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We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time
'Kennedy is a superb writer and the canniness of her observation keeps you reading' Sunday Times
Humour, fantasy, rage and despair both help and hinder the protagonists of these stories as they navigate changing circumstances, accumulating losses, moments of comprehension and tenderness. Here is the woman, hoping for a quiet day at the zoo, who finally snaps at a white man's racist tirade and vents years of fury; the micro-celebrity who practises lines for a chat show on which he'll never appear; and the woman who walks out of her honeymoon suite at midnight, perhaps for good. Unsparing in her close examination of human relationships, A. L. Kennedy proves once again why she is regarded as one of our great storytellers.
'Kennedy dissects the small intimacies of inner thoughts... Her prose is typically direct, her sentences clear-cut and yet capable of great tenderness' Observer
'An author with a proven ability to see - truly see - and whose prose can fire like gunshots across the page' New Statesman
Humour, fantasy, rage and despair both help and hinder the protagonists of these stories as they navigate changing circumstances, accumulating losses, moments of comprehension and tenderness. Here is the woman, hoping for a quiet day at the zoo, who finally snaps at a white man's racist tirade and vents years of fury; the micro-celebrity who practises lines for a chat show on which he'll never appear; and the woman who walks out of her honeymoon suite at midnight, perhaps for good. Unsparing in her close examination of human relationships, A. L. Kennedy proves once again why she is regarded as one of our great storytellers.
'Kennedy dissects the small intimacies of inner thoughts... Her prose is typically direct, her sentences clear-cut and yet capable of great tenderness' Observer
'An author with a proven ability to see - truly see - and whose prose can fire like gunshots across the page' New Statesman
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
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Published April 2, 2020
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About the author
A.L. Kennedy
85 books298 followersAlison Louise Kennedy is a Scottish writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is known for a characteristically dark tone, a blending of realism and fantasy, and for her serious approach to her work. She occasionally contributes columns and reviews to UK and European newspapers including the fictional diary of her pet parrot named Charlie.
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July 10, 2020It feels sacrilegious to even imagine reading Kennedy ensconced in a comfortable easy chair. I am bolt upright on the edge of a hard seat, or walking around the room, how else can I cope with the tension, the sparks tingling up and down the spine? There's no other writer who provokes such a visceral response: the pupils dilate, the heart quickens, the palms moisten, the mouth dries.
Are those not the signs of fear? Well, deep disquiet, yes. Kennedy will demand your attention with unsettling hints of strangeness. Right there, on the first page, (if you start at the beginning) Ronnie in Panic Attack, "Ronnie is thinking thoughts and does not like it. Thoughts are highly liable to make his head take turns." But as in several stories in this, Kennedy's seventh collection, the perspective wheels around and with a gasp you realize that nothing is as you imagined. Your suspicions of Ronnie are entirely confounded; in Everybody's Pleased to See You the delightful restaurant turns to stale dust in your mouth; the young bride in Walker is not out for a walk because she enjoys the feel of sand between her toes just after midnight.
There are melancholy stories that deal with the painful aftermath of war; Unanswered, Am Sonntag, Even Words Have Meaning.
"People do their best. It isn't very good"
There are stories that illustrate the political through the personal, that indict a system in which "People, so many people, keep on being kind and gentle when nothing around them has been either one, not for years and years." In It Might Be Easier To Fail the narrator wonders why the person in charge of the country needs guarding: "if this man they're guarding really is what he says he is - a darling of the people and a peacemaker between nations - then it is a touch peculiar that he needs the loaded weapons and the dark skills there to defend him."
Spider shines out through stark contrast between dealing with the cosy indoor threat of spiders and the very real threat and violence of cruel racism outside.
In a stand-out collection, the two stand-out tales for me are New Mexico in which the cheesy podcast world of lurid true crime stories turns into something matchless in chill factor, beautifully paced and delicately balanced between trash and transcendence. Inappropriate Staring has a woman visiting the Durrell zoo on Jersey and finding herself, tired and thirsty and emotionally troubled, listening to a not-so-subtly disguised anti-immigrant rant from another visitor.
The final tale returns to the sort of territory that anyone familiar with Kennedy's previous work is likely to have missed so far: an intense and sensitive examination of the human heart. A woman and her lover are at the top of Cologne Cathedral. At first (again) we are unsure of their feelings for each other, are they in danger? But then love breaks over them like a tender thunderstorm, we realize that love had been there all along. They think of their return to Britain the next day.
