The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac

by Louise Kennedy

In The End of the World is a Cul de Sac the political is intertwined with the personal, as Louise Kennedy reveals how ordinary lives can get caught up in a wider, national drama.

Sarah, abandoned by her partner, sits alone in their brand new house.

Orla, facing the strange revenge of her husband, is forced to judge a contest in the local fête.

Peter raises his daughter in rural seclusion, at what might as well be the end of the world.

Louise Kennedy started writing at the age of forty-seven, and her prose is instilled with a clarity and wisdom born of her own experience. This collection announces a major new voice in literary fiction for the twenty-first century.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Ireland, Contemporary, Irish Literature, Audiobook, Literary Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2021

About the author

Louise Kennedy grew up near Belfast. Trespasses is her first novel. She is also the author of a collection of short stories, The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac. She has written for The Guardian, The Irish Times, and BBC Radio 4. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a chef for almost thirty years. She lives in Sligo, Ireland

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved her novel Trespasses.. so when I saw that the first book of hers, this one..was out everywhere, I had to get my hands on it!
I am not a huge fan of short stories, they usually don’t wrap up the stories.. kind of open ended.
These stories do the same but they are all about women in rural Ireland in some devastating situations.
Dazzling and heartbreaking!
What a writer!

[Emma.catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Library pick - I picked up this book at the library in the ‘Irish’ section, later reading the inside jacket, I discovered that the author, Louise Kennedy, grew up in the EXACT same town as me!! And believe me, here in Ireland, our towns are small. I knew instantly that I HAD to read this book and I prayed that it would be good 😌

This book is a collection of short stories. Each of the characters have very different lives, however, they all have similar things in common. Louise portrays how the ordinary lives of these people are intertwined with politics, poverty and wider, national drama. The women of these tales are trapped domestically by predatory men.

While one wife is abandoned by her new husband, another young woman is tormented by visions of a man her brother murdered during the Troubles. There’s a herbalist from ‘the north’, a bullied teenage girl and many more short stories.

The characterisation within each of these short stories is remarkable. Louise is able to portray vivid characters with such few words; it is a masterful skill that many authors lack.

These stories are each captivating in their own way. Some I wished were longer. A few I wasn’t bothered by. But, they are all touching and believable in their own way. Be prepared to be haunted and inspired. Louise gives us humour and heartbreak in each portions. It is a rollercoaster of emotions, for sure!

3.5 🌟🌟🌟💫

[Don Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a read along. We read one story a day, for 15 days. I usually read them in the mornings before work, and it is something I plan on continuing with some of the other story collections on my shelf.

I’m going to keep it short and sweet here, I’m not going to go into which stories I favoured more than others – as I honestly can’t pick between them. What I will say that all the stories took me through a rollercoaster – but I also felt a bit like my emotions had been through a sparring session with Katie Taylor, I was battered and bruised. While there are moments of joy within these stories, they mostly show a bleak side of life.

As has been mentioned in a few other reviews I have seen, the typical short story collection will include a couple that don’t match up to the quality of the better ones. This time however I was absolutely blown away by each and every story in this collection. A few of them struck a harder chord than I was prepared for and ultimately left me a little broken. While 15 stories is a good number to stop on, I was left wanting even more.

For me, the author doesn’t make a single mis step. This is Irish literature at its best, highly recommended.

[Caoilinn]

These stories are devastating, hauntingly recognisable, deadly funny, wise, brutal, lucent and gloriously refreshing. Kennedy has brought an army of complex, contradictory, haywire women into Irish literature. Prepare to be wrecked.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Kennedy has brought an army of complex, contradictory, haywire women into Irish literature. Prepare to be wrecked.”
~~ Caoilinn on Goodreads

Yes. Prepare to be wrecked.

In these stories first published in the UK in 2021, at once turbulent and simmering, Louise Kennedy lay the groundwork for all the fire that went into her first novel, the haunting and drop-dead gorgeous “Trespasses”.

