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A review by gorecki
The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín
3.0
Even though I have only read two books by Colm Tóibín so far, The Testament of Mary and The Empty Family, I do believe he is a very good storyteller and I am sure I will reach for more of his work very soon. The Empty Family was the first collection of his short stories I've read, and I am not sure if I have missed to notice and grasp something, or if his short stories simply do not resonate with me that well.
Some of the stories in this book left me wanting more, wanting to know what actually happened. I usually feel quite comfortable with open endings. I don't always need to know exactly how a story ends and why. But with the easy and "factual" flow of Tóibín's narration that often reminds me of a friend sitting across the table from me what they've heard of experienced, I sometimes felt like I'd want to ask "and what happened next?". Especially since some of the stories were written in the form of memories, or personal experiences, or diary entries, often without the typical plot development and culmunation point of a work of fiction, but concentrating on telling what had happened at one point of the narrator's life, without much conclusion or actual result in the end.
I mentioned "factual" writing, and by that I mean the descriptive style, which I find typical for Tóibín's writing - recollecting events, people, and places in his narration, as if he were standing there and observing them as he writes or describes exact memories and experiences. There is little space left for contemplation as you receive a thorough description of people's actions and thoughts. And this is why I, in my personal experience of reading this short-story collection, felt that after the many details and the thorough descriptions I'd still like to ask him "and why did he do that?" or "and where did this take them?" or "and how did it end?" - because the style of his narration wakes this feeling of having a conversation with him when he suddenly stops speaking. I felt the stories lack an actual ending and I would need to place so many questions and understand what happened next, but there is no one to ask.
Some of the stories in this book left me wanting more, wanting to know what actually happened. I usually feel quite comfortable with open endings. I don't always need to know exactly how a story ends and why. But with the easy and "factual" flow of Tóibín's narration that often reminds me of a friend sitting across the table from me what they've heard of experienced, I sometimes felt like I'd want to ask "and what happened next?". Especially since some of the stories were written in the form of memories, or personal experiences, or diary entries, often without the typical plot development and culmunation point of a work of fiction, but concentrating on telling what had happened at one point of the narrator's life, without much conclusion or actual result in the end.
I mentioned "factual" writing, and by that I mean the descriptive style, which I find typical for Tóibín's writing - recollecting events, people, and places in his narration, as if he were standing there and observing them as he writes or describes exact memories and experiences. There is little space left for contemplation as you receive a thorough description of people's actions and thoughts. And this is why I, in my personal experience of reading this short-story collection, felt that after the many details and the thorough descriptions I'd still like to ask him "and why did he do that?" or "and where did this take them?" or "and how did it end?" - because the style of his narration wakes this feeling of having a conversation with him when he suddenly stops speaking. I felt the stories lack an actual ending and I would need to place so many questions and understand what happened next, but there is no one to ask.