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