The women (and a few men) at the heart of these stories made me think of wild horses held in a corral, bucking with all their might, galloping in circles that simply cannot widen. They push and push against their circumstances, teetering between rage and resignation. They keep applying face powder and lipstick because sometimes, that is the only thing that holds the line.

In her signature writing style, one of propulsive and urgent energy, of electric currents pulsing on the page, Kennedy paints the portrait of women on the verge, wounded and acutely aware of their surroundings, their sense of otherness and out-of-placeness (if that is even a word) backlit at every turn. The strokes are deliberate and thick, giving a gritty, impasto feel to the heartbreak of their lives.

Corralled and forever wild at heart, these women will indeed wreck you. And you will ask for more.

Louise Kennedy, I hope that your next novel is being plucked out of the ether as we speak and ushered into the world, free and unbridled.

[John Braine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've noticed over the years that it's easy to get caught up in the hype of the various Irish books of the moment, and sometimes it can be hard to step back and figure out if a book lives up to the hype or not - but this is the real deal. I don't think I've ever read such a solid collection of short stories. Even in the best of them, there are generally a few stories that just don't work for me. But this is all killer, no filler. Fifteen really solid stories, with really vivid characters with stories that you can really relate to, and so well told; there are always a few things going on at the same time, intertwined beautifully.

A lot of modern short story writers can be quite vague in their writing, which can be frustrating sometimes. But there is no vagueness in Louise Kennedy's writing. Everything is crystal clear. You always know what's going on. Not that she spells everything out for you, rather all the subtleties and intrigue are left unsaid, between the lines.

Utterly compelling, sometimes sad, sometimes darkly comic. Totally engaging. This rocks.

[Aoife Cassidy McM · Rating 5 out of 5]

This debut collection of short stories by Irish author Louise Kennedy will be published in April. I read it over the course of a couple of weeks, and the further I got into it, the more I grew to love it.

The stories are set in rural Ireland, mostly in the border counties, and are mainly centred on dysfunctional relationships, with themes of alcoholism, depression and grief (among others) featuring. Though it sounds bleak, it’s full of dry and dark humour, quiet observations and subtlety that blew me away.

With all good short storytelling, it’s what’s left unsaid and how that’s done that leaves the greatest impact. I found the characters stayed with me afterwards. I particularly loved Beyond Carthage and Garland Sunday, though honestly I loved almost all of the stories.

Even if you don’t typically read short stories, I’d recommend this collection. Dip in and out of it, keep it by your bedside, read a story a day. Immensely enjoyable. 4-4.5/5 ⭐️

*This book will be published on 8 April 2021 and can be preordered from all good bookshops. I read an advance digital copy courtesy of the publisher @BloomsburyPublishing via @NetGalley. I am going to preorder myself a copy though as I loved it. As always this is an honest review.*

#TheEndOfTheWorldIsACulDeSac #LouiseKennedy #BloomsburyPublishing

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louise Kennedy is a fine writer, and this collection illustrates her superior depictions of her characters, with depth, understanding and pathos.

Wonderful.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark with disappointment and simmering anger, Louise Kennedy's short story collection, The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac presents an Ireland that exists outside of soft-focus postcards and quirky films. Fifteen sharp-edge stories of women grinding through the consequences of choices, some their own, others forced upon them. The title story reveals the desperate reality of Ireland's boom and bust cycle — a woman remains in a derelict housing development after her developer husband disappears, leaving his debts behind, and a contractor comes calling for retribution. InHunter-Gatherers a woman is entranced by the appearance of a hare in the backyard of their country cottage while secretly mocking her boyfriend's pretense at self-sufficiency. Marriage and motherhood are frequent themes, to heartbreaking effect. Brittle Things is a haunting exploration of guilt and futility as a woman negotiates motherhood of a profoundly autistic child. Garland Sunday reveals the strains a mature marriage suffers when the couple decide to terminate a surprise pregnancy. A young, pregnant housewife and mother initially supports her farmer-husband's scheme to grow marijuana to supplement their income, but regrets her decision when her husband brings home a farming intern who wear tight clothes and tosses her long, auburn locks. The one story set outside Ireland, Beyond Carthage, show two friends on an ill-conceived holiday in Tunisia that traps the reader inside a dreary hotel room and in a sketchy hammam, one friend drinking heavily to pass the time, the other negotiating with her mastectomy-ravaged body.

