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erin_reads_all_the_books's review
3.0
I'm kind of on the fence about this book. They were decent enough stories, but I don't think they'll stay with me once I close the book...
elenasquareeyes's review against another edition
5.0
A collection of eleven short stories of childhood, adolescence and motherhood.
I’ve read a few short story collections for my Read the World Project (I find them to be a good way to gain an insight into a writer’s country and its people, and they’re also usual a quick read) but I’ve never had as much of a visceral reaction to a short story collection as I did with Lucy Caldwell’s Multitudes.
Each story ranges from 10 – 25 pages, some are in second person but most of them are in first person, and each story is about a female character. Each story is about a young girl, or a teenager, or a mother, and they’re each like a little snapshot in a moment of their lives. I think my favourites were “Thirteen”, “Through the Wardrobe” and “Inextinguishable”. In “Thirteen” a young teenager has to deal with her best friend moving to London, how they first of all write multiple letters to one another each week but slowly the letters stop being written. “Through the Wardrobe” is about a young trans girl figuring out why she feels sick when her older sisters are given Disney princess dresses for Christmas while she’s given a Peter Pan outfit. “Inextinguishable” is about a mother grieving for her daughter and finding some form of release in the music her daughter loved.
There are stories that feel very true to life. One story has a teenage girl being sexually harassed without really knowing what was happening, another story is about a teenager fantasizing about her teacher, or another feeling hollow and helpless.
Each story is powerful and compelling in its own way. They are stories about first loves, sexual desire and romance, but they are also about friendship, growing up and family. Some stories are sad, some are hopeful, while others are almost nostalgic and melancholy.
Caldwell really captured the mindset of young children, the pain of adolescence, and (I presume) the terrifying reality of being a parent. While I might not have been in some of the exact situations as the female characters in these stories, I remember idolising a baby sitter, losing touch with friends, and having a whole lot of feelings inside that I didn’t know what to do with. Each of the female characters felt so honest, true and relatable and that was down to the brilliant writing Multitudes is fantastic short story collection and I can’t recommend it enough.
I’ve read a few short story collections for my Read the World Project (I find them to be a good way to gain an insight into a writer’s country and its people, and they’re also usual a quick read) but I’ve never had as much of a visceral reaction to a short story collection as I did with Lucy Caldwell’s Multitudes.
Each story ranges from 10 – 25 pages, some are in second person but most of them are in first person, and each story is about a female character. Each story is about a young girl, or a teenager, or a mother, and they’re each like a little snapshot in a moment of their lives. I think my favourites were “Thirteen”, “Through the Wardrobe” and “Inextinguishable”. In “Thirteen” a young teenager has to deal with her best friend moving to London, how they first of all write multiple letters to one another each week but slowly the letters stop being written. “Through the Wardrobe” is about a young trans girl figuring out why she feels sick when her older sisters are given Disney princess dresses for Christmas while she’s given a Peter Pan outfit. “Inextinguishable” is about a mother grieving for her daughter and finding some form of release in the music her daughter loved.
There are stories that feel very true to life. One story has a teenage girl being sexually harassed without really knowing what was happening, another story is about a teenager fantasizing about her teacher, or another feeling hollow and helpless.
Each story is powerful and compelling in its own way. They are stories about first loves, sexual desire and romance, but they are also about friendship, growing up and family. Some stories are sad, some are hopeful, while others are almost nostalgic and melancholy.
Caldwell really captured the mindset of young children, the pain of adolescence, and (I presume) the terrifying reality of being a parent. While I might not have been in some of the exact situations as the female characters in these stories, I remember idolising a baby sitter, losing touch with friends, and having a whole lot of feelings inside that I didn’t know what to do with. Each of the female characters felt so honest, true and relatable and that was down to the brilliant writing Multitudes is fantastic short story collection and I can’t recommend it enough.
5inead's review
5.0
Review originally written for Instagram @5inead or #5ineadReads
Multitudes by Lucy Caldwell is simply beautiful. Eleven stories that explore what it means to grow up. Set largely in Belfast, many of the tribulations felt so familiar and shared that I found myself resting the book to recall my own teens. Caldwell crams so much beauty and emotion into such simple, honest writing.
rodillagrande's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
merryfaith's review
4.0
Good short story collection! My favorites were Poison, Killing Time, and Multitudes.
balancinghistorybooks's review
5.0
I have wanted to read Lucy Caldwell's work for such a long time, and decided to start with her short story collection entitled Multitudes. It has been praised by reviewers and critics alike since its publication in 2016. Eimear McBride comments that these tales are 'beautifully crafted, and so finely balanced that she holds the reader right up against the tender humanity of her characters.' The Scotsman remarks that the collection 'feels like a truly unified work of art.' Caldwell has won numerous awards, and was also shortlisted for the BBC International Short Story Award in 2012.
