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Sweet Home
'Wendy Erskine's first collection, Sweet Home . . . is every bit as good as her early stories in the always astute Stinging Fly magazine promised.' Jon McGregor, New Statesman
A reclusive cult-rock icon ends his days in the street where he was born; a lonely woman is fascinated by her niqab-wearing neighbours; a husband and wife become enmeshed in the lives of the young couple they pay to do their cleaning and gardening.
Set in contemporary East Belfast, these eleven acutely observed short stories come charged with regret and sorrow, desire and yearning. With clear-eyed compassion and wry humour, Wendy Erskine deftly lays bare her characters’ struggle to maintain control in an often cruel world, where tragic events cast long shadows. Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine heralds the arrival of a wonderfully compelling and truly distinctive voice from Northern Ireland.
A reclusive cult-rock icon ends his days in the street where he was born; a lonely woman is fascinated by her niqab-wearing neighbours; a husband and wife become enmeshed in the lives of the young couple they pay to do their cleaning and gardening.
Set in contemporary East Belfast, these eleven acutely observed short stories come charged with regret and sorrow, desire and yearning. With clear-eyed compassion and wry humour, Wendy Erskine deftly lays bare her characters’ struggle to maintain control in an often cruel world, where tragic events cast long shadows. Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine heralds the arrival of a wonderfully compelling and truly distinctive voice from Northern Ireland.
221 pages, Paperback
First published September 11, 2018
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December 19, 2025
العالم ليس رحبا بما يكفي لاختيار حر
إنها متوالية مغلقة وحينما تنفتح تنهار
في الحقيقة غرباء تعيش الشخصيات وتمضي، تنتقل في مساحات ضيقة مهما ارتحلت
الحلقة محكمة والتغيرات تلحق الجميع
في البيوت بعض السكينة والعزاء لاستقرار جاف مفعم بالوحدة والذكريات ومحاولة اكتشاف شيء عمن لم نعرفهم مع طول الإقامة
والشوارع تلتهم الأحلام وتسقط فيها لحظات الآمال الكاذبة
الشخصيات النسوية أكثر إيجابية، تمتلك الصبر، والرغبة في العمل
والأطفال تتنازع عليهم رغبات الانفصال
مشكلة معرفة، قد تبحث عن فرصة ضائعة في عالم لا علاقة له بك
لست سوى وجه مر منذ قليل، متعب، موجوع، يدعو للشفقة التي لا وقت لها ولا فائض من شعور
من الطريف أن تستمع إلى شخص يتحدث عنك بضمير الغائب
في الغالب ضمير الغائب حاضر دائما، لأن المخاطب مجهول، وهل تظن أن العالم يعرفك؟ إنهم يجرون خلف لقمة معلقة ببطاقة ماكينة الصرف، لا تغضب إن نظرت حولك أو أمامك أو خلفك ووجدتهم يتحدثون عن تلك الشخصية التي تبحث في المكان الخطأ
ومن نكد الدنيا على الإنسان المعاصر أن يرى صورته في السرد الحداثي بتقنية التحول السريع كمن يضغط على مفاتيح الحاسوب متنقلا بالصدفة بين مواقع مطروحة تعد ولا تفي ومن العبث التعلّق بها
مع ذلك فأنت تقرأ لوحات ربما عاشتها البشرية عبر العصور، حتى الكتابة التي تلوح على الصفحة كالوشم في ظاهر اليد، كما قال شاعرنا طرفة قديما، وهل في الإبداع قديم وجديد؟ إنها الكتابة، لوحات ضياع في البيداء المعرفية
إنها متوالية مغلقة وحينما تنفتح تنهار
في الحقيقة غرباء تعيش الشخصيات وتمضي، تنتقل في مساحات ضيقة مهما ارتحلت
الحلقة محكمة والتغيرات تلحق الجميع
في البيوت بعض السكينة والعزاء لاستقرار جاف مفعم بالوحدة والذكريات ومحاولة اكتشاف شيء عمن لم نعرفهم مع طول الإقامة
والشوارع تلتهم الأحلام وتسقط فيها لحظات الآمال الكاذبة
الشخصيات النسوية أكثر إيجابية، تمتلك الصبر، والرغبة في العمل
والأطفال تتنازع عليهم رغبات الانفصال
مشكلة معرفة، قد تبحث عن فرصة ضائعة في عالم لا علاقة له بك
لست سوى وجه مر منذ قليل، متعب، موجوع، يدعو للشفقة التي لا وقت لها ولا فائض من شعور
من الطريف أن تستمع إلى شخص يتحدث عنك بضمير الغائب
في الغالب ضمير الغائب حاضر دائما، لأن المخاطب مجهول، وهل تظن أن العالم يعرفك؟ إنهم يجرون خلف لقمة معلقة ببطاقة ماكينة الصرف، لا تغضب إن نظرت حولك أو أمامك أو خلفك ووجدتهم يتحدثون عن تلك الشخصية التي تبحث في المكان الخطأ
ومن نكد الدنيا على الإنسان المعاصر أن يرى صورته في السرد الحداثي بتقنية التحول السريع كمن يضغط على مفاتيح الحاسوب متنقلا بالصدفة بين مواقع مطروحة تعد ولا تفي ومن العبث التعلّق بها
مع ذلك فأنت تقرأ لوحات ربما عاشتها البشرية عبر العصور، حتى الكتابة التي تلوح على الصفحة كالوشم في ظاهر اليد، كما قال شاعرنا طرفة قديما، وهل في الإبداع قديم وجديد؟ إنها الكتابة، لوحات ضياع في البيداء المعرفية
November 30, 2024
Now shortlisted for the 2019 Edge Hill prize for short story collections as well as the Republic of Consciousness Prize
The Stinging Fly magazine was established in 1997 “to seek out, publish and promote the very best new Irish and international writing”, with a particular focus on new and emerging writers and on the short story. Its current editor is Sally Rooney – author of the Booker longlisted “Normal People”.
Stinging Fly Press was launched as a small publisher in 2005, with a similar focus to the magazine – their most famous publication being “Pond” by Claire Louise Bennett.
This book fits the Stinging Fly mantra perfectly. As I understand it, the author, head of English at a Belfast girl’s grammar school, having been given an afternoon a week off work, decided to use it to attend a writing course run by Stinging Fly and taught by Sean O’Reilly – author of the first book that Stinging Fly published as well as another publication of theirs I read last year “Levitation”.
One of the stories in this collection “Locksmith” was part of her entry papers for acceptance to the course.
Overall I found this an excellent short story collection, and a very promising debut.
Except for one story, “77 Pop Facts you Didn’t know About Gil Courtney” - an article about a nearly-famous pop singer written in Smash Hits pop-list style; this is not a book with anything approaching the formal innovation of “Pond” (or say my book of 2017) Eley Williams “Attrib.”
However it is a consistently strong one that frequently manages across its 10 stories (typically of only say 20 pages) to create memorable and three-dimensional characters.
Her signature technique, in my view, is using what is unspoken or at best gradually acknowledged, to create in the reader an empathetic reaction to the character’s behavior when viewed in the context of their past (a past, often hinging in a single event, which leads to a feeling of exclusion or loss).
The opening story “To All Their Dues” features three point-of-view characters, starting with Mo in the early days of her beauty parlour (having moved on from pretending to be a phone line psychic) - the initial growing pains of the business not assisted by falling victim to a protection racket.
That part in itself is well crafted and would make a good story in itself, Mo herself remarks of her customers:
But unlike Mo, the author does ask, does look, not so much at bodies, but at minds, and does seek to examine what causes the mental (rather than physical) scars – moving on, even within this story to look at the viewpoints and backstories of the racketeer Kyle and his wife Grace (a customer of the parlour).
“Inakeen” is a moving story of a widow, looking for some community or interest group to join, fighting against the disinterested self-absorption of her son and becoming increasingly interested in the life of the Muslim family that have moved in opposite, leading to a tragi-comic ending.
“Observation” features a mother seemingly driven to compete sexually with her own growing daughter and reaping the consequence, observed in turn, ambiguously, by the daughter’s best friend.
“Arab States: Mind and Narrative” features a woman trying to effectively rewrite her past by connecting with an old friend, now political correspondent and author.
Generally the Troubles and religious divides serve, at most, as a backdrop to some stories – possibly most prominent in “Lady and Dog” where an elderly old-fashioned teacher, who refuses to eat Green fruit pastilles, is shown to have a more complex and tragic lifestory than could be imagined, as well as dark obsessions.
The title story “Sweet Home” unravels the stories of two couples in Belfast (divided not by religion but by class) – an architect wife, deliberately losing herself in work, and her bereft husband, both individuals and their relationship forever changed by a tragic loss, move to Ireland to try and start a new life after the wife designs a local community centre. There they employ a couple as a gardener and cleaner – the husband grows ever closer to the gardener and becomes de facto child minder to his son, before an accident shatters their arrangement – a story which ends with a poignancy which for me stood for the way in which each of these stories gradually fades away:
A personal favourite – as a Director of a Christian Coffee Shop (albeit one very different in ambition and commercial relevance from the one portrayed) was the wonderful and quietly humorous “Last Supper”, a story where the author's skilful use of silence comes to the fore. A supervisor of such a shop decides to overlook an incident between two staff that could be said to be not against HR policy as going beyond anything that policy had envisaged ruling as a misdemeanour.