Kennedy pulls no punches. There is occasional humor, but it is wry and bitter. There are many moments of tenderness, particularly between a man and the girl he's accepted as his daughter even though he knows she's the result of his wife's infidelities (Gibraltar) or the mother who would give anything if her autistic son would say her name, that make the ache all the more acute. These feel like real lives, interrupted. These are incisive portraits and in nearly every case, the story ends in a moment of decision or crisis, leaving the reader to imagine what happens next.

Not an easy read but an awesome one. Louise Kennedy is one of the greatest writers I've come across in recent years. Highly recommended.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I'll give Irish fiction a break for a while ... Kennedy is a good writer (3 stars for that), but these stories are so bleak. It took me a very long time to finish it, because I put it aside for weeks at a time. When the world is so grim, I need some lighter reading!

[Stitching Ghost]

Not too sure how to rate this one. The writing style was really pleasant so I kept reading even if most of the stories felt unfinished which leads me to think that maybe I don't get it. No rating for now.

[emma charlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5ish / the vibes were so good but I was confused a lot

[Dakota Bossard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the vibe of these stories, and I love the way Louise Kennedy writes women. Her descriptions of nature and the settings in general were beautiful. However I do feel like I would have benefitted from a course in Irish history before reading, as I felt a lot of the overarching themes or political climates went a bit over my head and since the stories are so short, there wasn’t space to learn or make connections like you’d be able to with a novel. If you are well versed in Irish history and love literary female protagonists, I think you’ll love these stories!

My favorites were Wolf Point and Powder

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy a good short story collection, and there's no doubt that these are really beautifully written short stories. But they are so very bleak, that I found it a struggle to get to the end. So, for me, it was a difficult read because this pandemic life is hard enough without the added strain of dark and dismal reading matter. If you're made of stronger stuff, and you enjoy short stories, then go for it because they're very well done. But if you're looking to books as an escape right now, this might be one to shelve until later.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stark realism, uneven collection. Some stories are memorable with a grasping sense of Irish melancholy, but there were a few that left me cold. Still, worthwhile introduction to a new talent.

[Jessica Macdonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I’ve been spoiled by the number of gorgeous short story collections (Such as Intimacies) I’ve read this year because this one just fell flat with me. You’re dropped into the middle of a completely contextless story, left adrift for about 10 pages, then it’s onto the next one. Obviously I understand you’re never going to get the level of detail you get in a novel in a short story but still, I like to at least understand the plot. I’ve seen lots of really positive reviews though, and the language used was beautifully descriptive, so definitely a case of me just not being the right reader for this collection.

[Danielle Clere · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped reading. Life’s too short.

[Colleen Chi-Girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louise Kennedy’s collection of 9-10 short stories is full of beautiful prose along with sad, bleak, dysfunctional families all set in Ireland 🇮🇪 but 1️⃣. I listened to this on audio which was well narrated.

My favorite story was the surprise of an adoptive father’s love and tenderness for his non biological daughter. I love good dads and kind men. Some stories are not as happy but rather caused me to feel strong or painful emotions, especially the mother who is patient and waiting for something from her son who has autism.

I was happy to get an early release through the Libby app and I look forward to more by Kennedy.

