one with lots of pretty young girls, most all hookers run by the mob.   The young man was not used to strange girls sliding their hands up his thigh and flattering his good Irish looks.   

Ryan does a very good job in just a few pages of showing us how the Irish workers live, how they cope with the very foreign very cold very lonely environment.  They are supposed to stay in a compound set up for non-Russian workers but they have learned how to sneak out, they are so bored and unhappy.     

"The First Man in Space" by Mark Ryan really brings us into the world of Irish workers in Moscow.   It is very much a work of in the tradition of hard boiled Irish noir.

I would gladly read more of his Ryan's  and would like to return to Ireland with the central characters of this story.

Author Data

Mark is from west Clare in Ireland.  In 2006 one of his short stories was published in The Sunday Tribune and short listed for a Hennessay literary award.  He has published highly regarded poems, acted in a film and is working on a novel.  

He has a blog here, it is just in the opening stages of development.

Mel u

Trish Finnan Two Short Stories from Abandoned Darlings

"Susie on the Mountain"  (2012, 4 pages)
"Susie and the Glass Honey Jar" (2012, 2 pages)

A Reading Life Project

A Collection of Poetry and Prose from the 2011-2012

National University of Ireland at Galway MA in Writing Class

Edited by Maya Cannon

/

Trish Finnan

My Prior Posts on stories from Abandoned Darlings

"Susie's house is surrounded by mountains and she likes to hike in them."

Not long ago I read and posted on all of the short stories in 30 Under 30:  A Selection of Short Stories by Thirty Young Irish Writers edited by Elizabeth Reapy.  One of the very big benefits to me, aside from the pleasure of reading some great stories, is that it created a base of young Irish writers whose careers I could begin to follow.    My thinking was if this is done for a relatively long time you could develop a sense of the way modern Irish literary culture works and I could see how writers develop themselves or how they abandon their craft.   

Abandoned Darlings, edited by Maya Cannon (2012) is an anthology of short stories and poetry by the MA in writing class at National University of Ireland at Galway.  I have never been to Galway but I know for a city of under 100,000 people it has produced more great writers than many a city with over five million people.  You can find  countries with a population of over 100,000,000 million whose literary output would be put to shame by Galway writers.  I will review and post one at a time on all of the short stories in the collection, fourteen in my quick count.

 I do not especially like posts on anthologies of short stories that just rave on about them in general.  When I visit a forest I do not just like to see the trees, I like to see the moss that grows on them, the vines that climb them and listen to the birds that make them their home.  I like to peel the bar from the trees to see the insects that bore into the trees, I like to study their roots.   I  prefer to post on short stories one at a time rather than generalize about a collection.


There are lots of poems in the collection, I have already read several.  I liked them all.  I have posted on collections of Eastern European poetry but generally speaking I do see much point in posting on short poems one at a time.   The only poets I have read extensively are Yeats and Whitman.   I will thus be posting only on the short stories in the collection.  

Trish Finnan has contributed two very interesting short stories to the collection.   I admit when I read them the first time I was reminded of the style of A A. Milne.  Both of the stories center on Susie, who seems like a young child living in a rural setting.  As there are hares and honey beehives in the story it certainly would not make sense set in a mega-city environment.   I also think, though I have not researched it, that the word "hare" is falling into arcane status, and the usage of the term gives the stories and old fashioned tales from the hedgerows feeling.   (I did ask my fourteen year old daughter whose first language is not English and she did know what it meant.)



In "Susie on the Mountain" we find out that Susie likes to go exploring in the mountains near her house.   She has been told it is not advisable to tramp in the woods when the mist is up but she has met a hare who will guide her.   She and the hare have some interesting philosophical conversations, now are we in the world of the wonderland.   The hare gives her guru like advise such as "Your doubt is a kind of precaution against disappointment or fear of disappointment but your excitement has no precaution in it.   The two are like a balance, a pair of scales".   OK our hare has read a few koans.  This is a very interesting story and I greatly enjoyed the conversations with the hare.  I liked how Susie's perception of the hare changed as she got to know him more and how, still staying in a young mind, tried to understand what he was saying.  This is a first rate interesting and entertaining story.



"What is the opposite of worry?' the honeybee asks her.  Susie wrinkles her brow and considers all the possibilities:  courage, fearlessness, and then it comes to her.  'It must be life',
Susie says.  The Honeybee smiles at her reply"

"Susie and the Giant Honey Jar" seems to be a child's story but it would be a wise child, and there are many such persons, would have to think to understand its meaning.   In this story Susie gets in a conversation with a honeybee, a sadly endangered species.  Just like in the first story, Susie gets into a Zen puzzle like conversation with the honeybee from which both parties derive edification.  This was fun to read and shows a lot of talent.