And the book closes in “The soul has no skin” with its most memorable character – the very ordinary Barry, who many years ago was briefly and then cleared in a (temporarily) missing girl investigation, the echoes of that brief incident (one which in a stunningly moving few lines as he is driven to the police station and suddenly becomes aware of the beauty and fragility of his until then ordinary life) still reverberating on his quiet life and family relations years later: as he remarks “Nothing wrong at all, years ago now, years ago, and so much in between”.
The Gil Courtney story features (almost as one of Gil’s great achievements) an obscure student vox-pop in which a passer-by identifies Gil’s music as the most important of his life:
Which could serve as a summary of this collection.
Recommended.
The Stinging Fly magazine was established in 1997 “to seek out, publish and promote the very best new Irish and international writing”, with a particular focus on new and emerging writers and on the short story. Its current editor is Sally Rooney – author of the Booker longlisted “Normal People”.
Stinging Fly Press was launched as a small publisher in 2005, with a similar focus to the magazine – their most famous publication being “Pond” by Claire Louise Bennett.
This book fits the Stinging Fly mantra perfectly. As I understand it, the author, head of English at a Belfast girl’s grammar school, having been given an afternoon a week off work, decided to use it to attend a writing course run by Stinging Fly and taught by Sean O’Reilly – author of the first book that Stinging Fly published as well as another publication of theirs I read last year “Levitation”.
One of the stories in this collection “Locksmith” was part of her entry papers for acceptance to the course.
Overall I found this an excellent short story collection, and a very promising debut.
Except for one story, “77 Pop Facts you Didn’t know About Gil Courtney” - an article about a nearly-famous pop singer written in Smash Hits pop-list style; this is not a book with anything approaching the formal innovation of “Pond” (or say my book of 2017) Eley Williams “Attrib.”
However it is a consistently strong one that frequently manages across its 10 stories (typically of only say 20 pages) to create memorable and three-dimensional characters.
Her signature technique, in my view, is using what is unspoken or at best gradually acknowledged, to create in the reader an empathetic reaction to the character’s behavior when viewed in the context of their past (a past, often hinging in a single event, which leads to a feeling of exclusion or loss).
The opening story “To All Their Dues” features three point-of-view characters, starting with Mo in the early days of her beauty parlour (having moved on from pretending to be a phone line psychic) - the initial growing pains of the business not assisted by falling victim to a protection racket.
That part in itself is well crafted and would make a good story in itself, Mo herself remarks of her customers:
“Oh there were questions you could ask if you wanted to, bodies that begged for someone to ask why, what’s all that about. That long thin scar, running along the inside of your thigh, lady in the grey cashmere, what caused that? Those arms like a box of After Eights, slit slit slit, why you doing that, you with your lovely crooked smile, why you doing that? The woman with the bruises around her neck, her hand fluttering to conceal them … is your fella strangling you? But you don’t ask, why would you?”
But unlike Mo, the author does ask, does look, not so much at bodies, but at minds, and does seek to examine what causes the mental (rather than physical) scars – moving on, even within this story to look at the viewpoints and backstories of the racketeer Kyle and his wife Grace (a customer of the parlour).
“Inakeen” is a moving story of a widow, looking for some community or interest group to join, fighting against the disinterested self-absorption of her son and becoming increasingly interested in the life of the Muslim family that have moved in opposite, leading to a tragi-comic ending.
“Observation” features a mother seemingly driven to compete sexually with her own growing daughter and reaping the consequence, observed in turn, ambiguously, by the daughter’s best friend.
“Arab States: Mind and Narrative” features a woman trying to effectively rewrite her past by connecting with an old friend, now political correspondent and author.
Generally the Troubles and religious divides serve, at most, as a backdrop to some stories – possibly most prominent in “Lady and Dog” where an elderly old-fashioned teacher, who refuses to eat Green fruit pastilles, is shown to have a more complex and tragic lifestory than could be imagined, as well as dark obsessions.
The title story “Sweet Home” unravels the stories of two couples in Belfast (divided not by religion but by class) – an architect wife, deliberately losing herself in work, and her bereft husband, both individuals and their relationship forever changed by a tragic loss, move to Ireland to try and start a new life after the wife designs a local community centre. There they employ a couple as a gardener and cleaner – the husband grows ever closer to the gardener and becomes de facto child minder to his son, before an accident shatters their arrangement – a story which ends with a poignancy which for me stood for the way in which each of these stories gradually fades away:
“And then with no more ado, the people’s centre became part of the backdrop like everything else, and in the untended patches at the back of the building, knotweed grew towards the sun”
A personal favourite – as a Director of a Christian Coffee Shop (albeit one very different in ambition and commercial relevance from the one portrayed) was the wonderful and quietly humorous “Last Supper”, a story where the author's skilful use of silence comes to the fore. A supervisor of such a shop decides to overlook an incident between two staff that could be said to be not against HR policy as going beyond anything that policy had envisaged ruling as a misdemeanour.
And the book closes in “The soul has no skin” with its most memorable character – the very ordinary Barry, who many years ago was briefly and then cleared in a (temporarily) missing girl investigation, the echoes of that brief incident (one which in a stunningly moving few lines as he is driven to the police station and suddenly becomes aware of the beauty and fragility of his until then ordinary life) still reverberating on his quiet life and family relations years later: as he remarks “Nothing wrong at all, years ago now, years ago, and so much in between”.
The Gil Courtney story features (almost as one of Gil’s great achievements) an obscure student vox-pop in which a passer-by identifies Gil’s music as the most important of his life:
“It just, what it does is, it just – penetrates to the heart of what it means to be lonely, or in love or to feel a failure … a total affirmation of what it is to be alive …. There’s warmth there and there’s strangeness there”
Which could serve as a summary of this collection.
Recommended.
March 3, 2019
Shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019
This debut short story collection by a young Belfast writer is my 10th book from the RofC longlist, which is proving to be a very strong list, mostly of little known writers.
Most of these stories take mundane ordinary lives and situations and take them to or through unexpected crisis points. The writing is vibrant, witty and unsentimental. The exception is "77 Pop Facts You Didn't Know about Gil Courtenay", an entertaining send up of the values of music journalism.
Although the aftermath of the Troubles occasionally rears its head, religion is almost entirely absent here, which would have been surprising before Anna Burns' Milkman.
A promising collection.
This debut short story collection by a young Belfast writer is my 10th book from the RofC longlist, which is proving to be a very strong list, mostly of little known writers.
Most of these stories take mundane ordinary lives and situations and take them to or through unexpected crisis points. The writing is vibrant, witty and unsentimental. The exception is "77 Pop Facts You Didn't Know about Gil Courtenay", an entertaining send up of the values of music journalism.
Although the aftermath of the Troubles occasionally rears its head, religion is almost entirely absent here, which would have been surprising before Anna Burns' Milkman.
A promising collection.
November 3, 2022
Now shortlisted for the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize
The judges citation:
The Stinging Fly Press is best known for the quite brilliant - novel? linked story collection? - Pond, published in 2015, but read by me in, and perhaps my favourite book of, 2016 (my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), co-published in the UK by Fitzcarraldo.
Sweet Home, the debut short-story collection by Wendy Erskine, is less formally innovative, but equally powerful. Erskine's stories are typically around 20 pages long, and what is most impressive is how, in that limited amount of words, she manages to create genuinely engaging characters, in whose story the reader becomes emotionally invested. Her modus operandi is typically to provide her characters with a backstory, usually a past trauma, which only gradually emerges in the story and explains their current behaviour, and several of the stories feature the perspective of more than one character, for example the opening story 'To All Their Dues' which starts with Mo, a young woman running a small beauty salon and under threat from a protection racketeer, before the focus shifts to Kyle, the racketeer, helping us understand his motivations, and then to Kyle's partner who, bringing the story full circle, turns out to be a customer of Mo.
See Gumble Yard's review for a more extensive overview: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
To take just one example of my own, thestory Last Supper, based on two couples, Bucky and his partner Emma, who respectively garden and clean for a professional couple Gavin and his wife, Gavin seemingly rather overfriendly and the woman cold.
