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Young Skins
A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree
Winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature
Enter the small, rural town of Glanbeigh, a place whose fate took a downturn with the Celtic Tiger, a desolate spot where buffoonery and tension simmer and erupt, and booze-sodden boredom fills the corners of every pub and nightclub. Here, and in the towns beyond, the young live hard and wear the scars. Amongst them, there’s jilted Jimmy, whose best friend Tug is the terror of the town and Jimmy’s sole company in his search for the missing Clancy kid; Bat, a lovesick soul with a face like “a bowl of mashed up spuds” even before Nubbin Tansey’s boot kicked it in; and Arm, a young and desperate criminal whose destiny is shaped when he and his partner, Dympna, fail to carry out a job. In each story, a local voice delineates the grittiness of post boom Irish society. These are unforgettable characters rendered through silence, humor, and violence.
Told in Barrett’s vibrant, distinctive prose, Young Skins is an accomplished and irreverent debut from a singular new voice in contemporary fiction.
Winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature
Enter the small, rural town of Glanbeigh, a place whose fate took a downturn with the Celtic Tiger, a desolate spot where buffoonery and tension simmer and erupt, and booze-sodden boredom fills the corners of every pub and nightclub. Here, and in the towns beyond, the young live hard and wear the scars. Amongst them, there’s jilted Jimmy, whose best friend Tug is the terror of the town and Jimmy’s sole company in his search for the missing Clancy kid; Bat, a lovesick soul with a face like “a bowl of mashed up spuds” even before Nubbin Tansey’s boot kicked it in; and Arm, a young and desperate criminal whose destiny is shaped when he and his partner, Dympna, fail to carry out a job. In each story, a local voice delineates the grittiness of post boom Irish society. These are unforgettable characters rendered through silence, humor, and violence.
Told in Barrett’s vibrant, distinctive prose, Young Skins is an accomplished and irreverent debut from a singular new voice in contemporary fiction.
176 pages, Paperback
First published September 16, 2013
183 people are currently reading
5182 people want to read
About the author
Colin Barrett
17 books310 followersColin Barrett was born in 1982 and grew up in County Mayo. In 2009 he completed his MA in Creative Writing at University College Dublin and was awarded the Penguin Ireland Prize. His work has been published in The Stinging Fly magazine and in the anthologies, Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails (Stinging Fly Press, 2010) and Town and Country (Faber and Faber, 2013).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 329 reviews
February 18, 2019
My town is nowhere you have been, but you know its ilk.
3.5 stars, rounded up because it's not the author's fault that i have already read The Spinning Heart, which is the (unfairly high) standard i must now judge all irish post-celtic tiger story collections against.
these stories are all more than competent on their own, but i kept (again - unfairly) wanting them to bleed into each other, to connect, to have characters resurface in other stories in a significant way. and that's one of those backhanded compliments - there were some characters i liked enough to want to see more of, so i was a little let down that i didn't get as much closure and follow-up as i craved.
overall, a strong collection, filled with all that despair and helplessness i like so much in my books. stories of people trapped in their small lives, unable to escape the town of their birth, where all of their secrets are known, falling into destructive patterns of drinking, drugs, hopeless relationships, and crime to dampen their frustrations. barrett is a great writer - there is a strong sense of character and motivation, and you definitely understand the impulses driving the situations, even when you want to say "oh my god, don't do THAT!!"
there are only seven stories in this collection, but one of them, Calm With Horses, is nearly a hundred pages long, so it's not a pamphlet or anything. it's actually the perfect length for a short story collection - i'm still at the stage in short story-appreciation where the idea of reading 300 pages of nothing but stories is a little daunting, so this one satisfies without overstaying its welcome.
The Clancy Kid
There is the comfort of routine in our routine but also the mystery of that routine's persistence.
this is a good start to the collection- it sets up many of the themes that will recur throughout the book: hopeless yearning, feelings acknowledged too late, damaged individuals, heartbreaking childhood stories, desultory drinking, convenient sex, dubious romantic gestures, unexpected tenderness, and the gutpunch of We all have things we won't let go of.
this is one of those stories that just… ends. and i'm sure that the last sentence is meant to have an emotional resonance, but it was a little too on the nose for me. i frequently have mixed feelings about the way short stories end, though, so don't listen to me - i'm just a crank.
Bait
this is one of the ones that had characters whose adventures i wanted to read more of. this story echoes the sentiments of the last one, about the tenacity of the heart, of holding on to things well past their expiration date. it is told from the perspective of "harmless" teddy, following in the wake of lovelorn pool shark matteen as he pursues a woman with whom he had a brief relationship - a woman well out of his league.
They went out on a few dates thereafter, Matteen with his hand gripped about Sarah's wrist, his eyes brimming with the terror-tinged delight of a man who has gotten exactly what he wants. Nobody knew what to say to them. Unanimously flummoxed were we, Mattheen's pack, and envious. Matteen did not know what to say to Sarah either, and she, characteristically, said almost nothing. Soon enough, to our relief, it ended. Sarah euthanised it, proffered no explanation. Matteen, crushed, did not pursue one. Its demise was built into the thing's inception, was the way he considered it at first; good things do not last, blah, blah.That was a year ago. And Matteen was fine for a bit, clinging to this stoic philosophical read, but the loss was hitting him constitutionally now.
i really enjoyed this story, up until the end. see what a crank i am? the end just felt off somehow, with its odd, almost supernatural tone. it's not overtly supernatural, nothing like that, but there's this witchy/succubus tone to it that left me a little befuddled. and that's mostly why i wanted more follow-up - i wanted to know what came next. alas.
The Moon
this one was probably my favorite. an utterly gorgeous bruised-but-stoic feel to it. it was sad and oddly romantic for a story containing the line 'I just pulled a wee length of pussy out of my gob.'
another story about a convenient physical relationship that unexpectedly snags the heart and won't let go, despite how unrealistic it would be to continue.
'You like this place, don't you Val? You like everything about it,' said Martina.
'That sounds like an accusation.'
'Not at all. Someone has to stay put, hold down the fort.'
'You're not going anywhere that far.'
'Galway's not that far,' said Martina, 'but it might as well be the moon for people like you.'
oh, martina, you heartbreaker, you.
Stand Your Skin
another strong story, this. it did a really good job of highlighting that oppressive small-town atmosphere, where everyone has known everyone else since they were little kids, and no one is given an opportunity to hide from their past or become something unexpected; everything is socially preordained, the weight of your past is inescapable, and fuck you for trying. poor, poor bat, drinking by himself on his roof every night, with his holden caulfield impulses to protect the young girls from the inevitable, and his unfortunate visage:
Bat was never a good looking lad, even before Tansey cracked his face in half, he knows that. His features are and always have been round and nubby, irremediably homely, exuding all the definition of a bowl of mashed-up spuds. His eyes, at least, are distinctive, though not necessarily in a good way; they are thick-lashed, purplishly-pupiled and primed glintingly wide. They suggest urgent, unseemly appeal. You look constantly as if in want, his old dear chided him all up through childhood.
poor bat, whom everyone has written off - whose "accident" is the endpoint of his development, in the town lore and gossip. he will never be more than that anecdote.
there are a couple of stories in this collection that are single-character POV until the very end, when the perspective shifts to an unexpected character's sights. this is one of them, and it's an effective shift.
