"The stories in this collection have to do with displacement, not familiarity; their news is not from Dublin, but from the places where Dublin's news might land."
"This journey, we discover, is not about attaining a longed-for destination, nor even really about forward motion; rather, it's a moment of suspension, between one reality and the next."
"If this seems an oddly abstract reflection for a newly bereaved mother, that's no accident: abstraction is the essential quality of Toibin's collection."
"Again and again, he takes devastating raw materials—a father on the cusp of indefinite separation from his family—and transforms them into profound reflections on loss."
Colm Toibin's new story collection delves into themes of displacement rather than familiarity. The narratives reflect on the emotional experience of living distanced from home and loved ones. The opening story, The Journey to Galway, illustrates this dislocation through a mother's journey to inform her son's wife of his death. The story captures a moment of suspension, where the reality of loss is both present and absent, emphasizing the abstract nature of grief and memory throughout the collection.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]