Kennedy's writing is very fluid and evocative, but every single one of these stories had the exact same tone, and it was a depressing one. ( )

After loving Louise Kennedy's fine novel, I was eager to read her short story collection. Kennedy's short stories have a melancholic feel to them and concern themselves with relationships, between spouses, between relatives, between lovers, or the aftermath of those relationships. These are not people who are thriving, but who are frustrated, or sad or simply trying to get through each day. They are beautifully told and there are few writers who can bring to life fully realized settings and situations in just a few sentences. ( )

I have read several of Kevin Barry’s short story collections in the last couple of years, but these are altogether rawer Irish stories.
I am thinking that the titular story is the finest, but they’re all fine, and generally make for fairly bleak writing. The last story, Garland Sunday, packs a punch too.
I’m British, so the history underlying the stories is familiar to me and the occasional Irish words are readily understandable from their context, if I didn’t already know them. ( )

I purchased this book in a quaint little book shop hidden along the cobbled streets of Dublin. However, my first interaction with this book was in the gift shop within the Irish National Gallery Museum. The description of the book drew me in with its various gritty stories and Irish culture, however when I started to read I found it quite difficult to grasp the concept of each story being so short. It almost makes each story seem as though its not that important?! ( )

Louise Kennedy is a new writer from N. Ireland, and this is her first collection of short stories. The various plaudits people have used for this collection include words like 'visceral', 'fierce' and 'brutal'. Hmmm. I don't know about that. I'd sum it up as a collection of stories about various disappointed women and their various disappointing men. With weed. Lots and lots of weed and the odd bit of coke thrown in for good measure.

I really hope Louise Kennedy hasn't drawn on her own life as inspiration for these stories, as this is seriously glass half empty territory with bleak, shattered women leading desperately sh*tty lives with some really pretty terrible blokes.

I think the (im)maturity of her writing showed through in many places in these stories; over-describing of characters and a sense of trying-too-hard in many of them. (And too much weed). That said, read independently some of the stories weren't bad, but read as a collection it enters pass the Prozac territory.

3 stars - this writer has potential, but she needs to work on her current formulaic style. ( )