Calm With Horses
this one, you will recall, is the long one. and despite it being so long, i was enthusiastic enough with the characters and the story to wish for a book-length version of it. this one veers into grit lit territory, with its criminal element operating in the secluded backwoods, culminating in scenes of explosive, detailed violence. it also had a fantastic moment of black comedy, which meshed strikingly with a scene from boardwalk empire:
great story, great ending - this one makes me want to read a novel by barrett, because he definitely maintains his stride throughout the longer space, and it's a very successful, satisfying piece of bleak-ass writing.
Diamonds
this one didn't make me feel one way or another. it is the story from which the collection draws its name:
'But you were there and I was there,' she said. 'In our young skins, though we didn't know each other from Adam. Strange to think of it.'
the irony, of course, being that the two characters in this conversation still don't know each other, except in the false closeness of carnal relations. it's short and sad, but it didn't resonate much with me. i can see it being a favorite for a different reader, but there are other stories i preferred.
Kindly Forget My Existence
this one i can see being staged as a play somewhere. the action all takes place in a bar, with some flashbacks to the characters' shared past, and the more horrifying backstory of the bartender. this is another one that uses the last-scene POV-handoff, which leaves behind a good closing tone for the collection. it's mournful and a little haunting, and the character is left not knowing what happened to the men with whom he passed an afternoon, the same way the reader is left not knowing the aftermath of any of the stories they have just read. a pleasantly sustained open-ended feeling.
i would enthusiastically read more by this guy.
come to my blog!
3.5 stars, rounded up because it's not the author's fault that i have already read The Spinning Heart, which is the (unfairly high) standard i must now judge all irish post-celtic tiger story collections against.
these stories are all more than competent on their own, but i kept (again - unfairly) wanting them to bleed into each other, to connect, to have characters resurface in other stories in a significant way. and that's one of those backhanded compliments - there were some characters i liked enough to want to see more of, so i was a little let down that i didn't get as much closure and follow-up as i craved.
overall, a strong collection, filled with all that despair and helplessness i like so much in my books. stories of people trapped in their small lives, unable to escape the town of their birth, where all of their secrets are known, falling into destructive patterns of drinking, drugs, hopeless relationships, and crime to dampen their frustrations. barrett is a great writer - there is a strong sense of character and motivation, and you definitely understand the impulses driving the situations, even when you want to say "oh my god, don't do THAT!!"
there are only seven stories in this collection, but one of them, Calm With Horses, is nearly a hundred pages long, so it's not a pamphlet or anything. it's actually the perfect length for a short story collection - i'm still at the stage in short story-appreciation where the idea of reading 300 pages of nothing but stories is a little daunting, so this one satisfies without overstaying its welcome.
The Clancy Kid
There is the comfort of routine in our routine but also the mystery of that routine's persistence.
this is a good start to the collection- it sets up many of the themes that will recur throughout the book: hopeless yearning, feelings acknowledged too late, damaged individuals, heartbreaking childhood stories, desultory drinking, convenient sex, dubious romantic gestures, unexpected tenderness, and the gutpunch of We all have things we won't let go of.
this is one of those stories that just… ends. and i'm sure that the last sentence is meant to have an emotional resonance, but it was a little too on the nose for me. i frequently have mixed feelings about the way short stories end, though, so don't listen to me - i'm just a crank.
Bait
this is one of the ones that had characters whose adventures i wanted to read more of. this story echoes the sentiments of the last one, about the tenacity of the heart, of holding on to things well past their expiration date. it is told from the perspective of "harmless" teddy, following in the wake of lovelorn pool shark matteen as he pursues a woman with whom he had a brief relationship - a woman well out of his league.
They went out on a few dates thereafter, Matteen with his hand gripped about Sarah's wrist, his eyes brimming with the terror-tinged delight of a man who has gotten exactly what he wants. Nobody knew what to say to them. Unanimously flummoxed were we, Mattheen's pack, and envious. Matteen did not know what to say to Sarah either, and she, characteristically, said almost nothing. Soon enough, to our relief, it ended. Sarah euthanised it, proffered no explanation. Matteen, crushed, did not pursue one. Its demise was built into the thing's inception, was the way he considered it at first; good things do not last, blah, blah.That was a year ago. And Matteen was fine for a bit, clinging to this stoic philosophical read, but the loss was hitting him constitutionally now.
i really enjoyed this story, up until the end. see what a crank i am? the end just felt off somehow, with its odd, almost supernatural tone. it's not overtly supernatural, nothing like that, but there's this witchy/succubus tone to it that left me a little befuddled. and that's mostly why i wanted more follow-up - i wanted to know what came next. alas.
The Moon
this one was probably my favorite. an utterly gorgeous bruised-but-stoic feel to it. it was sad and oddly romantic for a story containing the line 'I just pulled a wee length of pussy out of my gob.'
another story about a convenient physical relationship that unexpectedly snags the heart and won't let go, despite how unrealistic it would be to continue.
'You like this place, don't you Val? You like everything about it,' said Martina.
'That sounds like an accusation.'
'Not at all. Someone has to stay put, hold down the fort.'
'You're not going anywhere that far.'
'Galway's not that far,' said Martina, 'but it might as well be the moon for people like you.'
oh, martina, you heartbreaker, you.
Stand Your Skin
another strong story, this. it did a really good job of highlighting that oppressive small-town atmosphere, where everyone has known everyone else since they were little kids, and no one is given an opportunity to hide from their past or become something unexpected; everything is socially preordained, the weight of your past is inescapable, and fuck you for trying. poor, poor bat, drinking by himself on his roof every night, with his holden caulfield impulses to protect the young girls from the inevitable, and his unfortunate visage:
Bat was never a good looking lad, even before Tansey cracked his face in half, he knows that. His features are and always have been round and nubby, irremediably homely, exuding all the definition of a bowl of mashed-up spuds. His eyes, at least, are distinctive, though not necessarily in a good way; they are thick-lashed, purplishly-pupiled and primed glintingly wide. They suggest urgent, unseemly appeal. You look constantly as if in want, his old dear chided him all up through childhood.
poor bat, whom everyone has written off - whose "accident" is the endpoint of his development, in the town lore and gossip. he will never be more than that anecdote.
there are a couple of stories in this collection that are single-character POV until the very end, when the perspective shifts to an unexpected character's sights. this is one of them, and it's an effective shift.
Calm With Horses
this one, you will recall, is the long one. and despite it being so long, i was enthusiastic enough with the characters and the story to wish for a book-length version of it. this one veers into grit lit territory, with its criminal element operating in the secluded backwoods, culminating in scenes of explosive, detailed violence. it also had a fantastic moment of black comedy, which meshed strikingly with a scene from boardwalk empire:
great story, great ending - this one makes me want to read a novel by barrett, because he definitely maintains his stride throughout the longer space, and it's a very successful, satisfying piece of bleak-ass writing.
Diamonds
this one didn't make me feel one way or another. it is the story from which the collection draws its name:
'But you were there and I was there,' she said. 'In our young skins, though we didn't know each other from Adam. Strange to think of it.'
the irony, of course, being that the two characters in this conversation still don't know each other, except in the false closeness of carnal relations. it's short and sad, but it didn't resonate much with me. i can see it being a favorite for a different reader, but there are other stories i preferred.
Kindly Forget My Existence
this one i can see being staged as a play somewhere. the action all takes place in a bar, with some flashbacks to the characters' shared past, and the more horrifying backstory of the bartender. this is another one that uses the last-scene POV-handoff, which leaves behind a good closing tone for the collection. it's mournful and a little haunting, and the character is left not knowing what happened to the men with whom he passed an afternoon, the same way the reader is left not knowing the aftermath of any of the stories they have just read. a pleasantly sustained open-ended feeling.
i would enthusiastically read more by this guy.
come to my blog!