Bucky said that the woman was like something off The Apprentice, one of the quiet ones in the background that turn out to be planning something all along, the sort that gets to the final and you wouldn’t have hardly noticed them the whole series. The woman was jetting round the place, flying all over the globe, but then she didn’t even know how much to pay a gardener, didn’t know how much to pay a cleaner, probably didn’t know the price of a pint of milk. Bucky was getting more for that one job than five others put together. And what they were going to pay her for the cleaning job was brilliant. Gav had apparently said they didn’t want to rip people off, but everybody needed to rip everybody else off at least a bit. Was that not the point? Bucky called him Gav nowadays. Bucky had said to her not to even bother trying to get Carl minded when she was working there. No point. Just bring him along, he said. Your man won’t care. Might be a bit more of an issue if your woman’s there, but your man, no, it won’t be a problem. Seriously, he said, don’t worry about it.
shifting to Emma:
Emma had worked as a cleaner before, hoovering up other people’s whatnot, hair and skin and the like. You’d just wiped their thickened piss from under the toilet seat, she had observed, and there they were, clutching their purse, how much do I owe you, giving you their tatty little note and some change, like they were the duchess. Hard not to laugh. You’d have to think about something really boring like a potato so you didn’t laugh. At Gavin and his wife’s place there was an alarm system and Emma had to key in five digits. The first time she went there, she wondered what had happened to all of their stuff because at home they had more crammed into their front room than there was in this entire place. It was empty as a church. The huge fruit bowl had a tower of apples, really green and shiny. Emma dusted the fruit, and if any of the apples were not looking so good, she replaced them with others from the fridge, taking care that they went back in exactly the same position. There was great suck on their vacuum cleaner, though. Powerful.
and then Gavin:
It had been two months since Emma had started as the cleaner. What had begun to irk Gavin was the amount of time that little kid spent in front of the TV watching saccharine US animations. He sat straight-backed on the floor with the curtains closed, mesmerised by the stuff. It couldn’t be good for language acquisition and development. And Emma there: don’t do that. Gonna kill you if you do that again. He wondered about the kid’s diet. He wasn’t judgmental, he would happily eat a takeaway every night of the week, but children needed something better. Every week the kid arrived at the house eating a packet of Wotsits. Emma would quickly take them from him before they came in, but Gavin had seen. She sometimes gave him another bag when they were leaving. He had seen that too.
but we then discover the tragedy that has led Gavin to perhaps be over solicitous with the welfare of Bucky and Emma's son, and perhaps also his wife to be emotionally uptight.
Worthwhile. 3.5 stars.
The judges citation:
The Stinging Fly Press is making a habit of publishing bold, distinctive debut short-story collections: from Colin Barrett’s Young Skins to Claire-Louise Bennett’s Pond. Sweet Home is a fine addition. Erskine has a generous eye and ear, and an excellent sense of place; she wants us to witness the complexities of experience in a world of poverty, isolation and sadness.The Stinging Fly magazine was established in 1997 to, in their words: seek out, publish and promote the very best new Irish and international writing. We believe that there is a need for a magazine that, first and foremost, gives new and emerging writers an opportunity to get their work out into the world. We are particularly concerned to provide an outlet for short story writers. and The Stinging Fly Press imprint was launched in May 2005, also focused on the short story.
The Stinging Fly Press is best known for the quite brilliant - novel? linked story collection? - Pond, published in 2015, but read by me in, and perhaps my favourite book of, 2016 (my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), co-published in the UK by Fitzcarraldo.
Sweet Home, the debut short-story collection by Wendy Erskine, is less formally innovative, but equally powerful. Erskine's stories are typically around 20 pages long, and what is most impressive is how, in that limited amount of words, she manages to create genuinely engaging characters, in whose story the reader becomes emotionally invested. Her modus operandi is typically to provide her characters with a backstory, usually a past trauma, which only gradually emerges in the story and explains their current behaviour, and several of the stories feature the perspective of more than one character, for example the opening story 'To All Their Dues' which starts with Mo, a young woman running a small beauty salon and under threat from a protection racketeer, before the focus shifts to Kyle, the racketeer, helping us understand his motivations, and then to Kyle's partner who, bringing the story full circle, turns out to be a customer of Mo.
See Gumble Yard's review for a more extensive overview: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
To take just one example of my own, thestory Last Supper, based on two couples, Bucky and his partner Emma, who respectively garden and clean for a professional couple Gavin and his wife, Gavin seemingly rather overfriendly and the woman cold.
Bucky said that the woman was like something off The Apprentice, one of the quiet ones in the background that turn out to be planning something all along, the sort that gets to the final and you wouldn’t have hardly noticed them the whole series. The woman was jetting round the place, flying all over the globe, but then she didn’t even know how much to pay a gardener, didn’t know how much to pay a cleaner, probably didn’t know the price of a pint of milk. Bucky was getting more for that one job than five others put together. And what they were going to pay her for the cleaning job was brilliant. Gav had apparently said they didn’t want to rip people off, but everybody needed to rip everybody else off at least a bit. Was that not the point? Bucky called him Gav nowadays. Bucky had said to her not to even bother trying to get Carl minded when she was working there. No point. Just bring him along, he said. Your man won’t care. Might be a bit more of an issue if your woman’s there, but your man, no, it won’t be a problem. Seriously, he said, don’t worry about it.
shifting to Emma:
Emma had worked as a cleaner before, hoovering up other people’s whatnot, hair and skin and the like. You’d just wiped their thickened piss from under the toilet seat, she had observed, and there they were, clutching their purse, how much do I owe you, giving you their tatty little note and some change, like they were the duchess. Hard not to laugh. You’d have to think about something really boring like a potato so you didn’t laugh. At Gavin and his wife’s place there was an alarm system and Emma had to key in five digits. The first time she went there, she wondered what had happened to all of their stuff because at home they had more crammed into their front room than there was in this entire place. It was empty as a church. The huge fruit bowl had a tower of apples, really green and shiny. Emma dusted the fruit, and if any of the apples were not looking so good, she replaced them with others from the fridge, taking care that they went back in exactly the same position. There was great suck on their vacuum cleaner, though. Powerful.
and then Gavin:
It had been two months since Emma had started as the cleaner. What had begun to irk Gavin was the amount of time that little kid spent in front of the TV watching saccharine US animations. He sat straight-backed on the floor with the curtains closed, mesmerised by the stuff. It couldn’t be good for language acquisition and development. And Emma there: don’t do that. Gonna kill you if you do that again. He wondered about the kid’s diet. He wasn’t judgmental, he would happily eat a takeaway every night of the week, but children needed something better. Every week the kid arrived at the house eating a packet of Wotsits. Emma would quickly take them from him before they came in, but Gavin had seen. She sometimes gave him another bag when they were leaving. He had seen that too.
but we then discover the tragedy that has led Gavin to perhaps be over solicitous with the welfare of Bucky and Emma's son, and perhaps also his wife to be emotionally uptight.
Worthwhile. 3.5 stars.
Read
May 29, 2021مجموعة قصصية تُحاكي حيوات مُملة رتيبة ، تؤرقك هسهسة الوحدة الخافتة التي تتسلل إليك من هنا وهناك...
كنت انتظر أن تُكسر الخطوات الثابتة....تركل حصى في الطريق ، ترتفع عن الأرض ولو بضعة سنتيمترات ، تقفز في الهواء ولو لمرة واحدة ..، تُعلن تمردها وتسلك طريقاً جديداً...
لكن لم يحدث أيٌ من ذلك على الإطلاق...
لابأس....
كنت انتظر أن تُكسر الخطوات الثابتة....تركل حصى في الطريق ، ترتفع عن الأرض ولو بضعة سنتيمترات ، تقفز في الهواء ولو لمرة واحدة ..، تُعلن تمردها وتسلك طريقاً جديداً...
لكن لم يحدث أيٌ من ذلك على الإطلاق...
لابأس....
December 29, 2021
كان كتابي ١٨٠ لهذا العام. مجموعة قصصية لطيفة، كانت فاصلا حلوا انهي به عامي.
اعجبتني قصة بيت من زجاج، و العديد من القصص الاخرى، و آلمتني قصة الفتاة التي فقدت امها بسجنها و بعدها فقدت جدتها التي ربتها، و بقيت وحيدة حتى بعد خروج والدتها من السجن.
أبدعت الكاتبة في هذا الكتاب، كان أسلوبها سلساً جدا، و هي تتنقل من قصصة الى أخرى.
اعجبتني قصة بيت من زجاج، و العديد من القصص الاخرى، و آلمتني قصة الفتاة التي فقدت امها بسجنها و بعدها فقدت جدتها التي ربتها، و بقيت وحيدة حتى بعد خروج والدتها من السجن.
أبدعت الكاتبة في هذا الكتاب، كان أسلوبها سلساً جدا، و هي تتنقل من قصصة الى أخرى.
May 8, 2019
I left the last story for a while as I knew I'd miss this...I already do.
November 18, 2019
These short stories comprise acutely observed portraits of everyday life and survival on the edges of society in modern Belfast.
Dealing with loneliness, loss and disengagement from community, Erskine has a brilliant ear for dialogue and is adept at capturing the dry Irish wit and wry turn of phrase : an arrogant character is summarised as “a fellow who would put a bob on himself both ways”. She makes the mundane fascinating and thoroughly believable – all the characters came alive as real, relatable people.
A wonderful debut collection.
Read and reviewed for Whichbook.net
Dealing with loneliness, loss and disengagement from community, Erskine has a brilliant ear for dialogue and is adept at capturing the dry Irish wit and wry turn of phrase : an arrogant character is summarised as “a fellow who would put a bob on himself both ways”. She makes the mundane fascinating and thoroughly believable – all the characters came alive as real, relatable people.
A wonderful debut collection.
Read and reviewed for Whichbook.net
October 26, 2019
Ooh these were good. Will try to get some extended thoughts up some time.
March 31, 2019
A selection of stand alone short stories. If you didn’t know, could you tell these are by one author? I think so.
Set in Belfast, Wendy Erskine concentrates on ordinary lives. Men and women suffer similar degrees of disenchantment; lives unfulfilled.
