An Irish literary feast
The New Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories 2006-7, edited by David Marcus, Faber and Faber, £12.99, pbk. order this book
DAVID Marcus has edited more than 30 anthologies of poetry and short stories in his writing career, which has been a long one. Born in Cork in 1924, he is himself no mean short story writer and a novelist, a writer in both his native Irish as well as English.
I first read his translation of the classic Cúirt an Mheadhoin Oidche (The Midnight Court) before coming to his hilarious short story collection Who Ever Heard of an Irish Jew (1988). That held a theme which he continued in his entertaining autobiography – Oughtobiography- Leaves from the Diary of a Hyphenated Jew (2001).
This collection is a follow up to the successful 2005 edition he edited. With his discerning eye he has chosen a collection which yet again celebrates the place of the short story in Ireland’s literary heritage. Selections include Frank McGuiness, Carlo Gébler, John Banville Joseph O’Neill, Breda Wall Ryan, Mary Leland and Mary Byrne.
Out of these tales of human frailty and variations on the seven deadly sins, it was Éilis Ní Dhuibhne’s ‘A Literary Lunch’ that struck a resonance with me as it will with many writers. It is the ultimate writer’s fantasy of shooting the head of the publishing company!
Éilis is one of the ‘old hands’ in this collection having had three short story collections published and two novels.
Another is Sebastian Barry whose novel A Long, Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005.
Bridget O’Toole, born and brought up in south west England, and now living in Galway, offers Inside, which reminds me of Kafka – that surrealistic quality in which the narrator is imprisoned, a hostage, but we are not informed why, when or how. It is, perhaps a bit predictably Beckett-like, but shows a good disciplined writing ability that promises good things for the future.
Patrick McCabe is another established writer whose novel The Butcher Boy was short listed for the Man Booker Prize in 1992 – in fact, Ireland seem, to produce so many award winning writers (Nobel, Booker et al) out of proportion to its size. McCabe is not afraid of controversial topics and his story commences with a priest paying visits to a prostitute.
Yet it seems wrong to pick out just one or two stories when the entire collection is of a quality the shows the vibrancy and, indeed, the relevance, of the short story form is not outdated and continues as an important form of literary endeavour.
This book is a literary feast and reflective of the continuing highly literary standards established by the long Irish short story tradition. When critics bewail the imminent disappearance of the short story form, as many have, I suggest that they pick up this volume and realise that the medium is alive and well and promises to continue to remain so for at least another generation to come.
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