Vincent O'Sullivan.
Published by VUP (2 May, 2014)
This is a very rewarding collection by a
master craftsman. I really liked it. The stories lure you in with no tricks or
artifice, as they gather threads, weave them unobtrusively and create a story
often from almost a moment. All the stories relate in some lovely way to the
title. The way we are within and without our families. They are quietly poignant,
pertinent, impertinent and pithy (isn't he always). I highly recommend it. The front cover is a
sketch of a nest of baby birds with body and beak of a mother bird passing food
to one of her chicks, while the back cover is a large wing as if enclosing the
stories within. I like the symbolism of the cover, but it is very stark, just
black and white and the stories themselves are so much warmer, but yes, it is a
very contemporary look.
The
collection begins 'On a Clear Day', a quiet vignette, told in the first person
by a husband who is musing "about husbands falling out with friends who
become keen on their wives"... and so we hear his story, a nuanced story,
of degrees of fidelity, a blind man and a balancing of scales. The second
story, 'Mrs Bennett and the Bears', I think is my favourite. It's also a quiet
story and barely anything happens, but it captures an unforgettable moment in
an otherwise uneventful life. There's a glimpse into a more contemporary
relationship in 'On another Note', when a professional couple, with busy lives,
attempt a rendezvous in Paris.
Many of
the stories are about mature characters; one is a man dealing with divorce,
seeing his marriage in a new light through his lawyer's eyes, another is Josie,
a widow, interrogating her childless marriage and her relationship with God. There are stories too, of parents challenging
their adult children's expectations. Then there is 'Daddy drops a line', where
a family is left reeling and divided by the final message in a will from their
father. Too, there is a delightful drama over a father misbehaving in a
retirement home. Both of these fathers somehow circumventing 'what's expected'.
And another, about a daughter returning home with a broken heart to her parents
for comfort, to find they have their own secret.
Yes,
the stories are gentle and primarily they are about older lovers and
couples. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed
them so very much. The writing is so good, you feel safe and yet never complacent
or totally certain. I really liked 'Posting', two ageing women chatting in
Kirkcaldies, one of them anxious about ageing, (neenish tarts and salmon
pinwheels in the background) and the to and fro of friendship, the ability to
unsettle with observations that may or may not be shared, the shifting ground
when a friend assumes to know more about your life than you do.
O'Sullivan
uses a similar narrator-style technique to Owen Marshall, where you feel as if
you are being spoken to directly. It's
not an authorial intervention, but more of a tone and an intimacy that is
conjured from the voice of the story-teller.
This is
a great collection and to quote the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature,
'O'Sullivan's stories exhibit a shrewd understanding that pierces to the heart
of what it means to be human'.
Vincent O'Sullivan - photo by Mark Beatty.
About the reviewer:
Maggie Rainey-Smith is a Wellington-based writer and regular fiction reviewer on this blog.
1 comment:
Maggie - you've really hit it!!
Derek Wilshere
Post a Comment