Tomorrow we'll fly back to our little island. We don't know what will save us there. We'll want to save each other, be the saving of each other. We'll hope to be lucky, lucky enough.
Tiny, tiny. Gentle, gentle. Lucky, lucky.
We are attempting to survive our time.
Are those not the signs of fear? Well, deep disquiet, yes. Kennedy will demand your attention with unsettling hints of strangeness. Right there, on the first page, (if you start at the beginning) Ronnie in Panic Attack, "Ronnie is thinking thoughts and does not like it. Thoughts are highly liable to make his head take turns." But as in several stories in this, Kennedy's seventh collection, the perspective wheels around and with a gasp you realize that nothing is as you imagined. Your suspicions of Ronnie are entirely confounded; in Everybody's Pleased to See You the delightful restaurant turns to stale dust in your mouth; the young bride in Walker is not out for a walk because she enjoys the feel of sand between her toes just after midnight.
There are melancholy stories that deal with the painful aftermath of war; Unanswered, Am Sonntag, Even Words Have Meaning.
"People do their best. It isn't very good"
There are stories that illustrate the political through the personal, that indict a system in which "People, so many people, keep on being kind and gentle when nothing around them has been either one, not for years and years." In It Might Be Easier To Fail the narrator wonders why the person in charge of the country needs guarding: "if this man they're guarding really is what he says he is - a darling of the people and a peacemaker between nations - then it is a touch peculiar that he needs the loaded weapons and the dark skills there to defend him."
Spider shines out through stark contrast between dealing with the cosy indoor threat of spiders and the very real threat and violence of cruel racism outside.
In a stand-out collection, the two stand-out tales for me are New Mexico in which the cheesy podcast world of lurid true crime stories turns into something matchless in chill factor, beautifully paced and delicately balanced between trash and transcendence. Inappropriate Staring has a woman visiting the Durrell zoo on Jersey and finding herself, tired and thirsty and emotionally troubled, listening to a not-so-subtly disguised anti-immigrant rant from another visitor.
What do you do when you are a human being and you have failed because failure is normal, but also you failed because you were pushed out of shape by other people's mistakes and now there is this stress tight around you - it's through your arms and it's hot in your chest - and it's encouraging fallibility? What do you do when someone is wrong in a way that you think is probably a danger? Or wrong in a way that makes you dirty just because you are beside them and your silence might as well be your agreement, your permission? What do you do? What do you say?
The final tale returns to the sort of territory that anyone familiar with Kennedy's previous work is likely to have missed so far: an intense and sensitive examination of the human heart. A woman and her lover are at the top of Cologne Cathedral. At first (again) we are unsure of their feelings for each other, are they in danger? But then love breaks over them like a tender thunderstorm, we realize that love had been there all along. They think of their return to Britain the next day.
Tomorrow we'll fly back to our little island. We don't know what will save us there. We'll want to save each other, be the saving of each other. We'll hope to be lucky, lucky enough.
Tiny, tiny. Gentle, gentle. Lucky, lucky.
We are attempting to survive our time.
April 12, 2020
'Tomorrow we'll fly back to our little island. We don't know what will save us there. We'll want to save each other, be the saving of each other. We'll hope to be lucky, lucky enough.
Tiny, tiny. Gentle, gentle. Lucky, lucky.
We are attempting to survive our time.'
As the world asks itself everyday how we are to survive our time, this collection of short stories from A.L. Kennedy seems to be sneaking in under the radar. It deserves to be shouted from the roof tops. This is Kennedy at her darkly brilliant best.
A man helps a stranger at a busy London station, as she suffers a panic attack amidst the mass of people. A newly-married wife goes for a midnight walk around the town where she is on honeymoon, and a dark secret from her past reveals why she is already troubled by her marriage. A minor star who has made a calamitous mistake practices for the interviews, to herald his return, that will never come. A woman rants at a man whilst visiting Jersey Zoo, suddenly snapping in the face of his casual racism. A woman wakes in a strange place and, hearing a piano being tuned, suddenly remembers the horrors that have befallen her. A man whose child was killed in a hit and run incident plots his revenge on the world. A couple on holiday in Cologne have a massive argument in the cathedral and then make up, their relationship hanging in the balance. And so the stories go on...