Solitary lives, loneliness, abandonment, cruelty; populated by misfits, dependent on the booze.
It’s bleak. It’s thought provoking. For all the difficulties of getting on with other people, and with families, it’s not great to withdraw from other people..
I liked the opening story best,
1. To All Their Dues.Northern Ireland. Mo, Kyle and Grace. Interlinked. Protection money- small time thug, lacking civility and refinement. I’ll have my minute steak- very well done. Suppressed lesbianism and making do with obligations of conjugal relationship.
“You lived your life”(33)
2.Inakeen
“A fellow who would put a bob on himself both ways”(45)
Jean (65 yrs) and embittered, and her layabout son Malcolm. Three women neighbours (new immigrants) across the road - Inakeen (means Let’s go);W7; Black Sail. Story ends as Jean cuts a slit in a duvet and goes across the road!!!
3.Observation
Kim Cassells (mum of Lauren). Lots of boyfriends. Young toy boy Stuart, who dallies with Lauren. Teenage Friend Cath the primary narrator observer, being annoying, creeping around.
Blurring of age/ family lines. Blokes grabbing sex, but at their happiest playing poker.
4.Locksmiths
Woman’s mother comes out of prison (in for killing boyfriend after extorting money). Straight down the pub. Daughter changes the locks after she doesn’t come home on first night.
5.Sweet Home
Couple (architects) whose daughter died very young. Wife throws herself into work. Man loses urge to do much; looks after gardener/ cleaners baby son who is hit by car (fractured). Told in a very matter of fact way. Tragedies happen, sometimes with death. People carry on, suppressing the scars. People exploit others. Pressure of minding other people’s child.
Musical chair relationships either split up or drift apart as a story about the ordinary, the unexceptional, finishes.
6.Last Supper
Church hall “Jesters coffee shop”.“The fragility of it all was overwhelming”(127)
Volunteer cafe gets awful online review after two volunteers have sex in toilet. Message is the screaming nothingness.
7.Arab States : Mind and Narrative
Paula goes from Belfast to Gateshead to see Ryan Kedrov- Hughes do a reading. Has too many drinks, gets lost; doesn’t get there. Fantasises about her allure; fantasises he will remember- inflated view of self. Paula ends up pitifully plastered, lost and alone.
8.Lady and the Dog
Olga. Older teacher for life at one school. She’s ICT naive- develops an obsession with Cormac, sports teacher; recalls teenage boyfriend before he was killed. Plans to drown her dog (got dog as companion)
Solitary, lonely, misfit, cruel
9. 77 Pop Facts you didn’t know about Gil Courtney
Very plausible set of questions and accompanying answers, with a faux biography. The sort of summary that populated the weekend press in a q&a feature. A compelling way to build a picture of a person through a series of seemingly unrelated questions and observations.
10.The Soul Has No Skin
Barry works in a warehouse/ meets up with Annie (getting relief from wheelchair bound husband). Mr overweight, ordinary.
Comes across young girl stuck on a merry go round in public park.
But for the throw of the dice our Barry could find himself accused of a heinous crime rather than dispensing Johnstone’s Matt Emulsion In Cadillac
As is the case with most short story collections not every story hits the mark. The necessity to get to the meat of the message quickly doesn’t allow for gradual character development.
That said, I recommend this story selection to those readers who are strapped for time, and the commitment needed to read full length novels... but don’t expect to come away feeling that this earth we inhabit is particularly welcoming or sociable one.
Set in Belfast, Wendy Erskine concentrates on ordinary lives. Men and women suffer similar degrees of disenchantment; lives unfulfilled.
Solitary lives, loneliness, abandonment, cruelty; populated by misfits, dependent on the booze.
It’s bleak. It’s thought provoking. For all the difficulties of getting on with other people, and with families, it’s not great to withdraw from other people..
I liked the opening story best,
1. To All Their Dues.Northern Ireland. Mo, Kyle and Grace. Interlinked. Protection money- small time thug, lacking civility and refinement. I’ll have my minute steak- very well done. Suppressed lesbianism and making do with obligations of conjugal relationship.
“You lived your life”(33)
2.Inakeen
“A fellow who would put a bob on himself both ways”(45)
Jean (65 yrs) and embittered, and her layabout son Malcolm. Three women neighbours (new immigrants) across the road - Inakeen (means Let’s go);W7; Black Sail. Story ends as Jean cuts a slit in a duvet and goes across the road!!!
3.Observation
Kim Cassells (mum of Lauren). Lots of boyfriends. Young toy boy Stuart, who dallies with Lauren. Teenage Friend Cath the primary narrator observer, being annoying, creeping around.
Blurring of age/ family lines. Blokes grabbing sex, but at their happiest playing poker.
4.Locksmiths
Woman’s mother comes out of prison (in for killing boyfriend after extorting money). Straight down the pub. Daughter changes the locks after she doesn’t come home on first night.
5.Sweet Home
Couple (architects) whose daughter died very young. Wife throws herself into work. Man loses urge to do much; looks after gardener/ cleaners baby son who is hit by car (fractured). Told in a very matter of fact way. Tragedies happen, sometimes with death. People carry on, suppressing the scars. People exploit others. Pressure of minding other people’s child.
Musical chair relationships either split up or drift apart as a story about the ordinary, the unexceptional, finishes.
6.Last Supper
Church hall “Jesters coffee shop”.“The fragility of it all was overwhelming”(127)
Volunteer cafe gets awful online review after two volunteers have sex in toilet. Message is the screaming nothingness.
7.Arab States : Mind and Narrative
Paula goes from Belfast to Gateshead to see Ryan Kedrov- Hughes do a reading. Has too many drinks, gets lost; doesn’t get there. Fantasises about her allure; fantasises he will remember- inflated view of self. Paula ends up pitifully plastered, lost and alone.
8.Lady and the Dog
Olga. Older teacher for life at one school. She’s ICT naive- develops an obsession with Cormac, sports teacher; recalls teenage boyfriend before he was killed. Plans to drown her dog (got dog as companion)
Solitary, lonely, misfit, cruel
9. 77 Pop Facts you didn’t know about Gil Courtney
Very plausible set of questions and accompanying answers, with a faux biography. The sort of summary that populated the weekend press in a q&a feature. A compelling way to build a picture of a person through a series of seemingly unrelated questions and observations.
10.The Soul Has No Skin
Barry works in a warehouse/ meets up with Annie (getting relief from wheelchair bound husband). Mr overweight, ordinary.
Comes across young girl stuck on a merry go round in public park.
But for the throw of the dice our Barry could find himself accused of a heinous crime rather than dispensing Johnstone’s Matt Emulsion In Cadillac
As is the case with most short story collections not every story hits the mark. The necessity to get to the meat of the message quickly doesn’t allow for gradual character development.
That said, I recommend this story selection to those readers who are strapped for time, and the commitment needed to read full length novels... but don’t expect to come away feeling that this earth we inhabit is particularly welcoming or sociable one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2023
The stories in this collection by Wendy Erskine are all set in East Belfast. A working-class area that is overwhelmingly Protestant, East Belfast is known for being the childhood of C.S. Lewis, the place where Van Morrison grew up and birthplace of George Best, the Manchester United player regarded as probably the greatest football (soccer) player of all time. It was the home of countless shipbuilders who worked at Harland and Wolff, the company that dominated world shipbuilding in the 20th century. They were the builders of the Titanic. The all-time high number of workers was 35,000, and in 2019, the shipyard was rescued from closing and the workforce was around 79. Because East Belfast is in the shadow of (quite literally) the shipyards, it has long gone unnoticed.
Not only is East Belfast undiscovered by most tourists, but many readers (like myself) who revel in reading Northern Irish fiction of the 20th and 21st century, find few works about this part of the city. One of the best known contemporary Northern Irish writers is Jan Carson, raised in Ballymena, and now based in Belfast. Her recent novel The Fire Starters, winner of a 2019 EU Literature prize is set in East Belfast.
As in many short story collections, each reader will have their favorites, and find some stories less compelling. One or more are set during the Troubles, and in others, the time of the Troubles is not far removed. Although East Belfast is unfamiliar to many outside of Belfast, one of my contemporary Irish fiction book club members, a native of Belfast, went to the same primary school as a character in one of the stories. Her favorite story, and one of mine, was "77 Pop Facts You Didn't Know about Gil Courtenay". Erskine shared in an interview that many readers are convinced they have heard of Gil Courtenay, although he is fictional. I wasn’t sure he was fictional, but wondered why I had never heard of him. I looked up his address on Google maps, and there is a home there – one of many small brick row homes in blocks of the same. My absolutely favorite story was “Arab States: Mind and Narrative”. Paula is married to Jimmy and mother of Ellie, who lives with her partner Meg, and is thinking about a domestic partnership (oh how far things have come in Northern Ireland). One night on a TV news show, Paula sees an acquaintance from university days who is now an expert on the Middle East. She becomes obsessed with learning more about the Middle East, and obsessed with this man, which leads to a rather sad ending. This collection features people who often lead narrow lives, with limited horizons. The dialogue is fantastic, and her stories take us in different directions.