[Emer Tannam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A relentlessly grim collection of stories about long-suffering Irish women with Irish names dealing with awful men and/or circumstances.
Taken individually, the stories might have been enjoyable but the cumulative effect of the collection was bleak.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

After loving Kennedy’s stunning debut novel Trespasses , I had to go back and read this collection of fifteen short stories—the first thing she published, almost aged 50, having first picked up a pen after almost thirty years spent as a chef. I’m utterly in awe of how confidently she writes as an emerging new voice, ready to share her life’s wise observations and experience with harsh realism. I came to love it more and more the further I got into it; the stories’ effect seemed to be cumulative, and the whole collection is more than the sum of its parts.

These stark and intimate stories are (mostly) set in the border counties of rural Ireland, and (mostly) concern women who grind through the consequences of their choices—their own, or forced upon them. Marriage and motherhood are the most frequent and devastating themes, yet each sharp-edged, visceral slice-of-life story feels unique and fresh, with Kennedy pulling no punches. There were stand-outs, but every story, subtle yet tense with words unspoken, is worthwhile, painting a portrait of complex, wounded women trapped and limited by their circumstances, yet wild at heart. Some stories have a male protagonist; I found these to be weaker on the whole, albeit no less engaging.

One of those was an early stand-out: Wolf Point explores the relationship between a forester and his five-year-old daughter as he comes to terms with the fact that his young wife, who’s slipping further into mental illness, is an unfit mother. In Imbolc, a pregnant mother comes to regret her decision of suggesting her farmer-husband grow illegal cannabis in the lambing shed for some much-needed extra income, while the only story set outside of Ireland, Beyond Carthage, follows two friends who end up going to a sketchy hammam after being trapped in a Tunisian hotel by incessant rain. Gibraltar shows snapshots of a lifetime of tenderness between a man and the girl he’s accepted as his daughter, even though he knows that she’s the result of his wife’s adultery, and in Powder, a young woman takes his late boyfriend’s American mother on a tour of Ireland to scatter his ashes. These were some of my personal highlights, but for my money, Kennedy saved the best for last: In Garland Sunday, a mature marriage suffers after the joint decision to terminate an unplanned pregnancy.

In virtually all cases, Kennedy merely sets the scene to then end it at a pivotal moment of decision or crisis, leaving the reader to imagine what happens next. Her evocative, dazzling prose provides flashes of beauty, hope, and gallows humor amid cynicism and bleakness; a remarkable new talent to keep an eye on.

[Aoife · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should preface this review by saying I am generally not a fan of the short story. However, this collection is simply incredible. Each story is overflowing with character and charm and I could have spent hours with each individual story. Firmly rooted in the Irish tradition it still provides a fresh and relevant consideration of life in modern Ireland. A book that made me fall in love with reading again.

[ローレン · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Irish collection of short stories that is a bleak, brutal gem. Akin to blood mixed into your morning tea, gray skies and cold winds and dogs howling somewhere in the vast distance. Alone, hollowed out, and empty as ever.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der Gehweg endet im Nichts, die Häuser haben keine Türen – und mitten in Sarahs Ruine eines Musterhauses steht Bauer Ryans Esel, der sich hierher verirrt hatte. Ihr Mann Davy hatte sich abgesetzt, als sein Bauprojekt Hawthorne Close scheiterte. In der titelgebenden Kurzgeschichte traut sich Sarah aus Scham nicht mehr auf die Straße, wo jeder sie erkennt und niemand David gesagt hatte, dass er einer Schnapsidee nachläuft. Louise Kennedys 15 Kurzgeschichten rücken Umbrüche im Leben von irischen Frauen in den Mittelpunkt und suchen nach der Ursache, warum Männer Entscheidungen treffen und Frauen oft lebenslang die Konsequenzen zu tragen haben. Kennedy führt uns in eine Welt, in der Klassenzugehörigkeit und Sprache den Platz im Leben definieren, in der man sich für eine Seite entscheiden muss und in der archaische Werte von eifrigen Erfüllungsgehilfen durchgesetzt werden.