The eleven stories in Multitudes largely take as their focus childhood and adolescence, and each one contains the concept of growth, rendered in different and interesting ways. The lives which Caldwell captures here are described in the book's blurb as 'caught in transition between the in-crowd and the out, between love and loneliness, between the city and the country, between home and escape.'
I was immediately struck by the way in which Caldwell captures things. In the story 'Thirteen', she writes: 'Susan and I have been best friends since nursery school - since before nursery school, we always say to each other, in actual fact since Mothers and Toddlers in the hall of the Methodist church on the corner where her street meets mine. I don't remember that far back, only vaguely - plastic cups of orange squash and dusty, frilled-edge biscuits, the smell of floor polish - but I can't remember, let alone imagine, life without her.'
Caldwell has such a realistic perception of how spiteful adolescents can be, and how elements of our childhood become inescapable in adulthood. The concerns of her characters, and their actions and reactions, are so human. In 'Poison', the narrator sees, years later, a teacher who caused a scandal at her school; 'Killing Time' presents a sudden impulsive suicide attempt; the narrator of 'Chasing' moves back to their childhood home, and finds very early on that this course of action is 'not the answer'; and a lesbian relationship is hidden from everyone around the protagonist of 'Here We Are'. There is much exploration in Multitudes of female friendships, and the small toxicities which they so often hold. Love, lust, deception, desire, and guilt have all been chosen as major themes in Multitudes.
Caldwell perfectly controls the vividly rendered physical environments of her stories, and often juxtaposes out-of-place characters into them. In 'Poison', for example, she writes: 'She had too much make-up on: huge swipes of blusher, exaggerated cat-eyes. She glanced around the bar, then she took out her phone again, clicked and tapped at it. She wasn't used to being alone in a bar like this. It was an older crowd and she felt self-conscious, you could tell.'
Caldwell creates such empathy for her wholly memorable cast of characters, and deals with a host of very serious subjects along the way. The author has such a knack for writing plausible characters, and I found myself repeatedly unable to guess where the stories would end up. Multitudes is such an absorbing collection of short stories, and one which I savoured. I found myself pulled into each one of the narratives from their very beginnings. Thought-provoking and refreshing, this is a collection which I cannot recommend highly enough, and I am now on the hunt for the rest of Caldwell's books so that I can become absorbed within her writing once more.
The eleven stories in Multitudes largely take as their focus childhood and adolescence, and each one contains the concept of growth, rendered in different and interesting ways. The lives which Caldwell captures here are described in the book's blurb as 'caught in transition between the in-crowd and the out, between love and loneliness, between the city and the country, between home and escape.'
I was immediately struck by the way in which Caldwell captures things. In the story 'Thirteen', she writes: 'Susan and I have been best friends since nursery school - since before nursery school, we always say to each other, in actual fact since Mothers and Toddlers in the hall of the Methodist church on the corner where her street meets mine. I don't remember that far back, only vaguely - plastic cups of orange squash and dusty, frilled-edge biscuits, the smell of floor polish - but I can't remember, let alone imagine, life without her.'
Caldwell has such a realistic perception of how spiteful adolescents can be, and how elements of our childhood become inescapable in adulthood. The concerns of her characters, and their actions and reactions, are so human. In 'Poison', the narrator sees, years later, a teacher who caused a scandal at her school; 'Killing Time' presents a sudden impulsive suicide attempt; the narrator of 'Chasing' moves back to their childhood home, and finds very early on that this course of action is 'not the answer'; and a lesbian relationship is hidden from everyone around the protagonist of 'Here We Are'. There is much exploration in Multitudes of female friendships, and the small toxicities which they so often hold. Love, lust, deception, desire, and guilt have all been chosen as major themes in Multitudes.
Caldwell perfectly controls the vividly rendered physical environments of her stories, and often juxtaposes out-of-place characters into them. In 'Poison', for example, she writes: 'She had too much make-up on: huge swipes of blusher, exaggerated cat-eyes. She glanced around the bar, then she took out her phone again, clicked and tapped at it. She wasn't used to being alone in a bar like this. It was an older crowd and she felt self-conscious, you could tell.'