Wendy Erskine, born in 1968, studied English at University of Glasgow. In her 20’s, she was unsuccessful in getting a novel published, and it took her some time to return to writing. She lived in East Belfast with her husband and three children, and taught in a local grammar school when things changed. In 2015, she won a spot in a writing course in Dublin, organized by The Stinging Fly, and traveled there weekly for the course. This was the beginning of her short story writing and she promises to have much more to come.
Shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019
I reread this book in October 2023 by listening to the audiobook. Erskine read it which made it particularly engine. This was a choice for the Linen House Library which seets monthly in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Fortunately, they also include people by Zoom. There were mixed reactions to the book. Some were not fans of short stories; other thought the characters were not sufficiently developed. But those of us who love the short story form found them very good examples of the genre. I have found listening to the audiobook when I have to reread a book to be a great way to review it.
Not only is East Belfast undiscovered by most tourists, but many readers (like myself) who revel in reading Northern Irish fiction of the 20th and 21st century, find few works about this part of the city. One of the best known contemporary Northern Irish writers is Jan Carson, raised in Ballymena, and now based in Belfast. Her recent novel The Fire Starters, winner of a 2019 EU Literature prize is set in East Belfast.
As in many short story collections, each reader will have their favorites, and find some stories less compelling. One or more are set during the Troubles, and in others, the time of the Troubles is not far removed. Although East Belfast is unfamiliar to many outside of Belfast, one of my contemporary Irish fiction book club members, a native of Belfast, went to the same primary school as a character in one of the stories. Her favorite story, and one of mine, was "77 Pop Facts You Didn't Know about Gil Courtenay". Erskine shared in an interview that many readers are convinced they have heard of Gil Courtenay, although he is fictional. I wasn’t sure he was fictional, but wondered why I had never heard of him. I looked up his address on Google maps, and there is a home there – one of many small brick row homes in blocks of the same. My absolutely favorite story was “Arab States: Mind and Narrative”. Paula is married to Jimmy and mother of Ellie, who lives with her partner Meg, and is thinking about a domestic partnership (oh how far things have come in Northern Ireland). One night on a TV news show, Paula sees an acquaintance from university days who is now an expert on the Middle East. She becomes obsessed with learning more about the Middle East, and obsessed with this man, which leads to a rather sad ending. This collection features people who often lead narrow lives, with limited horizons. The dialogue is fantastic, and her stories take us in different directions.
Wendy Erskine, born in 1968, studied English at University of Glasgow. In her 20’s, she was unsuccessful in getting a novel published, and it took her some time to return to writing. She lived in East Belfast with her husband and three children, and taught in a local grammar school when things changed. In 2015, she won a spot in a writing course in Dublin, organized by The Stinging Fly, and traveled there weekly for the course. This was the beginning of her short story writing and she promises to have much more to come.
Shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019
I reread this book in October 2023 by listening to the audiobook. Erskine read it which made it particularly engine. This was a choice for the Linen House Library which seets monthly in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Fortunately, they also include people by Zoom. There were mixed reactions to the book. Some were not fans of short stories; other thought the characters were not sufficiently developed. But those of us who love the short story form found them very good examples of the genre. I have found listening to the audiobook when I have to reread a book to be a great way to review it.
April 30, 2019
I’m sorry, I can see there is some really important social commentary in this collection which I give so much kudos for, but the writing style and I did not get on. Just not my taste.
It’s a very distinctive style, very breezy and naturalistic; but perhaps too breezy for my dyslexic brain. I know that sounds weird, but I actually find it harder to read breezy books than hard ones because I tend to drift off too easily and not pay attention. There wasn’t anything that gripped my attention so I ended up disengaging and I couldn’t gel with the text. I didn’t engage with the writing so everything became empty and I wasn’t interested or invested in the collection.
I can see people really enjoying this read, the writer clearly has a skill for writing, but it was just a stylistic incompatibility for me.
It’s a very distinctive style, very breezy and naturalistic; but perhaps too breezy for my dyslexic brain. I know that sounds weird, but I actually find it harder to read breezy books than hard ones because I tend to drift off too easily and not pay attention. There wasn’t anything that gripped my attention so I ended up disengaging and I couldn’t gel with the text. I didn’t engage with the writing so everything became empty and I wasn’t interested or invested in the collection.
I can see people really enjoying this read, the writer clearly has a skill for writing, but it was just a stylistic incompatibility for me.
March 6, 2019
Sweet Home is a collection of ten short stories that prove what powerful tales can be told in this condensed format. All are set in and around contemporary East Belfast. They feature ordinary people as their quiet disappointments and resentments bubble to the surface of their everyday lives. The author captures the quotidian with insight and poignancy along with each character’s yearning for what they perceive to be passing them by. There is a depth of understanding, a recognition that most hurts go unnoticed as individuals deal with their own demons and desires.
The collection opens with To All Their Dues which is told from three points of view. A young woman is trying to establish her new small business; a thug is demanding protection money but fears for the future of his nefarious income; his wife is trying to find a way to cope with her familial past. The way these three flawed lives are presented, with understanding but also clear sighted portrayal of limitations and worst behaviours, demonstrates the wit and skill with which the author writes.
Inakeen is an searingly honest depiction of a mother and son whose lives and aspirations are of little real interest to the other. The son visits his mother out of duty, not understanding how dull she finds his conversation. He does not notice her growing interest in her new neighbours, and how she feels let down by his inability to maintain relationships. While he is bitterly resentful that his former partner left him, his mother misses the younger woman’s company and that of her grandchild. She imagines the enjoyment her new neighbours – three women, one dressed in a burqa – have living together. Without knowing them, she longs to join in.
Observation looks at two families whose teenage daughters are best friends. Lauren is drawn to her mother’s new boyfriend. Cath is intrigued by a family setup so different from her own. Cath’s parents talk of Lauren’s mother in less than flattering terms. There is an undercurrent of denial in how much each character knows about what is going on, and in what is being said.
Locksmiths introduces a young woman raised by her grandmother after her mother was sent to prison. The grandmother is now dead and the mother due for release. The reader is offered views of each of these women through the others’ eyes. Little is flattering.
The titular story is a tale of two couples: a man who returns to Belfast with his English wife, both having established successful careers; the other couple younger and more ordinary, who are employed as gardener and cleaner. The latter pair have a child who becomes the focus of the returned man’s interest. None of these adults are content with their current situation and, to a degree, blame their partners.
Last Supper is set in a coffee shop run on a charitable basis. This skews the terms under which staff and customers operate. Daily tasks are carried out but the success of the enterprise is compromised by limitations imposed by the benefactors. The manager does his best to deal fairly with unrealistic expectations built on crumbling foundations.
Arab States: Mind and Narrative features a middle aged woman who allows her lingering regret at a choice made while at university to distort her current reasoning. She imagines that an old acquaintance, who has written a book, will still be interested in her. She wishes to bask in his reflected success. She tries to remake herself as the intelligent conversationalist she thinks he regarded her as back in the day. She is blind to her current self, which is all others see.
Lady and Dog tells the story of a teacher whose life changed when, as a teenager, her lover was killed. As she approaches retirement she becomes obsessed by a young man who teaches sport to her pupils. The denouement is horrific in ways that made me question why certain deaths shock more than others.
77 Pop Facts You Didn’t Know About Gil Courtney is a list, as described in the title, telling the life story of an almost famous musician. The structure is fun, clever but with a depth of sadness. Growing up on the Cregagh estate, Gil’s father would have preferred his son to take the expected factory job at Mackies. Gil’s exceptional musical abilities as a child were nurtured but these did not lead to long term happiness. The rock and roll lifestyle requires financial resources, the accumulation of which requires business acumen. It is interesting to reflect on the cost of fame and benefits of accepting a more ordinary life.
The Soul has no skin is a shattering tale of a young boy whose life is irreparably denuded by an act of kindness. Barry lives an austere and often lonely life, choosing to eschew ambition and exist below society’s radar. He has experience of being noticed and the scars this created run deep.
No mere summary of these plots can do justice to what is special about the writing. The author gets under the skin of what it means to live in a world striving to offer something better than that which an individual already has. This desire for better, rather than taking pleasure in the here and now, leads to restlessness and a blaming of others. Yet the tales are poignant rather than depressing, understanding more than recriminating. The use of language and fragile intensity make them alluring and satisfying to read.
The collection opens with To All Their Dues which is told from three points of view. A young woman is trying to establish her new small business; a thug is demanding protection money but fears for the future of his nefarious income; his wife is trying to find a way to cope with her familial past. The way these three flawed lives are presented, with understanding but also clear sighted portrayal of limitations and worst behaviours, demonstrates the wit and skill with which the author writes.
Inakeen is an searingly honest depiction of a mother and son whose lives and aspirations are of little real interest to the other. The son visits his mother out of duty, not understanding how dull she finds his conversation. He does not notice her growing interest in her new neighbours, and how she feels let down by his inability to maintain relationships. While he is bitterly resentful that his former partner left him, his mother misses the younger woman’s company and that of her grandchild. She imagines the enjoyment her new neighbours – three women, one dressed in a burqa – have living together. Without knowing them, she longs to join in.
Observation looks at two families whose teenage daughters are best friends. Lauren is drawn to her mother’s new boyfriend. Cath is intrigued by a family setup so different from her own. Cath’s parents talk of Lauren’s mother in less than flattering terms. There is an undercurrent of denial in how much each character knows about what is going on, and in what is being said.
