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A review by bgg616
That Old Country Music: Stories by Kevin Barry
4.0
My Irish fiction book group now meets virtually and it has meant new people can drop in when we read something that interests them. This meeting was the biggest yet with 15 people including someone from the opposite coast (Pacific). Kevin Barry is a club favorite and a friend of the Irish arts organization that sponsors the book club. We have followed him since the beginning of his career - 15 or so years ago. In discussing this volume of short stories, some felt that his novels are better than his short stories. I think that this assessment may be based on a readers' personal preference. I love the short story form and have been reading Irish writers' short story collections for decades. Irish writers excel in writing in this genre.
There were themes that were threaded throughout the collection - love, loss, loneliness, and being lost. The final theme "being lost" was at the heart of my favorite story "St. Catherine of the Fields". The narrator is a researcher of "sean-nós" (old style) singing. This is a kind of singing that thrived for centuries in Irish-speaking (Gaelic) areas. It is plaintiff, moving, and powerful. Our narrator is determined to "save" lost sean-nós songs, and goes in pursuit of an elusive singer. He eventually finds a song that is the story of a tragic seduction, a song that had long been "lost". Sean-nos singing is at the center of the 2017 Irish film, Song of Granite, a candidate for Best Foreign Language Film for an Oscar. It is the story of one of the greatest sean-nos singers of the 20th century, Joe Heaney (1919-1984). Heaney spent most of his life outside of Ireland, mostly in England and America. I met him in Boston when friends of mine, native Irish speakers from Costelloe, Ireland, in the Connemara Gaeltacht, brought him from New York for a house party. At the time, in the late 1970's, Heaney was working as a doorman in New York. At the end of his life, he was invited to the University of Washington in Seattle, as a visiting artist. He died in Seattle in 1984.
Another favorite story was "Roma Kid". Over the decades, visiting Dublin, I noted the change in panhandlers in downtown Dublin. In the 70's and 80's, they were most often Travelers, often women with young children. In the 90's, Travelers disappeared from the streets and Roma women and children replaced them. In this story, a young Roma girl is sent off by her family who can no longer care for all their children. The young girl roams the country before she finds shelter. Throughout her life she thinks about the loss of her family, particularly her four young brothers. Of the 13 stories, the only one that wasn't a favorite was the final story about the American poet, Roethke, who had a mental breakdown on the remote island of Inishbofin, near Galway. There is another Inishbofin island in Donegal. Roethke is committed to a psychiatric hospital on the mainland.
Barry is a masterful user of language, and creator of stories. He is a delight to read, and there are depths to plumb in his stories. Highly recommended.
There were themes that were threaded throughout the collection - love, loss, loneliness, and being lost. The final theme "being lost" was at the heart of my favorite story "St. Catherine of the Fields". The narrator is a researcher of "sean-nós" (old style) singing. This is a kind of singing that thrived for centuries in Irish-speaking (Gaelic) areas. It is plaintiff, moving, and powerful. Our narrator is determined to "save" lost sean-nós songs, and goes in pursuit of an elusive singer. He eventually finds a song that is the story of a tragic seduction, a song that had long been "lost". Sean-nos singing is at the center of the 2017 Irish film, Song of Granite, a candidate for Best Foreign Language Film for an Oscar. It is the story of one of the greatest sean-nos singers of the 20th century, Joe Heaney (1919-1984). Heaney spent most of his life outside of Ireland, mostly in England and America. I met him in Boston when friends of mine, native Irish speakers from Costelloe, Ireland, in the Connemara Gaeltacht, brought him from New York for a house party. At the time, in the late 1970's, Heaney was working as a doorman in New York. At the end of his life, he was invited to the University of Washington in Seattle, as a visiting artist. He died in Seattle in 1984.
Another favorite story was "Roma Kid". Over the decades, visiting Dublin, I noted the change in panhandlers in downtown Dublin. In the 70's and 80's, they were most often Travelers, often women with young children. In the 90's, Travelers disappeared from the streets and Roma women and children replaced them. In this story, a young Roma girl is sent off by her family who can no longer care for all their children. The young girl roams the country before she finds shelter. Throughout her life she thinks about the loss of her family, particularly her four young brothers. Of the 13 stories, the only one that wasn't a favorite was the final story about the American poet, Roethke, who had a mental breakdown on the remote island of Inishbofin, near Galway. There is another Inishbofin island in Donegal. Roethke is committed to a psychiatric hospital on the mainland.
Barry is a masterful user of language, and creator of stories. He is a delight to read, and there are depths to plumb in his stories. Highly recommended.