I enjoyed both of these stories a lot and would for sure read more about the adventures of Susie.   

You can learn more about Abandoned Darlings on their Facebook page.

I will next post on a story by Mark Ryder.

Mel u

Two Short Stories by Robert Higgins from Abandoned Darlings

"Copper" (2012, 5 pages)
"Fall"  (2012, 5 pages)

A Reading Life Project

A Collection of Poetry and Prose from the 2011-2012

National University of Ireland at Galway MA in Writing Class

Edited by Maya Cannon

/

Robert Higgins

Not long ago I read and posted on all of the short stories in 30 Under 30:  A Selection of Short Stories by Thirty Young Irish Writers edited by Elizabeth Reapy.  One of the very big benefits to me, aside from the pleasure of reading some great stories, is that it created a base of young Irish writers whose careers I could begin to follow.    My thinking was if this is done for a relatively long time you could develop a sense of the way modern Irish literary culture works and I could see how writers develop themselves or how they abandon their craft.   

Abandoned Darlings, edited by Maya Cannon (2012) is an anthology of short stories and poetry by the MA in writing class at National University of Ireland at Galway.  I have never been to Galway but I know for a city of under 100,000 people it has produced more great writers than many a city with over five million people.  You can find  countries with a population of over 100,000,000 million whose literary output would be put to shame by Galway writers.  I will review and post one at a time on all of the short stories in the collection, fourteen in my quick count.  I do not especially like posts on anthologies of short stories that just rave on about them in general.  When I visit a forest I do not just like to see the trees, I like to see the moss that grows on them, the vines that climb them and listen to the birds that make them their home.
There are lots of poems in the collection, I have already read several.  I liked them all.  I have posted on collections of Eastern European poetry but generally speaking I do see much point in posting on short poems one at a time.   The only poets I have read extensively are Yeats and Whitman.   I will thus be posting only on the short stories in the collection.  

Robert Higgins seems to me a writer of extreme talent who was able to create two very well developed worlds in his stories in the collection.  Both deal with young people in very difficult situations, situations made worse by drinking.   Declan Kiberd in his great book, Inventing Ireland:  The Literature of the Modern Nation, says one of the core themes of Irish literature is the consequences of the weakness or absence of the father in modern Irish society and both of Higgins' stories directly face this issue without blinking.  

Of his two stories, if I had to pick a favorite, it would be "Cooper".  This story is told in the first person by a young woman, late teen or early twenties it seems, who is in a relationship with the worse kind of man, a thief, a drunk, a drug user who abuses her and puts his friends above her. She left her mother's home to live with him, he goes by the name of "Chicken" and she has not seen her mother in a year.   Chicken and his mate make their money by going into vacant houses and buildings and stealing all the copper wiring so they can sell it.   I imagined people coming home to see all the wiring, even their water heater, stolen from their house!  Higgins does a great job of letting us be there for the robbery.   There is a lot of plot action in this wonderful story.  The girl reunites with her mother and she does something big at the end and we are left hoping for the best for her.   I will not tell more of the plot but Higgins made this very real for me.   There is a great feeling of sadness hanging over this poignant story.

"Fall" deals directly with the issue of the consequences to the lives of children brought about by  a weak father.   In this story there are two central characters, a young man, mid-teens I guess and his father.   The man's wife died not to long ago and the man never recovered.   Like the prior story, heavy use of alcohol plays a big part in this story.  One day the boy comes home and sees his father has blood on his head.  Of course the boy says "what happened" and the man tells him he thinks maybe he had a stroke and he fell over.   Alarmed the boy drags him to the doctor.   I will not spoil this deeply moving story for first time readers but it will for sure make you think, especially if there is any history of drinking as a way of coping with grief in your past or family.

I look forward to reading more work by Robert Higgins.

Author Data (from Abandoned Darlings)

Robert Higgins is from Granard, County Longford, Ireland and moved to Galway after completing his secondary education.    He has long had a passion for writing and 2011 decided he wanted to devote himself fully to writing and began the MA in writing program at NUIG.  

You can learn more about the collection here.  They also have a Facebook page.

I would suggest to all the writers in this collection, and to any aspiring writer, start a webpage or blog so people interested in your work can learn more about you.  

I look forward to reading the short stories in this exciting collection and learn about more very promising writers, like Robert Higgins, whose career I will try to follow, as best I can from the other side of the world.

Mel u