Locksmiths introduces a young woman raised by her grandmother after her mother was sent to prison. The grandmother is now dead and the mother due for release. The reader is offered views of each of these women through the others’ eyes. Little is flattering.
The titular story is a tale of two couples: a man who returns to Belfast with his English wife, both having established successful careers; the other couple younger and more ordinary, who are employed as gardener and cleaner. The latter pair have a child who becomes the focus of the returned man’s interest. None of these adults are content with their current situation and, to a degree, blame their partners.
Last Supper is set in a coffee shop run on a charitable basis. This skews the terms under which staff and customers operate. Daily tasks are carried out but the success of the enterprise is compromised by limitations imposed by the benefactors. The manager does his best to deal fairly with unrealistic expectations built on crumbling foundations.
Arab States: Mind and Narrative features a middle aged woman who allows her lingering regret at a choice made while at university to distort her current reasoning. She imagines that an old acquaintance, who has written a book, will still be interested in her. She wishes to bask in his reflected success. She tries to remake herself as the intelligent conversationalist she thinks he regarded her as back in the day. She is blind to her current self, which is all others see.
Lady and Dog tells the story of a teacher whose life changed when, as a teenager, her lover was killed. As she approaches retirement she becomes obsessed by a young man who teaches sport to her pupils. The denouement is horrific in ways that made me question why certain deaths shock more than others.
77 Pop Facts You Didn’t Know About Gil Courtney is a list, as described in the title, telling the life story of an almost famous musician. The structure is fun, clever but with a depth of sadness. Growing up on the Cregagh estate, Gil’s father would have preferred his son to take the expected factory job at Mackies. Gil’s exceptional musical abilities as a child were nurtured but these did not lead to long term happiness. The rock and roll lifestyle requires financial resources, the accumulation of which requires business acumen. It is interesting to reflect on the cost of fame and benefits of accepting a more ordinary life.
The Soul has no skin is a shattering tale of a young boy whose life is irreparably denuded by an act of kindness. Barry lives an austere and often lonely life, choosing to eschew ambition and exist below society’s radar. He has experience of being noticed and the scars this created run deep.
No mere summary of these plots can do justice to what is special about the writing. The author gets under the skin of what it means to live in a world striving to offer something better than that which an individual already has. This desire for better, rather than taking pleasure in the here and now, leads to restlessness and a blaming of others. Yet the tales are poignant rather than depressing, understanding more than recriminating. The use of language and fragile intensity make them alluring and satisfying to read.
February 16, 2020
Wendy, when is your next book out?!
Highlights: Inakeen, Locksmiths, Last Supper, Lady and Dog, The Soul Has No Skin
Highlights: Inakeen, Locksmiths, Last Supper, Lady and Dog, The Soul Has No Skin
January 22, 2019
(3.5) A fine collection of short stories but not necessarily one I will remember in the long run: it’s missing just something that would make it truly memorable for me. Perhaps I had Milkman and its peculiar, standout narrative voice in my mind while reading about Belfast in what’s essentially a much more traditionally written book, and was therefore slightly disappointed. Some stories were really good (“To All Their Dues," “Sweet Home,” “Arab States: Mind and Narrative”), some quite tedious (“77 Pop Facts You Didn’t Know About Gil Courtney”). Overall, a book that would benefit from a revisit.
August 26, 2025
لم اكمل قرائتها ..عبارة عن مجموعة قصصية
January 28, 2019
Sweet Home is Wendy Erskine’s debut short story collection and it is published by Stinging Fly Press.
It is always difficult to know how to approach talking about or rating a short story collection. Nearly every collection I have read has had some stories I thought were wonderful and some that fell flat. But my choice of wonderful vs. flat is different to someone else’s as we all respond differently to different stories.
When I started reading Sweet Home, I thought I was on to a good thing. The first two stories I found excellent and I was making quick notes to myself about “deft character portrayals” and “damaged people bringing past hurts into current situations”. But I found it a rather rocky road after those first two stories. I made notes as I read, but even reading those notes back now, I can’t really remember much about the third story. But I am quite sure that that third story is someone’s favourite from the whole collection.
In an interview you can read at independent.ie, the author says:
”I want to deal with the biggest themes possible, ...what I mean is, I don't really want to write about two people in a bar wondering whether or not a guy's going to call them. I want to write about people who are on the point of collapse. I want to write about people who've faced major trauma or people who can't articulate how they feel, or are excluded.”
It seems to be Erskine’s strength that she can get under the skin of her characters remarkably quickly. She brings many of them to life in just a few short pages and quickly gets the reader feeling for them. She seems particularly good at describing characters who have been damaged in some way at some point in the past and whose damage then seeps out into their present, the story we read about them. I really felt for Kyle in the first story as he uses aggression and, let’s face it, rudeness, to cover the pain he feels from his past. The Stinging Fly website has a link to a podcast where the current editor of the magazine, Sally Rooney, talks to Jessica Traynor about this first story (To All Their Dues) and this is worth listening to.
I enjoyed the emotional impact and the clever character creation in the first two stories, but I did start to lose interest a bit over the next couple of stories. Somehow, I didn’t respond to the characters in the same kind of way and I found myself wanting the stories to end so I could move onto the next one. From there, the collection, for my taste, rises again to the title story which is very strong, falls away again until it climbs to the heights of “Lady and Dog”, drifts again and then finishes with an excellent story called “The soul has no skin”.
To use a very over-used cliche, I found it a bit of a rollercoaster.
However, as I’ve said, my favourites will be different to other people’s favourites. Ones that fall flat for me will be ones that leave others weeping. It’s a strong collection with some excellent writing. I would give it 3.5 stars, but have rounded down for now because it was such a mix of highs and lows.
The Stinging Fly Press imprint was launched in May 2005 with the publication of our first title, Watermark by Sean O’Reilly. Like the magazine, the imprint is particularly interested in promoting the short story.
It is always difficult to know how to approach talking about or rating a short story collection. Nearly every collection I have read has had some stories I thought were wonderful and some that fell flat. But my choice of wonderful vs. flat is different to someone else’s as we all respond differently to different stories.
When I started reading Sweet Home, I thought I was on to a good thing. The first two stories I found excellent and I was making quick notes to myself about “deft character portrayals” and “damaged people bringing past hurts into current situations”. But I found it a rather rocky road after those first two stories. I made notes as I read, but even reading those notes back now, I can’t really remember much about the third story. But I am quite sure that that third story is someone’s favourite from the whole collection.
In an interview you can read at independent.ie, the author says:
”I want to deal with the biggest themes possible, ...what I mean is, I don't really want to write about two people in a bar wondering whether or not a guy's going to call them. I want to write about people who are on the point of collapse. I want to write about people who've faced major trauma or people who can't articulate how they feel, or are excluded.”
It seems to be Erskine’s strength that she can get under the skin of her characters remarkably quickly. She brings many of them to life in just a few short pages and quickly gets the reader feeling for them. She seems particularly good at describing characters who have been damaged in some way at some point in the past and whose damage then seeps out into their present, the story we read about them. I really felt for Kyle in the first story as he uses aggression and, let’s face it, rudeness, to cover the pain he feels from his past. The Stinging Fly website has a link to a podcast where the current editor of the magazine, Sally Rooney, talks to Jessica Traynor about this first story (To All Their Dues) and this is worth listening to.
I enjoyed the emotional impact and the clever character creation in the first two stories, but I did start to lose interest a bit over the next couple of stories. Somehow, I didn’t respond to the characters in the same kind of way and I found myself wanting the stories to end so I could move onto the next one. From there, the collection, for my taste, rises again to the title story which is very strong, falls away again until it climbs to the heights of “Lady and Dog”, drifts again and then finishes with an excellent story called “The soul has no skin”.
To use a very over-used cliche, I found it a bit of a rollercoaster.
However, as I’ve said, my favourites will be different to other people’s favourites. Ones that fall flat for me will be ones that leave others weeping. It’s a strong collection with some excellent writing. I would give it 3.5 stars, but have rounded down for now because it was such a mix of highs and lows.
July 31, 2020
Bursts with life and humour, set in Belfast but with only one mention of the Troubles. One piece is a delightful pop magazine parody - 77 Pop Facts You Didn't Know About Gil Courtney - in which you learn about his life in between lines about his favourite colour and that the first record he ever bought was 'Battle of New Orleans' by Lonnie Donnegan (of course). But this pop star hero is a one off, her characters work in Argos, are hairdressers or builders, and the stories are lively with their often messy lives, living with disappointment and the odd high and connection. Packed with humour and love.
April 15, 2020
This book had quite a bit of hype to live up to. It was on my list for ages while hearing endless praise all the time, but for ages it wasn't available in any of my preferred formats (audio or ebook). And then the hardbook appeared in the house one day bought by my wife. And this is the perfect time to sit on a window seat and read some paper books. The hype didn't really interfere too much once I got started. With short stories you can take each one on it's own merit rather than constantly weighing up the hype of a novel as it progresses.
