Stay

by Aislinn Hunter

Stay follows Abbey, a young woman from Canada now living in a village outside Galway. She falls in love with Dermot, an older Irish man, in an unconventional, affectionate but troubled relationship.
The extraordinary skill of Stay lies in its unsentimental depiction of modern Ireland. The inhabitants of Dermot's village form a riotous and poignant chorus, commenting on their rapidly changing world with wit and insight. Here is a beautiful, funny and richly rewarding novel about history and obligation, and above all, the meaning of human connection in a land poised uneasily between past and present.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Ireland, Contemporary

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Aislinn Hunter is the author of six books: two books of poetry, three books of fiction and a book of lyric essays. She is a contributing editor at Arc Magazine and has contributed to numerous anthologies. She has a BFA in The History of Art and in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria, an MFA from The University of British Columbia, an MSc in Writing and Cultural Politics from The University of Edinburgh and is currently finishing a PhD in English Literature at Edinburgh. She teaches Creative Writing part-time at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and lives in Vancouver with her husband Glenn and two Border collies.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

All completionist readers must face this infuriatingly logical conversation:
"Hey, what are you reading right now?"
"Oh, this terrible book that's riddled with plot inconsistencies and bad style and insert annoyance here."
"...why don't you just stop reading it then?"

Look. I'd love to be logical about this. I'd love to think to myself gee Jill, you know what would be a better use of your time than skimming something you don't like and sighing with relief when it's finally over? BASICALLY ANYTHING. But I can't.

Part of my problem is that I buy a lot of books, and it takes me years to read some of them. My tastes have changed a lot since I started building my library, but like, I once spent money on this fucker, okay -- I'm willing to put down a book if I genuinely feel it's not the right time and I'll appreciate it more later. But if there's one that I know I'm never going to enjoy, and it's taking up space in my bookshelf...

GO TO THE LIBRARY you're saying. And you're right, you logical asshole. One day I'll learn that.

But for now: I just finished Aislinn Hunter's Stay.

I'd previously read and deeply enjoyed a book of Hunter's poetry, but this is...not poetry. No, novels don't have to be poetry; most of them shouldn't even try. But I'm still not entirely sure what I just read. I don't care about books neglecting any one or two aspects of the form -- like, if you want a heavily plot-based piece but have shitty characters and transparent themes, do it. Really into setting but at the expense of plot? No worries, you go experiment Glen Coco.

But the problem with Stay is that everything is glossed over without any hold. I'd say it was about Ireland, but there are no descriptions. I'd say it was about relationships, but there were no insights into the characters or their experiences. I wouldn't say it was about plot because NOTHING HAPPENED but maybe I'd say it was about style except it was commonplace writing and unnecessarily jumpy structure.

There's touching on memory and what haunts us, but it's not done particularly well. And like, when ghosts started getting mentioned about 3/4 of the way through the book, I'd about had it. Grief, and history of place, and working through our demons -- all valid and important things to write books on. Hunter doesn't bother tying any of it together, or does so in such a superficial way that it's not worth the read. There's potential, here, but it's very much an inexperienced novel -- flipping from idea to idea, character to character, with no substance to make you care.


When people ask me why I finish my one & two star books, I do have an actual response. Alberto Manguel wrote something beautiful about how there can be one line in a book that is meant for an ideal reader, even if the rest of the book doesn't appeal. This rests with me as I read, and it's been proven true more often than not -- many of my two-star books still stay proudly on my bookshelf, though I know I'll never read them again, because something about the experience mattered. Maybe it was a beautiful sentence, a touching moment or character, or just a memory -- but something stuck, something made the eye-rolling worthwhile.

I can't foresee anything in Stay having that effect. It was too scattered, too particular, too grazing. But I've been wrong before, and -- completionist that I am -- I'll be wrong again. So here's hoping.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter's prose is stark, pointed, and beautiful. In cutting away any flowery language devices, the prose is precise, painting an unsentimental yet poetic depiction of the events, people, and surroundings. I think this was my favourite aspect of Stay—Hunter's previous short stories and books of poetry obviously refined her writing in a unique way, giving her a distinct writing voice.

Read my full review on my blog: http://www.monniblog.com/2013/08/stay...

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is in many ways a very strange book in which nothing much happens, and yet I liked it very much, and sometimes felt I was in the presence of unfolding literary greatness. I later learned that the Vancouver writer Aislinn Hunter wrote this as her MA thesis for University of British Columbia's creative writing program, and that she based the narrative in part on an extended tour of Ireland she took as a young adult in the 1990s. The book was published by Polestar/Raincoast Books in 2002, as part of a surge of new Canadian literary publishing that may have been paid in part for by Raincoast's newfound wealth as the Canadian distributor for the Harry Potter series. Anyway, to the book itself: Abbey, a 20-something woman from a very dysfunctional family in SOWESTO (Southwest Ontario, Alice Munro country), has left Canada and ended up in Ireland, where she has fallen into a somewhat turgid relationship with a much older Irishman, Dermot, a disgraced former Trinity College professor specializing in medieval Irish history and archaeology. Abbey's father has died while she was away, and as she launches into an increasingly obsessive re-encounter with the details of her upbringing, the book begins to veer into magic realist territory with her father's spirit begins to take on a more active role within the narrative. An important subtext in these mental forays through her own past has to do with the fact that Abbey's mother abandoned her when she was eight years old, leaving her apparently disconnected from the world and unable to make firm commitments or healthy connections. Dermot meanwhile is grappling with his own terrible past, and the combined force of both their personal histories can be felt hovering on the edges of a suplot having to do with an archaeological dig and the discovery of a bog body. Minor events and bits of reflection, memories, and emotional jolts all become the driving forces within this book's often meandering narrative, and yet the characters are consistently interesting, and Hunter does a brilliant job of setting the scene with her clear-eyed, outsider's view of the strange melting pot of globalization, growth and tradition that was modern Ireland in the boom period of the late 90s. The film version is another species entirely, similar to its source narrative only at the level of the two main characters, while focused on inventing more drama with the addition of a pregnancy plot that had no precedent within the novel. I liked both narratives, but they are barely cousins.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I've read. Stuttering prose composed mainly of sentence fragments. Boring as hell. The only thing interesting is the body in the bog. I should hope they made the movie more interesting. I had high hopes for this one. But in the end, I just wanted to chuck it across the room. Thankfully it was short and I didn't waste too much time on it. It's the kind of book that you patiently wait for something to happen, but nothing ever does.

[Lindasp · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard to get into a book like this after finishing a very exciting one. This story was slow moving and involved 2 'lost souls' trying to come together and haunted by issues in their pasts. About the most interesting parts to me were descriptions of 'harvesting' peat in Ireland and the archeological dig to find a body in the peat.

[Wendy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish this book —abandoned it about 50 pages in. I disliked the writing style and could not connect with the characters.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stay was a very lovely, easy read that I very much enjoyed. It was written by Canadian author Aislinn Hunter, and is a book I was given during my days working in Canadian publishing. The novel is set in Ireland, with one of the main characters being Canadian. The story is very well paced, the narrative flows nicely, and the ending is mildly open ended, which I liked.

[Arlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Canadian girl dealing with death of father is in Ireland in a relationship with a man twice her age, also dealing with his past.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

rather choppy but a passable read

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sense of Ireland with Canadian angst