November 12, 2017
This is another book I’ve wanted to read for ages.... the time finally arrived!
“Young Skins” is a collection of short stories - 6 stories and 1 novella - a debut which won several impressive book awards including The Frank O’Conner International Short Story Award and The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
Colin Barrett’s stories, although each very different, have a running theme throughout: failure is hiding in the shadows of these men and women who live in the small town of Glanbeigh....( a fictional town in Ireland)...their discomforts, resentments, disillusionment, longings, loss, and defeats between the youth and adults.
The town Glanbeigh itself is a very bleak place - it’s not a town where people’s lives are thriving and inspiring ....unless of course drinking cocktails, with red syrup and crushed ice concoctions are the highlight of your day.
Dreary is as dreary is!....
Crazy- wonderful -deadpan -characters - with names that fit their basic dispositions — BAT, TUG, NUBBIN TANSEY, ARM, DYMPNA, MINION, etc. These characters are bored - do little - drink a lot of beer- don’t expect much hope for their future - and what plays on our thoughts is just how real this image is of life for many twenty somethings today - in pockets all over the world.
Profanity, violence, humor in the context of darkness....
........gorgeous lyrical elegant prose!
A very talented young author! Cheers for the Irish!
“Young Skins” is a collection of short stories - 6 stories and 1 novella - a debut which won several impressive book awards including The Frank O’Conner International Short Story Award and The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
Colin Barrett’s stories, although each very different, have a running theme throughout: failure is hiding in the shadows of these men and women who live in the small town of Glanbeigh....( a fictional town in Ireland)...their discomforts, resentments, disillusionment, longings, loss, and defeats between the youth and adults.
The town Glanbeigh itself is a very bleak place - it’s not a town where people’s lives are thriving and inspiring ....unless of course drinking cocktails, with red syrup and crushed ice concoctions are the highlight of your day.
Dreary is as dreary is!....
Crazy- wonderful -deadpan -characters - with names that fit their basic dispositions — BAT, TUG, NUBBIN TANSEY, ARM, DYMPNA, MINION, etc. These characters are bored - do little - drink a lot of beer- don’t expect much hope for their future - and what plays on our thoughts is just how real this image is of life for many twenty somethings today - in pockets all over the world.
Profanity, violence, humor in the context of darkness....
........gorgeous lyrical elegant prose!
A very talented young author! Cheers for the Irish!
January 9, 2018
An extraordinary debut of contemporary short stories by Irish author, Colin Barrett, winner of the Frank O’Connor Irish Short Stories and the Rooney Prize. Set in Glanbeigh, Ireland, his characters show the downtrodden side of Irish society. Barrett’s prose is sharp, vibrant, and moody. Crass at times, but brilliant.
What a very fine voice to enter the contemporary Irish literary world.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars
What a very fine voice to enter the contemporary Irish literary world.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars
May 6, 2025
The review is for Stand Your Skin short story only. I read it in The Art of the Glimpse, an anthology of short stories written by Irish Authors.
I think this author has a lot of potential, which was proven by him being Longlisted for the Booker Prize last year for his 1st novel.
The story is about a small town where everybody knows everyone. Bat was a developing crook but he had an accident and he almost died. Left with a deformed face, there is not much waiting for him in the future.
I think this author has a lot of potential, which was proven by him being Longlisted for the Booker Prize last year for his 1st novel.
The story is about a small town where everybody knows everyone. Bat was a developing crook but he had an accident and he almost died. Left with a deformed face, there is not much waiting for him in the future.
November 24, 2018
Colin Barrett has a stunning way with words. Some of these sentences are unbearably beautiful. As such I can absolutely see why this collection comes this highly praised. But, for me personally, the stories were just too bleak in the end and in their bleakness too similar to each other.
The stories focus young men and not so young men who for one reason or the other are unhappy in their lives. There is a sense of hopelessness that infuses these stories, a sense of roads not taken and lives not lived. All stories are impeccably crafted but maybe too similar in tone. Short fiction is often a format that plays with hopelessness and sadness, but even so, this one was too sad for me.
Barrett infuses his stories with a great sense of place in a way that I really appreciated. His depiction of small town Irish life rings true (as true as it can ring for me who has never lived there).
My favourite story was the very last story of the collection: Kindly Forget My Existence was just the perfect way to end this collection. Here two former bandmates meet again at a pub in their hometown, trying to drink their cowardice away and attend the funeral of their ex-girlfriend and ex-wife respectively. The whole story is just pitch perfect and nearly had me up my rating. If you only read one story of this collection, make sure it is this one.
You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.
The stories focus young men and not so young men who for one reason or the other are unhappy in their lives. There is a sense of hopelessness that infuses these stories, a sense of roads not taken and lives not lived. All stories are impeccably crafted but maybe too similar in tone. Short fiction is often a format that plays with hopelessness and sadness, but even so, this one was too sad for me.
Barrett infuses his stories with a great sense of place in a way that I really appreciated. His depiction of small town Irish life rings true (as true as it can ring for me who has never lived there).
My favourite story was the very last story of the collection: Kindly Forget My Existence was just the perfect way to end this collection. Here two former bandmates meet again at a pub in their hometown, trying to drink their cowardice away and attend the funeral of their ex-girlfriend and ex-wife respectively. The whole story is just pitch perfect and nearly had me up my rating. If you only read one story of this collection, make sure it is this one.
You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.
March 25, 2019
In the vein of authors like Donal Ryan and Lisa McInerney, Colin Barrett has a gift for conjuring quiet scenes from small-town Irish life that bristle with a kind of dormant tension. Young Skins is a collection of seven short stories that all take place in the same town, and often the same pub, with a few overlapping characters, but which mostly stand on their own. Each story focuses on a male protagonist, usually young, all in some way navigating working class life, post-Ireland's financial collapse.
It's very rare that I give a short story collection 5 stars; it's to be expected that in a collection like this, certain stories are going to shine and certain others are going to fade into the background. Though I loved Barrett's prose throughout, this collection really wasn't an exception to the rule - there are stories I loved and stories I found to be rather forgettable (though thankfully none I outright disliked).
The Clancy Kid was a strong opening, introducing us to the gritty, bleak backdrop of young love turned to heartbreak that characterizes so many of these stories, as well as the kind of violence that permeates male youth culture. Bait is a tricky one; I'd been loving it, up until the very end where it takes an... incongruously supernatural(?) turn that I still haven't fully made sense of. (If you've read this story, please tell me your thoughts on the ending.)
The Moon didn't leave much of an impression on me, though this is where Barrett states a lot of the collection's thematic conceits rather plainly, which makes it a solid addition (a young, flighty woman says to our protagonist at one point "Galway's not that far[,] but it might as well be the moon for people like you.") And I thought Stand Your Skin was maybe too thematically similar to The Moon, though Stand Your Skin is the one I preferred.
Calm With Horses, the collection's magnum opus, is more of a novella than a short story, nearing 100 pages. In my opinion this story stands head and shoulders above the rest, and it's not just because of its length. I think this is where Barrett is able to really stretch his legs and show us what he's capable of. Various characters and subplots weave in an out of this one and all dovetail in a satisfying, heart-rending conclusion. I really hope Barrett has a novel in the works.
Diamonds I think is solidly the weakest story that doesn't offer much that we can't already find elsewhere. And Kindly Forget My Existence is a fitting ending, where Barrett eschews his young protagonists in favor of two middle aged men who sit down at a pub and discuss their own youth.
