Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Wednesday, March 6, 2013

"Cut You Down Like an Old Oak Tree" by Alice Walsh

"Cut You Down Like an Old Oak Tree" by Alice Walsh  (2012, 5 pages)


March 1 to March 31
Alice Walsh
Cork

Event Resources-Links to lots of short stories, from classics to brand new works.  If you have and questions or suggestions or if you are an author and want to be featured, please feel free to email me.

I first posted on a work of Alice Walsh, "Samhain" during Irish Short Story month last year.

At the end of my post on her work I said I was looking forward to reading more of her work and following the development of her writing career.  In December last year I posted on another one of her short stories, "Downaround".   I really liked this story.        It is about a young woman trying to fit in and survive in a dark poverty ridden town, where the only release from boredom seems to be drinking your self into a coma, using any drugs you can afford, having meaningless sex or just hanging out with your mates.   I was delighted to find  another one of her short stories online, "Cut You Down Like an Old OakTree" as I knew I wanted to include her work in this year's Irish Short Story Month (and I hope to include her in all subsequent events.)

This story is set in a place that reminds me of the town in "Downaround".   It is narrated by a young man just starting the first stirrings of manhood and trying to prove his toughness to his mates by smoking his first cigarette, kind of a rite of passage.   His name is "Patrick" but his close friend Spiggy" calls him "Pussy".   As Patrick smokes the cigarette he is brought to mind of his grandfather who died from lung cancer caused by smoking.   As he smokes, he imagines the cancer being sucked into this body.  Walsh lets is feel the fear and loathing not just of the cigarette but of the culture that makes this a right of passage overtaking him.    

The world of the story is a brutal one.   The people in it use all sorts of abusive expressions to each other and as amplifying adjectives.  It seems almost a sign of manhood to speak in a foul style.  Done right there is a poetry in these obscenities and Walsh has found it for us.  

Spiggy loves it when Patrick get sick from his first smoke and says he cannot wait to tell everybody about him.  He goes on home and his mother has made him his favorite, Shepherd's Pie.

His family is his mother and dad, and his younger brother and sister.  You can tell Patrick wants to be  "mothered" but he knows it is not the way a macho lad is supposed to act.  

One of the themes I am talking about this year is Declan Kiberd's contention that the missing or weak  father is the dominant theme of contemporary Irish literature and this story closes with a beautifully profound illustration of this theme.  I will tell no more of the plot so you can read it with out knowing the close.

I would like to quote a bit from the story to give you a feel for the wonderful prose of Walsh.


"We were doing history. It was the only good thing we ever did because sometimes it was about battles and chieftains and high kings. Mrs O’Boyle was telling us how you can tell how old a tree is by counting its rings when Mr O’Neill walked in and went over to her desk. He held his clip board up so they could talk behind it in whispers. There was no need though because they were talking in Irish and no one understood them anyway. It seemed like it might have been serious. I wasn’t really interested but you could tell some of the girls were. I just looked about the ground of dark carpet and school bags and saw that some of their legs dangled from their chairs but mine didn’t.
Then Mrs O’Boyle said ‘Patrick will you go with Mr O’Neill please?’ When she said Patrick it jolted inside me and made my face hot because I was the only Patrick in the class. I knew I must have been in trouble. Fuck maybe they knew about the smoking. Fucking Spiggy must have been shooting his mouth off."
You can read the story here


Cut You Down Like An Old Oak Tree was short listed for the Fish International Publishing Short Story Prize 2011/2012 and long listed for the Over The Edge New Writer of The Year Award 2011.

Author Data

Founder and Editor of The Bohemyth – Alice Walsh works in the photography industry. In a former life she studied English Literature & Philosophy and American Literature & Film at University College Cork. She is also a librarian – but shhh, don’t tell anyone. Her writings have been published onwordlegs.comroadsidefiction.comthebohemyth.com and podcasts.ie. Her work has been short listed and long listed in various competitions. Doire Press recently published one of her stories as part of the wordlegs 30 Under 30 Anthology. She is currently working on a short story collection.

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