As with any short story book, there are always a few hit and misses. Always that experimental one that sometimes is your favourite and sometimes the least favourite. I think the 56 facts about the musician was the least traditional story and I didn't really enjoy it. I thought most of the better stories where in the first half of the book, which reached its pinnacle with the title story, Sweet Home. I think it loses it's way a few times after that, I couldn't quite get with the story about the religious cafe, and some others didn't quite work for me. But I enjoyed the story about the strict teacher with an interesting past.
The book finishes with another that I liked but I feel the story about an awkward man who could never shake molestation accusations despite his innocence has been done many times before.
Overall quite enjoyable but actually, yes, maybe it was still a little bit over-hyped for me. I was expecting every story to be a knockout.
As with any short story book, there are always a few hit and misses. Always that experimental one that sometimes is your favourite and sometimes the least favourite. I think the 56 facts about the musician was the least traditional story and I didn't really enjoy it. I thought most of the better stories where in the first half of the book, which reached its pinnacle with the title story, Sweet Home. I think it loses it's way a few times after that, I couldn't quite get with the story about the religious cafe, and some others didn't quite work for me. But I enjoyed the story about the strict teacher with an interesting past.
The book finishes with another that I liked but I feel the story about an awkward man who could never shake molestation accusations despite his innocence has been done many times before.
Overall quite enjoyable but actually, yes, maybe it was still a little bit over-hyped for me. I was expecting every story to be a knockout.
July 28, 2020
"Sweet Home" is an important collection, because it signals a new twist in social-realism, an invention of style and situations not seen since the Angry Young Men and B.J. Johnson. Combining characters that remind the reader of Ken Loach or Lindsay Anderson with a large and nuanced emotional palette supported by precise dialogues, Erskine manages somewhat to create situations that are paradoxically totally believable in their minute and artificial constructions. Erskine places the décor and the subjects like Ibsen did in "The Dollhouse", violently shakes them around and records the result. It is an oblique writing that made me think simultaneously of Mark E. Smith's desperately sarcastic lyrics and Katherine Mansfield's deep human depiction of human fragility. Very highly recommended for all those who are, like me, fed up with mainstream sentimentality and bullshit social statements by proxy. The real thing, if you want.
May 5, 2020
4.5 stars
"But then silence is articulate and what's not said is felt not heard. She could see that now."
On their surface, Erskine's stories can seem like they are one-note, mundane or else not very dynamic. But in her stories, there is always a frisson of tension, of panic, disquietude, anxiety, that all of a sudden unsettles the still, placid exterior of their narratives. In fact, it is exactly this undisturbed exterior that makes that frisson of something—be it of existential panic in "Last Supper" or sharp loneliness in "The soul has no skin"—all the more meaningful, so much more capable of illuminating that what had once seemed shallow had actually been very deep. It is exactly as Erskine writes: "silence is articulate," and the silence in Sweet Home is no exception.
In case you were wondering (which you probably weren't), my favourites were "The soul has no skin," "To All Their Dues," "Last Supper," and "Sweet Home."
"But then silence is articulate and what's not said is felt not heard. She could see that now."
On their surface, Erskine's stories can seem like they are one-note, mundane or else not very dynamic. But in her stories, there is always a frisson of tension, of panic, disquietude, anxiety, that all of a sudden unsettles the still, placid exterior of their narratives. In fact, it is exactly this undisturbed exterior that makes that frisson of something—be it of existential panic in "Last Supper" or sharp loneliness in "The soul has no skin"—all the more meaningful, so much more capable of illuminating that what had once seemed shallow had actually been very deep. It is exactly as Erskine writes: "silence is articulate," and the silence in Sweet Home is no exception.
In case you were wondering (which you probably weren't), my favourites were "The soul has no skin," "To All Their Dues," "Last Supper," and "Sweet Home."
July 29, 2020
To me, short stories are one of our most intriguing and disturbing artforms. They shape worlds in only a few pages. The best of them flash silvery sides of a world I'd never noticed before.
The stories in Sweet Home tap into an everyday bleakness I feel like I understand on a deep and emotional level. The lives described are ordinary in their extraordinariness, and Erskine's delight at scraping away the years of wallpaper, nicotine, city grime and slippery pavement algae to find every individual's humanity and reason for being is unnerving and infectious. It rains in these stories, but the sun comes out too.
The stories in Sweet Home tap into an everyday bleakness I feel like I understand on a deep and emotional level. The lives described are ordinary in their extraordinariness, and Erskine's delight at scraping away the years of wallpaper, nicotine, city grime and slippery pavement algae to find every individual's humanity and reason for being is unnerving and infectious. It rains in these stories, but the sun comes out too.
August 22, 2019
Hey ho,let’s go...10 stories that read like a punk rock album,everyday people playing the cards they were dealt,dark,funny and insightful,read it twice so far and there’s no throwaway b-sides,the writer is clever enough and generous enough to make you think for yourself,question you’re feelings at the turn of a page,moral compass spinning,play loud!
August 10, 2020
A stunning debut collection of short stories that had me gripped from the first sentence to the last. Erskines characters are full of warmth, sadness and humour and live in a world that I recognise. These are real people leading real lives full of loss, hope, desperation and joy. I can’t recommend this highly enough.
December 19, 2021
Wendy Erskine’s debut short story collection is a remarkable portrayal of ordinary life. Set in East Belfast, the assortment of candid tales perfectly encapsulate the fragments of beauty and bleakness found in the everyday, often mundane lives many of us lead. Documenting familiar folk with splendid rhythm and the monotony that overshadows them; the oddities of character and ghostly familiarity: this is domestic literature at its finest. Terse and simply written, yet so affecting and darkly comedic, with few references to the Troubles.
Winner of the 2020 Butler Literary Award, these short stories pull you in. You just cannot put them down.
The collection begins with the story To all their dues. We meet local sociopath Kyle who possesses a ‘diverse portfolio’, including racketeering and extortion, a noxious character who, accompanied by his brother, murdered their alcoholic father. Remarkably, he attempts hypnotherapy, and the results are hysterical: this hard-headed faux-masculine gangster seeking help, completely out of his depth. These places are only frequented by ‘ponces’ or ‘students’. He mocks the £80 fee for the session, instead handing the therapist a fiver with disdain, retorting: ‘You are making easy money, pal, let me tell you with this fucking caper’. Running concurrently is the story of the character Mo, embarking on a beauty parlour business, perfectly capturing how the plans we make rarely amount to what was first envisaged: the decor should have been ‘Caribbean paradise’: it ended up with vibes of an Amsterdam coffee shop. A smashed shop window and a visit from Kyle later offering ‘protection’ reveals the darker nature of the story: he’ll help those in a changing, vulnerable community; but it comes at a cost. Mo knows exactly what community means.
Erskine flawlessly captures those subtle, familiar behaviours of ordinary people. She articulates it in such a fine way that I found myself frequently looking inwards – sometimes wearing a droll smirk because many parts were so discernable. Uncanny and very powerful; at times unavoidably relatable. This is particularly highlighted in the story Inakeen, in which the character Jean is captivated by the routine and general lives of the Somali neighbours who have recently moved into the house opposite. Her unenlightened, indifferent son Malcolm only casts further shadows to an already desolate existence since the death of her husband and infrequent contact with her only grandson. The curtain-twitching amidst her ever-growing curiosity towards her enigmatic neighbours brings the only element of repose.
Arab States: Mind and Narrative sees surgery-worker Paula, who despite having her own family, is enticed by an old university friend who she stumbles upon while flicking through the channels for something to watch. Upon seeing his face she begins to ruminate, googling his name and finding him flourishing in a political career – imagining what could have been had she not declined an offer one night to meet up with him alone. The story is evocative and overshadowed by nostalgia – it drives the reader to question their own situation – the poignancy of what could have been had we all made different decisions or choices earlier in our lives. Is this really what we want? Are we ever absolute and/or complete? Those fleeting questions that often blindside even the most self-assured.
That belligerent and narcissistic person you know of, or have at least experienced, is perfectly captured in Observation, in which the character of Kim Cassells, absent-minded and unheeding mother to her daughter Lauren, fixates on her own self-absorbed world of the gym and her current provisional romance: ‘The problem about people like her…is that they think they’re something special…And they’re not’. Perhaps her fixation should have been nursed slightly more towards her offspring, as unbeknown to Kim, her daughter’s own self-centeredness knows no bounds. At times excruciatingly uncomfortable to read, not only in its awkward plot, but equally through the sheer dullness of small-talk and pseudo pleasantries exchanged: ‘My Dad was saying he saw you the other day. He was saying how well you looked’.
Locksmiths was arguably my favourite story from the collection. The plot is relatively uncomplicated, but Erskine manages to sandwich haunting trivialities in the spaces in between. A daughter inherits her grandmother’s house while her mother sits in jail. She peruses the aisles of a DIY store, in that pragmatic state when one has a new house to make a home: ‘I sometimes spent sixteen, eighteen hours a day working on the house, forgetting to eat’. The DIY store acts as the stimulant for change, and in the process leaves an incessant lingering of emptiness for the daughter. It contrasts the memories of old: ‘woodchip giving way to a paisley swirl, paisley swirl yielding to a bottle green paint’. It coerces her to move on from the death of her grandmother and highlights the finality of death: ‘She always sat in the same seat and smoked; there was a yellow bloom on the ceiling which I eventually with some reluctance painted over’. Decades of a life erased in one smooth coat of emulsion.