So, as with most short story collections, a mixed bag, but it's worth the price of admission for the stunningly tragic Calm With Horses alone, and the rest of the stories mostly hold their own as well. Dismal and hopeless as this collection is on the whole, there's an assured beauty to Barrett's prose that I found very striking, especially for a debut, and I can't wait to see what he does next.
It's very rare that I give a short story collection 5 stars; it's to be expected that in a collection like this, certain stories are going to shine and certain others are going to fade into the background. Though I loved Barrett's prose throughout, this collection really wasn't an exception to the rule - there are stories I loved and stories I found to be rather forgettable (though thankfully none I outright disliked).
The Clancy Kid was a strong opening, introducing us to the gritty, bleak backdrop of young love turned to heartbreak that characterizes so many of these stories, as well as the kind of violence that permeates male youth culture. Bait is a tricky one; I'd been loving it, up until the very end where it takes an... incongruously supernatural(?) turn that I still haven't fully made sense of. (If you've read this story, please tell me your thoughts on the ending.)
The Moon didn't leave much of an impression on me, though this is where Barrett states a lot of the collection's thematic conceits rather plainly, which makes it a solid addition (a young, flighty woman says to our protagonist at one point "Galway's not that far[,] but it might as well be the moon for people like you.") And I thought Stand Your Skin was maybe too thematically similar to The Moon, though Stand Your Skin is the one I preferred.
Calm With Horses, the collection's magnum opus, is more of a novella than a short story, nearing 100 pages. In my opinion this story stands head and shoulders above the rest, and it's not just because of its length. I think this is where Barrett is able to really stretch his legs and show us what he's capable of. Various characters and subplots weave in an out of this one and all dovetail in a satisfying, heart-rending conclusion. I really hope Barrett has a novel in the works.
Diamonds I think is solidly the weakest story that doesn't offer much that we can't already find elsewhere. And Kindly Forget My Existence is a fitting ending, where Barrett eschews his young protagonists in favor of two middle aged men who sit down at a pub and discuss their own youth.
So, as with most short story collections, a mixed bag, but it's worth the price of admission for the stunningly tragic Calm With Horses alone, and the rest of the stories mostly hold their own as well. Dismal and hopeless as this collection is on the whole, there's an assured beauty to Barrett's prose that I found very striking, especially for a debut, and I can't wait to see what he does next.
November 21, 2024
3.5 stars
short review for busy readers:
An award-winning literary debut collection focused on young men (Irish slang: "young skins") in a fictional small town in Ireland. Lots of tragedy, frustration and going nowhere fast. Contains the novella Calm With Horses which was made into a movie a few years ago.
in detail:
After reading the novella from his collection as a taster, I decided to circle back and read the entire collection.
I wasn't terribly impressed with the first two opening stories and the last one, despite how well written they are. They simply don't seem to gel very well and are a tad obtusely 'literary' although the symbolism and mirroring are quite competent.
However, the "portrait" stories -- one about a bouncer and one about an accident-deformed young man -- and the story of an alcoholic being tempted off the wagon were excellent. 3 out of 6 isn't bad!
A run down story by story...
1. The Clancy Kid: a tale about the pangs of realising childhood is over for good. One of the protags is obsessed with a missing child case (the Clancy kid), the other with the fact that an on-again-off-again girlfriend is marrying another man. Okay, with nice symbolism. 3 stars
2. Bait: a bit of a strange tale about how women have the power to emotionally undo a man...which is one of the reasons young men behave so misogynistically and uppity towards them. A mix of fear and desire...and how some young women take advantage of that. 2 stars.
3. The Moon: Quite a good portrait of a night club bouncer who realises he's checking all the boxes, but going nowhere...and possibly never will. 4.5 stars.
4. Stand Your Skin: Excellent portrait of the victim of an unprovoked attack that destroyed his face and confidence. He now exists on the fringes of society and can't seem to relate to people any more, no matter how hard he tries. 5 stars.
5. Calm With Horses: see my review of this novella here
6. Diamonds: Portrait of an alcoholic falling off the wagon after an earnest attempt to stay on. Quite well done. 4.5 stars
7. Kindly Forget My Existence: An okay story about two men preparing to attend the funeral of a woman they both used to love. They're terrified, so spend most of the morning drinking in a pub. 3 stars.
short review for busy readers:
An award-winning literary debut collection focused on young men (Irish slang: "young skins") in a fictional small town in Ireland. Lots of tragedy, frustration and going nowhere fast. Contains the novella Calm With Horses which was made into a movie a few years ago.
in detail:
After reading the novella from his collection as a taster, I decided to circle back and read the entire collection.
I wasn't terribly impressed with the first two opening stories and the last one, despite how well written they are. They simply don't seem to gel very well and are a tad obtusely 'literary' although the symbolism and mirroring are quite competent.
However, the "portrait" stories -- one about a bouncer and one about an accident-deformed young man -- and the story of an alcoholic being tempted off the wagon were excellent. 3 out of 6 isn't bad!
A run down story by story...
1. The Clancy Kid: a tale about the pangs of realising childhood is over for good. One of the protags is obsessed with a missing child case (the Clancy kid), the other with the fact that an on-again-off-again girlfriend is marrying another man. Okay, with nice symbolism. 3 stars
2. Bait: a bit of a strange tale about how women have the power to emotionally undo a man...which is one of the reasons young men behave so misogynistically and uppity towards them. A mix of fear and desire...and how some young women take advantage of that. 2 stars.
3. The Moon: Quite a good portrait of a night club bouncer who realises he's checking all the boxes, but going nowhere...and possibly never will. 4.5 stars.
4. Stand Your Skin: Excellent portrait of the victim of an unprovoked attack that destroyed his face and confidence. He now exists on the fringes of society and can't seem to relate to people any more, no matter how hard he tries. 5 stars.
5. Calm With Horses: see my review of this novella here
6. Diamonds: Portrait of an alcoholic falling off the wagon after an earnest attempt to stay on. Quite well done. 4.5 stars
7. Kindly Forget My Existence: An okay story about two men preparing to attend the funeral of a woman they both used to love. They're terrified, so spend most of the morning drinking in a pub. 3 stars.
February 9, 2016
My God, these stories are dispiriting! Maybe they hit a little bit too close to home for me. Like these characters I come from a small village in the west of Ireland so I recognise some of the sense of hopelessness, disillusionment and despair described in these pages. That's also my one major criticism. Barrett focuses exclusively on the no-hopers, the deadbeats - people who live their whole blinkered life in the same place. But rural Ireland is not entirely the relentlessly bleak picture he paints. Believe me there is beauty and wonder to be found there too.
The writing itself is stunning. From the first few assured paragraphs, you know you're in the hands of a master. Barrett is extremely adept at evoking the unsettling atmosphere of a small-town Saturday night, when the hard-working locals who live for the weekend remove their shackles and all hell is known to break loose.
The novella Calm With Horses is an unforgettable standout. It describes the exploits of Arm, an ex-boxer who provides the muscle for a local drug dealer. The tone is incredibly ominous from the start and the tension ratchets so sweetly to a heart-stopping denouement. I had to the book down for a while to catch my breath.
But I read to escape, and this collection sucks me back into the gloomy, discouraging aspect of my upbringing. Hence the four stars. This is a confident, striking debut. I'd like to see if Barrett can take a look outside this Darkness On The Edge Of Town - I'll be keeping a close eye on what he does next.