Caldwell creates such empathy for her wholly memorable cast of characters, and deals with a host of very serious subjects along the way. The author has such a knack for writing plausible characters, and I found myself repeatedly unable to guess where the stories would end up. Multitudes is such an absorbing collection of short stories, and one which I savoured. I found myself pulled into each one of the narratives from their very beginnings. Thought-provoking and refreshing, this is a collection which I cannot recommend highly enough, and I am now on the hunt for the rest of Caldwell's books so that I can become absorbed within her writing once more.
lonesomereader's review
5.0
One of the things I love about the anthology “The Long Gaze Back” (which I read at the end of last year) is how it has tipped me off to so many great writers! I first read Lisa McInerney’s writing here before she won the Baileys Prize this year and I also read Lucy Caldwell’s short story ‘Multitudes’ in this anthology. I was immediately struck by the intense energy and emotion of this tale about the perilous days immediately following a birth when a newborn’s life is in danger because of an unexpected illness. This story has an amazing way of viewing this difficult time period in a broader context through titled segments while also conveying the heartrending fear the new parents felt moment by moment. It suggests the thin, perilous lines between one kind of fate and another in life. ‘Multitudes’ has now become the title story in Lucy Caldwell’s most recent book of short stories. I was delighted to find that the author’s other new fiction in this book expresses an equally exciting rigour and creativity.
Read my full review of Multitudes by Lucy Caldwell on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of Multitudes by Lucy Caldwell on LonesomeReader
jackielaw's review
5.0
Multitudes, by Lucy Caldwell, is a collection of eleven short stories set in Belfast. As a native of the city and a fan of the short story form I approached this book with high expectations. I was not disappointed.
Several of the stories are told from the point of view of a child and the author has captured both the voice and the conflict of feelings at each age perfectly. It is easy to forget how torrid growing up can be: the desperate loneliness, being unable to articulate feelings, the fear of rejection by peers, of disappointing parents. These stories encompass the pain and pleasure of childhood social success and the damage this can cause.
My favourite story in the collection was ‘Through the Wardrobe’, a moving account of a young child uncomfortable in their own skin:
“You are sad. You’re only six years old but you feel sad a lot of the time, a tightness in your chest that you don’t have words for. Your mum says you’re a sensitive child […] she’ll stay till you fall asleep, you’re safe and nothing can hurt you. But it’s not outside you’re scared of. It’s something inside, and you can’t explain it”
Relationships are explored throughout: the pain of parenthood, the pain of being thirteen and friendless is a world that demands all fit in, the conflict when desire clashes with parental expectations.
In ‘Poison’ a pupil is attracted to her teacher with all the intensity that being fifteen entails. In ‘Here We Are’ two pupils find a love that will not be tolerated in a church lead community.
The writing is breathtaking, taut and rich in imagery. Each character demands empathy, even those imprisoned by their upbringing and beliefs.
I urge you to seek out this book. It is a fabulous work, fulfilling and rewarding to read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Faber and Faber.
Several of the stories are told from the point of view of a child and the author has captured both the voice and the conflict of feelings at each age perfectly. It is easy to forget how torrid growing up can be: the desperate loneliness, being unable to articulate feelings, the fear of rejection by peers, of disappointing parents. These stories encompass the pain and pleasure of childhood social success and the damage this can cause.
My favourite story in the collection was ‘Through the Wardrobe’, a moving account of a young child uncomfortable in their own skin:
“You are sad. You’re only six years old but you feel sad a lot of the time, a tightness in your chest that you don’t have words for. Your mum says you’re a sensitive child […] she’ll stay till you fall asleep, you’re safe and nothing can hurt you. But it’s not outside you’re scared of. It’s something inside, and you can’t explain it”
Relationships are explored throughout: the pain of parenthood, the pain of being thirteen and friendless is a world that demands all fit in, the conflict when desire clashes with parental expectations.
In ‘Poison’ a pupil is attracted to her teacher with all the intensity that being fifteen entails. In ‘Here We Are’ two pupils find a love that will not be tolerated in a church lead community.
The writing is breathtaking, taut and rich in imagery. Each character demands empathy, even those imprisoned by their upbringing and beliefs.
I urge you to seek out this book. It is a fabulous work, fulfilling and rewarding to read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Faber and Faber.
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