Change, and learning to adapt, is a common theme. Upon collecting her mother from the prison after her release, she is aghast at the radio: ‘What a load of shit’ and she is intrigued at how fast the car could potentially travel. Time had stood still: both for her mother and her grandmother’s house. The moments of pure stillness in the house are intensely haunting: she heard every floorboard creak, the clock ticked and ‘the slight gurgle of the water going into the radiator’. Those moments of silence only highlight what once was.
This is a collection of moreish, powerful short stories. They compel you to question yourself and your own life. The shortness of the stories (roughly 20 pages apiece) does not affect the quality, with Erskine managing to effectively instill colourful characters and engaging plots in slight space. They make you uncomfortable. Uneasy. But equally they are extremely enjoyable. They contain characters you know and live amongst every single day. The best thing I have read so far this year and for a long time.
Winner of the 2020 Butler Literary Award, these short stories pull you in. You just cannot put them down.
The collection begins with the story To all their dues. We meet local sociopath Kyle who possesses a ‘diverse portfolio’, including racketeering and extortion, a noxious character who, accompanied by his brother, murdered their alcoholic father. Remarkably, he attempts hypnotherapy, and the results are hysterical: this hard-headed faux-masculine gangster seeking help, completely out of his depth. These places are only frequented by ‘ponces’ or ‘students’. He mocks the £80 fee for the session, instead handing the therapist a fiver with disdain, retorting: ‘You are making easy money, pal, let me tell you with this fucking caper’. Running concurrently is the story of the character Mo, embarking on a beauty parlour business, perfectly capturing how the plans we make rarely amount to what was first envisaged: the decor should have been ‘Caribbean paradise’: it ended up with vibes of an Amsterdam coffee shop. A smashed shop window and a visit from Kyle later offering ‘protection’ reveals the darker nature of the story: he’ll help those in a changing, vulnerable community; but it comes at a cost. Mo knows exactly what community means.
Erskine flawlessly captures those subtle, familiar behaviours of ordinary people. She articulates it in such a fine way that I found myself frequently looking inwards – sometimes wearing a droll smirk because many parts were so discernable. Uncanny and very powerful; at times unavoidably relatable. This is particularly highlighted in the story Inakeen, in which the character Jean is captivated by the routine and general lives of the Somali neighbours who have recently moved into the house opposite. Her unenlightened, indifferent son Malcolm only casts further shadows to an already desolate existence since the death of her husband and infrequent contact with her only grandson. The curtain-twitching amidst her ever-growing curiosity towards her enigmatic neighbours brings the only element of repose.
Arab States: Mind and Narrative sees surgery-worker Paula, who despite having her own family, is enticed by an old university friend who she stumbles upon while flicking through the channels for something to watch. Upon seeing his face she begins to ruminate, googling his name and finding him flourishing in a political career – imagining what could have been had she not declined an offer one night to meet up with him alone. The story is evocative and overshadowed by nostalgia – it drives the reader to question their own situation – the poignancy of what could have been had we all made different decisions or choices earlier in our lives. Is this really what we want? Are we ever absolute and/or complete? Those fleeting questions that often blindside even the most self-assured.
That belligerent and narcissistic person you know of, or have at least experienced, is perfectly captured in Observation, in which the character of Kim Cassells, absent-minded and unheeding mother to her daughter Lauren, fixates on her own self-absorbed world of the gym and her current provisional romance: ‘The problem about people like her…is that they think they’re something special…And they’re not’. Perhaps her fixation should have been nursed slightly more towards her offspring, as unbeknown to Kim, her daughter’s own self-centeredness knows no bounds. At times excruciatingly uncomfortable to read, not only in its awkward plot, but equally through the sheer dullness of small-talk and pseudo pleasantries exchanged: ‘My Dad was saying he saw you the other day. He was saying how well you looked’.
Locksmiths was arguably my favourite story from the collection. The plot is relatively uncomplicated, but Erskine manages to sandwich haunting trivialities in the spaces in between. A daughter inherits her grandmother’s house while her mother sits in jail. She peruses the aisles of a DIY store, in that pragmatic state when one has a new house to make a home: ‘I sometimes spent sixteen, eighteen hours a day working on the house, forgetting to eat’. The DIY store acts as the stimulant for change, and in the process leaves an incessant lingering of emptiness for the daughter. It contrasts the memories of old: ‘woodchip giving way to a paisley swirl, paisley swirl yielding to a bottle green paint’. It coerces her to move on from the death of her grandmother and highlights the finality of death: ‘She always sat in the same seat and smoked; there was a yellow bloom on the ceiling which I eventually with some reluctance painted over’. Decades of a life erased in one smooth coat of emulsion.
Change, and learning to adapt, is a common theme. Upon collecting her mother from the prison after her release, she is aghast at the radio: ‘What a load of shit’ and she is intrigued at how fast the car could potentially travel. Time had stood still: both for her mother and her grandmother’s house. The moments of pure stillness in the house are intensely haunting: she heard every floorboard creak, the clock ticked and ‘the slight gurgle of the water going into the radiator’. Those moments of silence only highlight what once was.
This is a collection of moreish, powerful short stories. They compel you to question yourself and your own life. The shortness of the stories (roughly 20 pages apiece) does not affect the quality, with Erskine managing to effectively instill colourful characters and engaging plots in slight space. They make you uncomfortable. Uneasy. But equally they are extremely enjoyable. They contain characters you know and live amongst every single day. The best thing I have read so far this year and for a long time.
September 19, 2020
One of the best collections of short stories I've read in a while, all the better for being set in Belfast. The characters had strong, authentic, local voices, living real lives. There's an undercurrent of loneliness to some of these stories ('Inakeen' 'lady and dog'), sometimes regret, and the sense that lives had taken a turn from which people hadn't fully recovered, leaving them slightly broken, but that they were just getting on with things, best they could. There are glimpses of the troubles, and some of the characters had a quiet menace to them, like Kyle from the superior opener 'to all their dues', and there is a rich seam of black humour through - green pastilles made me laugh.
Best of the lot for me was 'sweet home', it was just the creeping tension throughout, just felt like it wasn't going to end well. Though it's hard to choose as I found 'Last supper' funny and oddly moving and I liked the quiet assertiveness in 'Locksmiths.' The author writes about these people and their lives with a real honesty and the dialogue was just so sharp and rhythmical throughout, having lived in Belfast I felt I could be eavesdropping on some of these conversations in a wee cafe somewhere in the east of the city. Sad to finish this, looking forward to more from this author.
Best of the lot for me was 'sweet home', it was just the creeping tension throughout, just felt like it wasn't going to end well. Though it's hard to choose as I found 'Last supper' funny and oddly moving and I liked the quiet assertiveness in 'Locksmiths.' The author writes about these people and their lives with a real honesty and the dialogue was just so sharp and rhythmical throughout, having lived in Belfast I felt I could be eavesdropping on some of these conversations in a wee cafe somewhere in the east of the city. Sad to finish this, looking forward to more from this author.
March 19, 2020
I picked this book up at a local Belfast bookstore after I saw that someone else on my good reads had reviewed it. I’m ashamed to say that this is the first collection of short stories I have ever read - it was different, but I enjoyed it! I loved the fact that I could pick it up on my commute to work and finish the particular story on the way home.
I like the fact that the stories were all conditioned by Northern Ireland’s unique historical / political context whilst not getting bogged down as a book about ‘the Troubles’. References to East Belfast really did feel like a touch of ‘Sweet Home’, and I actually enjoyed reading this book a lot more than I did when I read Milkman.
The only reason I didn’t rate it higher is because naturally I just enjoyed and gravitated towards some stories more than others! My favourite was probably the story about Paula on her pursuit for an old flame that got away and ending up sloshed in a leisure centre! I was also dying to know more about what happened between Kim Cassell’s and her daughter.
Great piece of writing, with the ability of being both comical and emotive at the same time!
I like the fact that the stories were all conditioned by Northern Ireland’s unique historical / political context whilst not getting bogged down as a book about ‘the Troubles’. References to East Belfast really did feel like a touch of ‘Sweet Home’, and I actually enjoyed reading this book a lot more than I did when I read Milkman.
The only reason I didn’t rate it higher is because naturally I just enjoyed and gravitated towards some stories more than others! My favourite was probably the story about Paula on her pursuit for an old flame that got away and ending up sloshed in a leisure centre! I was also dying to know more about what happened between Kim Cassell’s and her daughter.
Great piece of writing, with the ability of being both comical and emotive at the same time!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2020
A brilliantly bleak, at times darkly comic, collection of stories. I think these stories will particularly appeal to those who have non-romanticised views of family, relationships and the everyday life of average British people. To me, her depictions are absolutely spot on and all the more touching and funny because of that.
August 29, 2020
Reading these stories felt like a weighted blanket. Comforting and full of warmth. And yet, ablaze with tragedy of Shakespearean eminence. This collection is razor sharp prose with wry humour and charm.
Favourite stories: Sweet Home, 77 Pop Facts You Didn't Know About Gil Courtney
Favourite stories: Sweet Home, 77 Pop Facts You Didn't Know About Gil Courtney
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