The writing itself is stunning. From the first few assured paragraphs, you know you're in the hands of a master. Barrett is extremely adept at evoking the unsettling atmosphere of a small-town Saturday night, when the hard-working locals who live for the weekend remove their shackles and all hell is known to break loose.
The novella Calm With Horses is an unforgettable standout. It describes the exploits of Arm, an ex-boxer who provides the muscle for a local drug dealer. The tone is incredibly ominous from the start and the tension ratchets so sweetly to a heart-stopping denouement. I had to the book down for a while to catch my breath.
But I read to escape, and this collection sucks me back into the gloomy, discouraging aspect of my upbringing. Hence the four stars. This is a confident, striking debut. I'd like to see if Barrett can take a look outside this Darkness On The Edge Of Town - I'll be keeping a close eye on what he does next.
September 18, 2015
I'd rate this 4.5 stars.
Gritty, sometimes bleak, but full of well-developed characters and emotions, the stories in Colin Barrett's collection Young Skins are tremendously compelling and memorable.
Set in the small Irish town of Glanbeigh, Barrett's stories evoke the weariness one feels when they have spent most of their life in one place, with the same people, following the same path they always have. Sometimes his characters are down on their luck, sometimes their facing a major crossroads, and sometimes they're just hoping for a little more out of life. And even when they aren't the most upstanding people (to put it mildly, in some cases), Barrett's respect for his characters makes you care about them anyway.
I really enjoyed all seven stories in this collection. Some of my favorites included "Stand Your Skin," about a man whose face was damaged by someone else's act of recklessness, and how he tends to live his life on the margins; "The Moon," about a senior bouncer at a bar, whose infatuation with his boss' college-aged daughter makes him ponder a different life than he has known; "Calm with Horses," which followed Arm, the enforcer for a neighborhood drug dealer, whose life is far more complex and complicated than you'd expect; "The Clancy Kid," about a lovelorn young man and his larger-than-life best friend, who is obsessed with the kidnapping of a young boy from their neighborhood; and "Kindly Forget My Existence," in which two old friends and romantic rivals are reunited when both try to avoid a solemn occasion.
While Barrett's writing style reminded me a bit of Roddy Doyle's, he has a voice all his own. I had read about this collection a number of times over the last several months, and it always had been on my to be read list, but I'm so glad I finally picked it up. These stories are rich with character, plot, and introspection, and they definitely leave you marveling. Colin Barrett may be a relative newcomer to the world of fiction, but I don't anticipate he'll be a flash in the pan given his talent.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Gritty, sometimes bleak, but full of well-developed characters and emotions, the stories in Colin Barrett's collection Young Skins are tremendously compelling and memorable.
Set in the small Irish town of Glanbeigh, Barrett's stories evoke the weariness one feels when they have spent most of their life in one place, with the same people, following the same path they always have. Sometimes his characters are down on their luck, sometimes their facing a major crossroads, and sometimes they're just hoping for a little more out of life. And even when they aren't the most upstanding people (to put it mildly, in some cases), Barrett's respect for his characters makes you care about them anyway.
I really enjoyed all seven stories in this collection. Some of my favorites included "Stand Your Skin," about a man whose face was damaged by someone else's act of recklessness, and how he tends to live his life on the margins; "The Moon," about a senior bouncer at a bar, whose infatuation with his boss' college-aged daughter makes him ponder a different life than he has known; "Calm with Horses," which followed Arm, the enforcer for a neighborhood drug dealer, whose life is far more complex and complicated than you'd expect; "The Clancy Kid," about a lovelorn young man and his larger-than-life best friend, who is obsessed with the kidnapping of a young boy from their neighborhood; and "Kindly Forget My Existence," in which two old friends and romantic rivals are reunited when both try to avoid a solemn occasion.
While Barrett's writing style reminded me a bit of Roddy Doyle's, he has a voice all his own. I had read about this collection a number of times over the last several months, and it always had been on my to be read list, but I'm so glad I finally picked it up. These stories are rich with character, plot, and introspection, and they definitely leave you marveling. Colin Barrett may be a relative newcomer to the world of fiction, but I don't anticipate he'll be a flash in the pan given his talent.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
March 29, 2015
3.5 Quite a few good stories by this up and coming Irish writer. Stuck in a Irish town with boarded up windows for store fronts and little or no job opportunity besides hanging, playing pool etch these young men and women spend endless days trying to outwit boredom and the nullifying effects of sameness. Some hang on to long to past relationships and dreams, others kind of step in place, just going through motions, preserving, denying their bleak outlook. What saves these scenarios are some cunning witticisms, dark humor and despite the hopelessness, a sense of perseverance and a touch of hope.
February 2, 2017
A fabulous collection of stories... just like with Welcome Thieves , there's a grittiness and rawness to the stories that pulls you in...even if you didn't like the people or what they did.
Most of the stories were easy to get lost in, even the ones I didn't like as much... in their own way.
One story in particular (Calm with Horses ) was good but it felt like a couple endings happened before the actual one happened. A couple moments in that one seemed particularly tragic to me, in different ways... despite everything, had me wanting to know more,what would happen next.
Would recommend, one of those books more people should know about :)
----
The Clancy Kid : 4 stars
"It is Sunday. The weekend, that three-day festival of attrition, is done. Sunday is the day of purgation and redress; of tenderised brain cases and seesawing stomachs and hollow pledges to never, ever get that twisted again. A day you are happy to see slip by before it ever really gets going. "
Bait : 3.5 stars
And then more laughter, and I could not tell who had spoken and who was laughing, and if it wasn't for the boot flat against my Adam's apple I would have begged go ahead girls,I would have begged you to do your worst. "
The Moon : 4 stars
From their elevated niche, the three watched as the last of the night's crowd slowly dispersed. Girls huddled together rubbing their bare, goosefleshed arms. Boys stood alone with their chests out, fists wadded into pockets, glowering at the dark with thwarted, bloodshot eyes.
Other boys and girls leant into one another, tangling arms, laughing conspicuously. "
Stand Your Skin: 4 stars
"The Honda is no power racer, but watching the dimpled macadam hurtle away beneath the monocular glare of his headlight, Bat feels he is moving too fast to exist; as he dips into and leans out of the crooks and curves of the road, he becomes the crooks and curves. A bristling silence hangs over the deep adjacent acres-- the pastures, woodlands and hills sprawled out all around him. "
Calm with Horses 3.5 stars
"Dympna Devers was twenty-five, a year older than Arm. Dympna sold marijuana, fat green ziplocked bags of the stuff, all over town. The town was small, and Dympna held a monopoly on such business. Fannigan was the eldest of the crew of five dealers currently in Dympna's employ. Fannigan sold out of the industrial estate, where he worked evenings as a production-line stiff in the Allgen medical prosthetics plant."
""They were beyond the farmsteads now, into reefs of bogland infested with gorse bushes. Bony, hard-thorned and truculently thriving, the gorse bushes' yellow blossoms were vivid against the grained black sheen of the sump waters, the seamed bog fields. The sky was clearing itself of clouds. The day was on its afternoon wane, already. "
Diamonds : 4 stars
"I left the city with my connections scorched and my prospects blown, looking only for somewhere to batten down for the winter to come. I left on a bright morning in August, dozing fitfully as the train drifted through the purgatorial horizontals of the midlands, heading west. "
Kindly forget my existence 4 stars
"Eli's rinsed brogues squeaked on the Tavern's floorboards. He transferred his overcoat from one arm to the other. Limply piled and dripping, it resembled the lustreless corpse of a drowned animal. Eli heaped the coat on the stool adjacent to Doran's, but remained standing himself. "
Most of the stories were easy to get lost in, even the ones I didn't like as much... in their own way.