Die Protagonistinnen sind Bäuerin, Schülerin, Rechtsanwältin, Pflegehelferin oder einfach Ehefrau. Kinderwunsch, Elternschaft und schwere Erkrankungen prägen die Biografien, aber auch Jahrzehnte zurückliegende Gewalttaten. Dem allein verantwortlichen Vater Peter bleibt nichts anderes übrig, als sein Kind gegen das ausdrückliche Verbot seines Chefs mit zur Arbeit zu nehmen, weil seine an Depressionen erkrankte Frau sich nicht um Clary kümmern kann. Die Schülerin Róisín wird in der katholischen Schule ausgrenzt, weil sie aus dem Norden stammt und verstrickt sich in ein fatales Abhängigkeitsverhältnis zur Nachbarfamilie, in der sie sich zum ersten Mal gesehen fühlt. Zwei Freundinnen, die bisher meinten, dass es ohne sie zuhause nicht geht, verreisen gemeinsam nach Tunesien und erkennen, dass sie als willkommene Einnahmequelle junger Männer dienen ...

Verbindende Themen der Storys sind u. a. „falsche“ Akzente, starre Rollenbilder, verbotene Liebe, Zugezogene, die auch nach 30 Jahren noch nicht zur Dorfgemeinschaft gehören, und generell die Situation von Frauen, die allein lebenslang die Folgen unkontrollierter männlicher Impulse zu tragen haben. Bewegend fand ich u. a. die Geschichte, in der Familienfotos aus Jahrzehnten sich zu Zeitverläufen auslegen lassen – und besonders die letzte Story, in der ein jahrzehntealtes Manuskript preisgibt, was alle wissen und sich niemand zu erzählen traut. Die abschließende Story lässt ahnen, warum ihre Vorgängerinnen sich auf alles Falsche konzentrierten: falsche Entscheidungen, Beziehungen und Urteile. Doppeldeutigkeiten als Basis von Doppelmoral setzen hier Insiderkenntnisse voraus, z. B. in welcher Bedeutung in Irland der Begriff Reisefreiheit gebraucht wird.

Fazit
Die Storys sind harter Tobak – und einige lassen sich zunächst schwer einordnen, weil Leerstellen bleiben.

[Rita Egan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love most of these stories featuring women who's lives would be so much better without their men. The writing is brutally frank, grim and subversively humorous. Glimpses of the brilliance that would become Trespasses. Not for the faint hearted.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Incredibly well written with beautiful prose. Louise Kennedy is a writer with an electric voice but I just don’t care for short stories.

[Terry Taft · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disgrace to short stories everywhere

[Jillian B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Irish short stories is poignant and emotionally compelling. Not all of the stories resonated with me, but the ones that did were so good that there was no way I could give this less than four stars!

[kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of fifteen short stories on the lives of many women, steeped in Irish culture. My average ended up below 3.0 but I’m feeling generous today so I’ll round up.

I did not connect with this. Some stories I found myself really enjoying but even then, they felt incomplete by the time I got to the end. I tried to justify it by saying that a short story will never feel as complete as a novel but that’s simply not true. Many of these stories felt like they were plucked out of the middle of an already developed novel and didn’t provide enough detail or backstory for me to feel immersed in my reading. I personally believe that this collection could have benefitted from being only 7-8 stories with each piece being twice as long to allow for a more well-rounded story.
I, unfortunately, don’t think any of these stories will stick with me for long. I did, however, enjoy Kennedy’s descriptive settings which helped create environments that you can feel.

[Ruth J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is the debut of Louise Kennedy. Each story follows an Irish woman in varying circumstances, giving us a glimpse into their lives, their relationships and the difficulties they face.

Its not an uplifting book; some of the stories are quite haunting, but it is very well written and the characters are written very well. As I progressed through each story, I became more impressed by what the author had achieved in the collection and I will definitely be looking out for more work from her in future.

[Lauren Crump · Rating 3 out of 5]

From what I could understand, this was very depressing. All of the stories centered on women living tragic lives or dealing with tragedies and it was quite a bummer to read about. There were certainly stories that went right over my head but others did pack a huge punch. Belladonna, Powder and Hands stood out the most for me.