"Winter" by Dermot Bolger

"Winter" by Dermot Bolger (2003, 20 pages)

Irish Short Story Month

March 1 to March 31

Dermot Bolger

Dublin

"The responsibility for their care was the only thing that kept her going."-referring to her cats

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One of the themes I have found very often is the Irish short story is a detailing of how people somehow will themselves to accept less and less as life progresses and to allow circumstances, obligation, and guilt to eliminate any hope of happiness in their lives.  



"Winter" by Dermot Bolger (1959, Dublin) is the life story of a now very old woman living in a broken down old house in rural Ireland.   We see her enter marriage with guarded hopes for happiness.  The story starts with the woman moving back into a house she had lived in twice before in her thirty five years.  The first time was when she married, her husband wanted to turn the house into a shooting retreat.  In one very sad and deeply knowing scene the father is teaching his young son to hunt and on the very first shot the kills a rabbit.  The father rushes of to tell his mates of the wonderful manly prowess shown by his son while the son cries, being comforted by his mother, over this act of cruelty.  One of the dominant themes of Irish literature is that of the weak or absent father, I learned this first from Declain Kiberd's great book, Inventing Ireland:  The Literature of the Century and I see it for sure in countess stories and novels.  This is partially, maybe largely, a legacy of colonialism.   "Winter" is for sure a study in that theme.   When the son becomes an adult and is gay the father disowns him and his wife.  

The story follows the life of the wife.  She is a very loving person.  When she hears her husband, dead now, is very sick she returns from England to nurse him even though he tells her she will get nothing from him.   One of her daughters marries a rich coffee planter and moves to Kenya.   She has a granddaughter through her she does not see until her daughter kills herself.  She had also, following in the patterns she had learned, had married an abusive man.   

The woman's life is full of tragedy and heartbreak.  As it reaches its end, the only thing that motivates her to keep going is her responsibility to her cats.  I loved the depiction of the relationship of the woman to her cats.  

This is a great short story. The prose is exquiste.   It is the first work by Dermot Bolger I have read.

Born in Dublin in 1959, the poet, playwright and novelist Dermot Bolger has also worked as a factory hand, library assistant and publisher.

He is the author of nine novels, Night Shift, The Woman’s Daughter, The Journey Home, Emily’s Shoes , A Second Life,Temptation, The Valparaiso Voyage and most recently The Family on Paradise Pier

 You can find more about his work on his very interesting webpage 

For sure I hope to read more of his work soon.

I read this in The Anchor Book of New Irish Stories.