One story in particular (Calm with Horses ) was good but it felt like a couple endings happened before the actual one happened. A couple moments in that one seemed particularly tragic to me, in different ways... despite everything, had me wanting to know more,what would happen next.
Would recommend, one of those books more people should know about :)
----
The Clancy Kid : 4 stars
"It is Sunday. The weekend, that three-day festival of attrition, is done. Sunday is the day of purgation and redress; of tenderised brain cases and seesawing stomachs and hollow pledges to never, ever get that twisted again. A day you are happy to see slip by before it ever really gets going. "
Bait : 3.5 stars
And then more laughter, and I could not tell who had spoken and who was laughing, and if it wasn't for the boot flat against my Adam's apple I would have begged go ahead girls,I would have begged you to do your worst. "
The Moon : 4 stars
From their elevated niche, the three watched as the last of the night's crowd slowly dispersed. Girls huddled together rubbing their bare, goosefleshed arms. Boys stood alone with their chests out, fists wadded into pockets, glowering at the dark with thwarted, bloodshot eyes.
Other boys and girls leant into one another, tangling arms, laughing conspicuously. "
Stand Your Skin: 4 stars
"The Honda is no power racer, but watching the dimpled macadam hurtle away beneath the monocular glare of his headlight, Bat feels he is moving too fast to exist; as he dips into and leans out of the crooks and curves of the road, he becomes the crooks and curves. A bristling silence hangs over the deep adjacent acres-- the pastures, woodlands and hills sprawled out all around him. "
Calm with Horses 3.5 stars
"Dympna Devers was twenty-five, a year older than Arm. Dympna sold marijuana, fat green ziplocked bags of the stuff, all over town. The town was small, and Dympna held a monopoly on such business. Fannigan was the eldest of the crew of five dealers currently in Dympna's employ. Fannigan sold out of the industrial estate, where he worked evenings as a production-line stiff in the Allgen medical prosthetics plant."
""They were beyond the farmsteads now, into reefs of bogland infested with gorse bushes. Bony, hard-thorned and truculently thriving, the gorse bushes' yellow blossoms were vivid against the grained black sheen of the sump waters, the seamed bog fields. The sky was clearing itself of clouds. The day was on its afternoon wane, already. "
Diamonds : 4 stars
"I left the city with my connections scorched and my prospects blown, looking only for somewhere to batten down for the winter to come. I left on a bright morning in August, dozing fitfully as the train drifted through the purgatorial horizontals of the midlands, heading west. "
Kindly forget my existence 4 stars
"Eli's rinsed brogues squeaked on the Tavern's floorboards. He transferred his overcoat from one arm to the other. Limply piled and dripping, it resembled the lustreless corpse of a drowned animal. Eli heaped the coat on the stool adjacent to Doran's, but remained standing himself. "
November 21, 2024
A gritty collection of short stories and a novella set in the fictional Irish town of Glenbeigh. Mainly following young characters (hence the title) in economically unfavorable positions, resorting to theft and drug-dealing, chain-smoking and loitering at the local pub, these stories dig deeper than the aforementioned stereotypes. Barrett excels at setting the scene, with vividly sharp images that contribute to, rather than distract from, the main narrative. I truly enjoyed all of these stories, but believe they are best read in quick succession to get the full effect, rather than savoring each story slowly. The whole feels greater than the sum of its parts in this case, and I'm eager to check out more Barrett in the future.
March 17, 2017
Barrett presents six short stories and one novella about the residents of a small rural town in Ireland. Here are sad, lonely and disappointed people whose lives didn't turn out quite like they'd hoped. There's not much to do but hang at the pub, looking for adventure, love or at least a temporary thrill.
The stories are dark and happy endings rarer that a sunny day, yet an underlying comic tone keeps the mood from becoming too bleak.
This is an excellent debut by a writer with a bright future.
The stories are dark and happy endings rarer that a sunny day, yet an underlying comic tone keeps the mood from becoming too bleak.
This is an excellent debut by a writer with a bright future.
September 8, 2025
A strong collection about drunks and criminals going nowhere in Ireland.
One has to appreciate the young male writerly tendency to use nouns as verbs in order to get through most of these stories. For example one "heels" the kickstand of the motorbike. When overdone this calls attention to the writing and can detract from the story. Hopefully it is a phase one can grow out of, or perhaps will become once more seen as faddish.
One has to appreciate the young male writerly tendency to use nouns as verbs in order to get through most of these stories. For example one "heels" the kickstand of the motorbike. When overdone this calls attention to the writing and can detract from the story. Hopefully it is a phase one can grow out of, or perhaps will become once more seen as faddish.
September 16, 2025
Καθαρή ιρλανδική ατμόσφαιρα, συννεφιά και στόματα που τα χνώτα τους φτιάχνουν σύννεφα στον αέρα όταν φτύνουν μπινελίκια, ζωές που δεν είχαν πολλές επιλογές παρά να γδάρουν τις μέρες τους στους δρόμους, μπλεγμένες σε παρανομίες και φτώχια.
Το καταχάρηκα, όπως όταν βλέπω μια καλή αλήτικη ταινία απ'το νησί.
Ξέρεις εκείνες που είναι γεμάτες βία κοινωνική και ποίηση.
Το καταχάρηκα, όπως όταν βλέπω μια καλή αλήτικη ταινία απ'το νησί.
Ξέρεις εκείνες που είναι γεμάτες βία κοινωνική και ποίηση.
January 18, 2024
3.5 stars
Young Skins is a collection of stories set in a small, rural town in Ireland. It's about masculinity in that small town, the way it manifests in these male characters who are emotionally stunted, immature, violent, volatile, mercurial, repressed. But the characters of Young Skins are not all of those things at once, nor are they exclusively those things. In many ways they are all going through something--they are hurt, lonely, frustrated, insecure--and, lacking an outlet to process their feelings, they instead lash out, air out their frustrations in ways both petty and serious.
Of course, as Barrett skilfully shows us, these qualities don't exist in a vacuum. They are rooted in a social and cultural setting that conditions these characters to increasingly take on such tendencies, not just to fit in, but also--and in a very real way--to survive. And Barrett is so good at immersing you in the atmosphere of his small-town setting: once you're in it, you immediately start to get a sense of why it breeds the kind of men that it does. The insularity of this town, the way everyone in it always knows everything about everyone else, the very little that it offers these men in the way of choices or options. You start to see, then, the scaffolding that surrounds these characters and their decisions, enough to understand them, if not condone them (and let's be real, it's hard to find much to condone in these stories lol).
More than just depicting the insularity of this town, Young Skins also shows us how it stifles and oppresses until something just...gives, often at the expense of those who are most vulnerable. To my mind, each story of this collection tracks a kind of rupture: a violence big or small, done to someone or something. Violence is everywhere in these stories, barely held back until it is not; simmering, latent, insidious, until it becomes viscerally felt. "Calm with Horses," the longest piece of the collection--it's a novella--and my favourite of the bunch, strikingly and masterfully brings together all of these thematic concerns. It's an absolute suckerpunch of a story, and it fires on all cylinders: thematically, yes, but also in terms of characters (I was so invested), writing, pacing, plot.
