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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
In the vein of authors like Donal Ryan and Lisa McInerney, Colin Barrett has a gift for conjuring quiet scenes from small-town Irish life that bristle with a kind of dormant tension. [b:Young Skins|22571882|Young Skins|Colin Barrett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1423543900s/22571882.jpg|26873253] is a collection of seven short stories that all take place in the same town, and often the same pub, with a few overlapping characters, but which mostly stand on their own. Each story focuses on a male protagonist, usually young, all in some way navigating working class life, post-Ireland's financial collapse.
It's very rare that I give a short story collection 5 stars; it's to be expected that in a collection like this, certain stories are going to shine and certain others are going to fade into the background. Though I loved Barrett's prose throughout, this collection really wasn't an exception to the rule - there are stories I loved and stories I found to be rather forgettable (though thankfully none I outright disliked).
The Clancy Kid was a strong opening, introducing us to the gritty, bleak backdrop of young love turned to heartbreak that characterizes so many of these stories, as well as the kind of violence that permeates male youth culture. Bait is a tricky one; I'd been loving it, up until the very end where it takes an... incongruously supernatural(?) turn that I still haven't fully made sense of. (If you've read this story, please tell me your thoughts on the ending.)
The Moon didn't leave much of an impression on me, though this is where Barrett states a lot of the collection's thematic conceits rather plainly, which makes it a solid addition (a young, flighty woman says to our protagonist at one point "Galway's not that far[,] but it might as well be the moon for people like you.") And I thought Stand Your Skin was maybe too thematically similar to The Moon, though Stand Your Skin is the one I preferred.
Calm With Horses, the collection's magnum opus, is more of a novella than a short story, nearing 100 pages. In my opinion this story stands head and shoulders above the rest, and it's not just because of its length. I think this is where Barrett is able to really stretch his legs and show us what he's capable of. Various characters and subplots weave in an out of this one and all dovetail in a satisfying, heart-rending conclusion. I really hope Barrett has a novel in the works.
Diamonds I think is solidly the weakest story that doesn't offer much that we can't already find elsewhere. And Kindly Forget My Existence is a fitting ending, where Barrett eschews his young protagonists in favor of two middle aged men who sit down at a pub and discuss their own youth.
So, as with most short story collections, a mixed bag, but it's worth the price of admission for the stunningly tragic Calm With Horses alone, and the rest of the stories mostly hold their own as well. Dismal and hopeless as this collection is on the whole, there's an assured beauty to Barrett's prose that I found very striking, especially for a debut, and I can't wait to see what he does next.
It's very rare that I give a short story collection 5 stars; it's to be expected that in a collection like this, certain stories are going to shine and certain others are going to fade into the background. Though I loved Barrett's prose throughout, this collection really wasn't an exception to the rule - there are stories I loved and stories I found to be rather forgettable (though thankfully none I outright disliked).
The Clancy Kid was a strong opening, introducing us to the gritty, bleak backdrop of young love turned to heartbreak that characterizes so many of these stories, as well as the kind of violence that permeates male youth culture. Bait is a tricky one; I'd been loving it, up until the very end where it takes an... incongruously supernatural(?) turn that I still haven't fully made sense of. (If you've read this story, please tell me your thoughts on the ending.)
The Moon didn't leave much of an impression on me, though this is where Barrett states a lot of the collection's thematic conceits rather plainly, which makes it a solid addition (a young, flighty woman says to our protagonist at one point "Galway's not that far[,] but it might as well be the moon for people like you.") And I thought Stand Your Skin was maybe too thematically similar to The Moon, though Stand Your Skin is the one I preferred.
Calm With Horses, the collection's magnum opus, is more of a novella than a short story, nearing 100 pages. In my opinion this story stands head and shoulders above the rest, and it's not just because of its length. I think this is where Barrett is able to really stretch his legs and show us what he's capable of. Various characters and subplots weave in an out of this one and all dovetail in a satisfying, heart-rending conclusion. I really hope Barrett has a novel in the works.
Diamonds I think is solidly the weakest story that doesn't offer much that we can't already find elsewhere. And Kindly Forget My Existence is a fitting ending, where Barrett eschews his young protagonists in favor of two middle aged men who sit down at a pub and discuss their own youth.
So, as with most short story collections, a mixed bag, but it's worth the price of admission for the stunningly tragic Calm With Horses alone, and the rest of the stories mostly hold their own as well. Dismal and hopeless as this collection is on the whole, there's an assured beauty to Barrett's prose that I found very striking, especially for a debut, and I can't wait to see what he does next.
The novella “Calm for Horses” in this collection is an amazing piece of writing and stands head and shoulders above the other short stories in this collection and why I’m giving the book four stars. I felt all the other short stories were good beginnings that just fell flat. I wanted more, felt like the stories just stopped, could have been chapter 1 of a much longer story, but apparently the author felt he was done with the characters and moved on. Lots of vivid description and believable character relationships. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Lots and lots of accolades on this one, including all over the cover (which almost made me put it back on the shelf).
However, the stories were good. Very Irish. Great characters. Violence, sadness and moments where life pivots sneak up on ordinary days.
However, the stories were good. Very Irish. Great characters. Violence, sadness and moments where life pivots sneak up on ordinary days.
Please read my full review here: http://realbooks4ever.tumblr.com/post/118661715069
This is a quite the breath of air that I've been waiting for, after last reading Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting"; Barrett seems to have his finger on the pulse of everyday adventure with bored teenagers and youths, and their outlook on life, which permeates this book, a collection of short stories from the northern part of Great Britain.
Boredom, violence, inner despair, bullshit and impressing girls, well, it's all here along with some stellar descriptions on how people perceive each other.
It's all everyday, of persons trying to make something out of life, almost as anti-heroes without realising they are just that.
Good reads.
My town is nowhere you have been, but you know its ilk. A roundabout off a national road, an industrial estate, a five-screen Cineplex, a century of pubs packed inside the square mile of the town’s limits. The Atlantic is near; the gnarled jawbone of the coastline with its gull-infested promontories is near. Summer evenings, and in the manure-scented pastures of the satellite parishes the Zen bovines lift their heads to contemplate the V8 howls of the boy racers tearing through the back lanes. I am young, and the young do not number many here, but it is fair to say we have the run of the place.
Boredom, violence, inner despair, bullshit and impressing girls, well, it's all here along with some stellar descriptions on how people perceive each other.
It's all everyday, of persons trying to make something out of life, almost as anti-heroes without realising they are just that.
Bat’s head hurts. He drank six beers on the roof of his house last night, which he does almost every night, now. The pain is a rooted throb, radiating outwards, like a skull-sized toothache, and his eyes mildly burn; working his contact lenses in this morning, he’d subjected his corneas to a prolonged and shaky-handed thumb-fucking. A distant, dental instrument drone fills his ears like fluid. Hangovers exacerbate Bat’s tinnitus.
Good reads.
Opening lines:
I left the city with my connections scorched and my prospects blown, looking only for somewhere to batten down for the winter to come. I left in a bright morning in August, dozing fitfully as the train drifted through the purgatorial horizons of the midlands heading west.
You may read online at The Guardian.
I left the city with my connections scorched and my prospects blown, looking only for somewhere to batten down for the winter to come. I left in a bright morning in August, dozing fitfully as the train drifted through the purgatorial horizons of the midlands heading west.
You may read online at The Guardian.