Though I did overall really enjoy this collection--I have yet to dislike a single work of Barrett's--I do want to note that there were several stories that didn't quite hit the mark for me, namely "Diamonds," "Kindly Forget My Existence," and "Bait." But even though I didn't love every story of this collection, the quality of Barrett's writing and the sheer power of "Calm with Horses" altogether ended up elevating it to a 3.5-star read for me.
(If you're looking to get into Colin Barrett's work, I would definitely recommend starting with his second short story collection, Homesickness, and then coming back to this one.)
Young Skins is a collection of stories set in a small, rural town in Ireland. It's about masculinity in that small town, the way it manifests in these male characters who are emotionally stunted, immature, violent, volatile, mercurial, repressed. But the characters of Young Skins are not all of those things at once, nor are they exclusively those things. In many ways they are all going through something--they are hurt, lonely, frustrated, insecure--and, lacking an outlet to process their feelings, they instead lash out, air out their frustrations in ways both petty and serious.
Of course, as Barrett skilfully shows us, these qualities don't exist in a vacuum. They are rooted in a social and cultural setting that conditions these characters to increasingly take on such tendencies, not just to fit in, but also--and in a very real way--to survive. And Barrett is so good at immersing you in the atmosphere of his small-town setting: once you're in it, you immediately start to get a sense of why it breeds the kind of men that it does. The insularity of this town, the way everyone in it always knows everything about everyone else, the very little that it offers these men in the way of choices or options. You start to see, then, the scaffolding that surrounds these characters and their decisions, enough to understand them, if not condone them (and let's be real, it's hard to find much to condone in these stories lol).
More than just depicting the insularity of this town, Young Skins also shows us how it stifles and oppresses until something just...gives, often at the expense of those who are most vulnerable. To my mind, each story of this collection tracks a kind of rupture: a violence big or small, done to someone or something. Violence is everywhere in these stories, barely held back until it is not; simmering, latent, insidious, until it becomes viscerally felt. "Calm with Horses," the longest piece of the collection--it's a novella--and my favourite of the bunch, strikingly and masterfully brings together all of these thematic concerns. It's an absolute suckerpunch of a story, and it fires on all cylinders: thematically, yes, but also in terms of characters (I was so invested), writing, pacing, plot.
Though I did overall really enjoy this collection--I have yet to dislike a single work of Barrett's--I do want to note that there were several stories that didn't quite hit the mark for me, namely "Diamonds," "Kindly Forget My Existence," and "Bait." But even though I didn't love every story of this collection, the quality of Barrett's writing and the sheer power of "Calm with Horses" altogether ended up elevating it to a 3.5-star read for me.
(If you're looking to get into Colin Barrett's work, I would definitely recommend starting with his second short story collection, Homesickness, and then coming back to this one.)
November 11, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2022
3.5, rounded down to 3. ¿Por qué? Well, first, let me just say that three stars represents a solid, or solid-enough book. I point that out because, for some Goodreads readers/raters, a three represents just a so-so book, while for me, that's what a TWO-star rating represents. Anyway, coming back to "Young Skins," there's some real talent there, some vivid characterizations, for example, but I did not find enough in the book to round up rather than round down. Paradoxically, I am still very much looking forward to Colin Barrett's sophomore effort, "Homesickness," which I have at home from the library. But I say that with some reserve; as I wrote recently about another collection of short stories, I have come to realize that, in general, I am just not the right audience for short story collections. Let's see if anything changes, but in the meantime, I would feel comfortable recommending "Young Skins" and Colin Barrett if you're looking for fresh voices.
September 11, 2015
The stories have an elegantly terse style and there is much to be admired, but one cannot make a chamber orchestra by playing one, or at best two, instruments.
Barrett is short of insight about life, particularly those outside his age group. He dismisses the elderly, and women, with pejorative nicknames; he relegates them to the shadows of his stories except for two Mad Sweeney types--old men who still are only cameos. He's got the bleak rural Irish town setting right but this volume does not depict its full population.
A good start. Now that he's finished the MFA in the ivory tower, life may top him up like putting the finish on a pint that has half-settled.
Barrett is short of insight about life, particularly those outside his age group. He dismisses the elderly, and women, with pejorative nicknames; he relegates them to the shadows of his stories except for two Mad Sweeney types--old men who still are only cameos. He's got the bleak rural Irish town setting right but this volume does not depict its full population.
A good start. Now that he's finished the MFA in the ivory tower, life may top him up like putting the finish on a pint that has half-settled.
July 21, 2022
Gritty is the only word to describe these well-written short stories. I liked some, but not all. So, for me, it’s a mixed bag. I look forward to reading his latest short story collection, Homesickness, soon.
September 24, 2024
This unfaltering and brilliant collection of short stories was Barrett’s debut, to be followed this year 2024) by his excellent novel Wild Houses which was longlisted for the Booker Prize.
Each story here focuses on a young male protagonist struggling through a working class life in the fictional town of Glanbeigh in County Mayo after Ireland’s financial collapse.
Calm With Horses is of novella length, at about 100 pages, and will be best known to many, as it was adapted for a very good, and successful, film in 2019. Along with the first story in the book, this is the stand-out piece, though there are no weak ones.
This is a dark and intense character-focused story that takes place in that narrow intersection of crime and literary fiction. This is where Barrett excels, the characters that haunt the pubs, streets, roads and surrounding woods, are his people; he writes about them with a beauty and toughness that encapsulates their malaise and passively and naïvely endure a fate.
Here, the protagonist, Arm, is an ex amateur boxer who is earns some cash with an enterprising young dope dealer who is also his childhood friend, Dympa. At the opening of the story he is waiting patiently in the car while his boss confronts an old man who abused his family’s hospitality by trying to climb into bed with a fourteen year old girl. That Dympa reluctantly orders a beating and insists on nothing more says a lot about him. But, it isn’t over there.. when the ‘uncles’ hear of it, they demand a much more severe retribution.
The other stand-out is the opening story, The Clancy Kid, in which young love turns to heartbreak, an introduction to the bleak and grim existence of the community, as well as the kind of violence that permeates male youth culture.
Here’s a couple of clips from it..
and..
Each story here focuses on a young male protagonist struggling through a working class life in the fictional town of Glanbeigh in County Mayo after Ireland’s financial collapse.
Calm With Horses is of novella length, at about 100 pages, and will be best known to many, as it was adapted for a very good, and successful, film in 2019. Along with the first story in the book, this is the stand-out piece, though there are no weak ones.
This is a dark and intense character-focused story that takes place in that narrow intersection of crime and literary fiction. This is where Barrett excels, the characters that haunt the pubs, streets, roads and surrounding woods, are his people; he writes about them with a beauty and toughness that encapsulates their malaise and passively and naïvely endure a fate.
Here, the protagonist, Arm, is an ex amateur boxer who is earns some cash with an enterprising young dope dealer who is also his childhood friend, Dympa. At the opening of the story he is waiting patiently in the car while his boss confronts an old man who abused his family’s hospitality by trying to climb into bed with a fourteen year old girl. That Dympa reluctantly orders a beating and insists on nothing more says a lot about him. But, it isn’t over there.. when the ‘uncles’ hear of it, they demand a much more severe retribution.
The other stand-out is the opening story, The Clancy Kid, in which young love turns to heartbreak, an introduction to the bleak and grim existence of the community, as well as the kind of violence that permeates male youth culture.
Here’s a couple of clips from it..
We pit-stop at Carcetti's fast-foodery and chow down on chips as we take the towpath by the river. Slender reeds brush against one another as cleanly as freshly whetted blades. The wet shore-stone, black as coal, glints in its bed of algae. Crushed cans of Strongbow and Dutch Gold and Karpackie are buried in the mud like ancient artefacts.
Thickets and thickets of midges waver in the air. They feast on the passing planets of our heads.
and..
It was warm out, and getting warmer it seemed. We were enduring a marathon hot snap, a thirteen-day stretch of rainlessness unheard of in our otherwise perennially sodden clime. Water shortages bedevilled the farmsteads surrounding our town. Pasture had paled and browned and in the open country you could stand by the side of an empty road and hear the massed dry ticking of the bramble ditches that fringed the fields.
Cows grouped in the shadow patch thrown by a lone dollop of cumulus and followed that patch as the cloud drifted across the sky. Dogs nuzzled the undersides of stones, seeking the moisture clinging there. In town, pensioners staggered in a sunstroked trance from street to street and tried to recall their destination.
April 13, 2024
Histórias vulgares sobre gente vulgar, relatadas com uma crueza desarmante, colocam Colin Barrett na minha lista de autores a seguir.
Uma colecção de contos sobre situações mundanas, desenroladas em ambiente Irlandês, com uma prosa ora directa ora a puxar pelo lado mais poético mas que se lêem muito bem.
Uma colecção de contos sobre situações mundanas, desenroladas em ambiente Irlandês, com uma prosa ora directa ora a puxar pelo lado mais poético mas que se lêem muito bem.
August 23, 2015
To repeat what people who are far better than I am at reviewing literature, this is an excellent first book, and I hope more will follow.
June 8, 2025
Αρκετές ωραίες λέξεις. Αυτό. Ωραίες λέξεις,όμως,δεν σημαίνουν υποχρεωτικά ωραίες ιστορίες!
Με εξαίρεση το Ήρεμα με τα Άλογα και τα Διαμάντια που ήταν ό,τι πιο αξιοδιάβαστο υπήρχε εδώ, το υπόλοιπο ήταν κουραστικό, αδιάφορο και οριακά βαρετό.
3/5⭐️ αποκλειστικά για τις 2 ιστορίες και την εξαιρετική μετάφραση,παρόλο που με ξένισε αρκετά η χρήση του ρήματος "καταβροχθίζω " (δύο φορές μάλιστα) για κάτι υγρό. Πιθανότατα ήταν κάποια "ιδιοτροπία" του συγγραφέα.
Ωραίος τίτλος;Ναι.
Ωραίο εξώφυλλο;Ναι.
Άξιζαν τα 15 ευρώ του; Όχι.
Θα ξαναδιαβάσω κάτι δικό του;Όχι.
Έμεινα με την χαρά της Ιρλανδ��ας αμανάτι...
Με εξαίρεση το Ήρεμα με τα Άλογα και τα Διαμάντια που ήταν ό,τι πιο αξιοδιάβαστο υπήρχε εδώ, το υπόλοιπο ήταν κουραστικό, αδιάφορο και οριακά βαρετό.
3/5⭐️ αποκλειστικά για τις 2 ιστορίες και την εξαιρετική μετάφραση,παρόλο που με ξένισε αρκετά η χρήση του ρήματος "καταβροχθίζω " (δύο φορές μάλιστα) για κάτι υγρό. Πιθανότατα ήταν κάποια "ιδιοτροπία" του συγγραφέα.
Ωραίος τίτλος;Ναι.
Ωραίο εξώφυλλο;Ναι.
Άξιζαν τα 15 ευρώ του; Όχι.
Θα ξαναδιαβάσω κάτι δικό του;Όχι.
Έμεινα με την χαρά της Ιρλανδ��ας αμανάτι...
August 1, 2014
A really outstanding collection of short stories!
This is a new Irish writer and his first published collection but my goodness
his writing is just awesome!
This is a new Irish writer and his first published collection but my goodness
his writing is just awesome!
February 2, 2022
Parafraseando a Harry Crews: «Belleza, humor, gozo y éxtasis». Un libro duro, bello y terrible sobre gente destrozada.
September 22, 2023
Christ on a bike I could never get enough of writing like this.
November 23, 2015
Splendid. Raw, bleak, kitchen sink and very much of our times. This is the recessionary landscape that very few write about. Funnily enough, the other writer who does stand out in my memory as writing about it is also Irish and small town (Donal Ryan) - and the UK's finest answer, Jon McGregor, is on the blurb of this one.
What a setting. There's the familiar sense of the 'badlands' and below the surface violence throughout - booze, violence, petty crime and incest. I don't think anyone serves this up as well as the Irish: it's that rural-idyll-meets-crazed-knacker few settings can promise as well. If it wasn't the West of Ireland, it'd be Cormac McCarthy country. In England, it'd be the Fens (which would mean it'd be also to a large degree be Traveller).
His prose is extremely confident, mature and never over-wrought - very here and now and clinical, with the occasional lyrical glimpse that is totally in keeping with the brogue and the Irish, well, ear. It's a collection about loss and the passage from youth (young skins if I recall either refers to 'our younger selves' and/or the old vs young gulf - typically in the gaze of of men directed at younger women). It reminded me of the great strength of the short story - that short impression; that generous slice of life. 'Calm with Horses' is obviously the blockbuster, but I found the 'Clancy Kid' story very touching in its ordinariness too: the little kid at the bridge pretending to two amused adults that he is the King: "If ye fall in there's nothing I can do". What a great moment.
If you can do this with an anonymous small town with no more than a chipper and a garage, you really are a fine practitioner.
What a setting. There's the familiar sense of the 'badlands' and below the surface violence throughout - booze, violence, petty crime and incest. I don't think anyone serves this up as well as the Irish: it's that rural-idyll-meets-crazed-knacker few settings can promise as well. If it wasn't the West of Ireland, it'd be Cormac McCarthy country. In England, it'd be the Fens (which would mean it'd be also to a large degree be Traveller).
His prose is extremely confident, mature and never over-wrought - very here and now and clinical, with the occasional lyrical glimpse that is totally in keeping with the brogue and the Irish, well, ear. It's a collection about loss and the passage from youth (young skins if I recall either refers to 'our younger selves' and/or the old vs young gulf - typically in the gaze of of men directed at younger women). It reminded me of the great strength of the short story - that short impression; that generous slice of life. 'Calm with Horses' is obviously the blockbuster, but I found the 'Clancy Kid' story very touching in its ordinariness too: the little kid at the bridge pretending to two amused adults that he is the King: "If ye fall in there's nothing I can do". What a great moment.
If you can do this with an anonymous small town with no more than a chipper and a garage, you really are a fine practitioner.
July 7, 2024
A brilliant collection of stories by a writer I am sure we will hear more of. I was just blown away by this collection. As someone who grew up in Ireland I will admit to an ingrained bias. I know the stories have the faults of a young first time author but all the same I just loved them and I am sure I will read them again.
Why does this edition have a separate listing on Goodreads? Why do so many books have duplicate listings? most commonly under 'author unknown'? as well as under the author's name?
Why does this edition have a separate listing on Goodreads? Why do so many books have duplicate listings? most commonly under 'author unknown'? as well as under the author's name?
November 4, 2015
A good read for the authors first book of short stories. The stories themselves are current, often humerous tales of life in rural communities in Ireland. I could relate to some of the stories where on a Sunday evening, nothing else to be doing except driving around town with your friends, ending up in the local pub playing pool.
His writing needs a bit of refinement(or editing) but definitely one to watch
His writing needs a bit of refinement(or editing) but definitely one to watch
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