In each of these twelve short stories Kennedy explores the darkness in modern life: abuse, wars and atrocities, death, loneliness and mental disintegration. As ever, she balances the lyrically sublime with the very darkest of material. The stories slowly reveal more and more about the characters, until suddenly you get what has triggered this moment of crisis, and the battle all of us have everyday simply to survive our time (if you don't get the reference you will when you get to the last story).
I fully admit up front that I am a massive fan of A.L.Kennedy, who has written some of my very favourite novels over that last 20 years or so. This collection of stories is not an easy read, but will reward with its absolutely perfect balance of light and dark. At this moment of world-wide pandemic this is not 'escape fiction', but it conversely might just help. We do survive. We will survive our time. This is an important and beautiful collection and deserves - no, needs - to be read. Just wonderful.
Tiny, tiny. Gentle, gentle. Lucky, lucky.
We are attempting to survive our time.'
As the world asks itself everyday how we are to survive our time, this collection of short stories from A.L. Kennedy seems to be sneaking in under the radar. It deserves to be shouted from the roof tops. This is Kennedy at her darkly brilliant best.
A man helps a stranger at a busy London station, as she suffers a panic attack amidst the mass of people. A newly-married wife goes for a midnight walk around the town where she is on honeymoon, and a dark secret from her past reveals why she is already troubled by her marriage. A minor star who has made a calamitous mistake practices for the interviews, to herald his return, that will never come. A woman rants at a man whilst visiting Jersey Zoo, suddenly snapping in the face of his casual racism. A woman wakes in a strange place and, hearing a piano being tuned, suddenly remembers the horrors that have befallen her. A man whose child was killed in a hit and run incident plots his revenge on the world. A couple on holiday in Cologne have a massive argument in the cathedral and then make up, their relationship hanging in the balance. And so the stories go on...
In each of these twelve short stories Kennedy explores the darkness in modern life: abuse, wars and atrocities, death, loneliness and mental disintegration. As ever, she balances the lyrically sublime with the very darkest of material. The stories slowly reveal more and more about the characters, until suddenly you get what has triggered this moment of crisis, and the battle all of us have everyday simply to survive our time (if you don't get the reference you will when you get to the last story).
I fully admit up front that I am a massive fan of A.L.Kennedy, who has written some of my very favourite novels over that last 20 years or so. This collection of stories is not an easy read, but will reward with its absolutely perfect balance of light and dark. At this moment of world-wide pandemic this is not 'escape fiction', but it conversely might just help. We do survive. We will survive our time. This is an important and beautiful collection and deserves - no, needs - to be read. Just wonderful.
December 26, 2020
Fiction has been more important than ever during 2020 — less to help us escape the horrors the year has hurled at us than to help us deal with them. A.L. Kennedy’s new collection of short stories, We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time, caught the mood. From a restaurant to a zoo, from a panic attack at Kings Cross station to a couple arguing at Cologne cathedral, it’s a blend of terse, unsettling, funny, brutal, delicate, bleak, ordinary, hopeful stories about conflict, trauma, and how people “do their best”.
February 9, 2022
I do find it difficult to review books of several short stories, and these I didn't make notes on after each one as I sometimes do. At the beginning of 'Am Sonntag' there is a description of a fly 'trying to nail itself out through the glass [...] audibly beating its body against something hard that it can't understand' which felt a bit like my experience of reading these. I do find them hard to understand, but assume the fault is at least as much mine as A L Kennedy's. Much more obvious is that the title of the book, the theme of struggling to survive is what makes these so weighty. So gritty. And such acutely-told tales of others' experiences can be hugely admired, if not always enjoyed.
March 31, 2023
The first short story collection I’ve ever read. While I did not enjoy all of them thoroughly, I do want to mention Inappropriate Staring and especially New Mexico - these two stories really stood out for me.
January 25, 2022
a solid mix of some very intimate themes and some more generally relevant social anxieties of this time and age
personally a good but not great read, for whilst i greatly appreciated the sentiment of most of it, a lot of the writing felt a bit too contrived, too arty and abstract in its metaphors that i lost some sight of its meaning
3.5
personally a good but not great read, for whilst i greatly appreciated the sentiment of most of it, a lot of the writing felt a bit too contrived, too arty and abstract in its metaphors that i lost some sight of its meaning
3.5
June 14, 2023
Powerful stuff. A lot of the writing comprises the thoughts of the various protagonists, (and is indicated by italic font), and is quite disturbing. In the first story we get to see the world from the point of view of Ronnie, who is struggling to cope with a situation in which a woman is having a panic attack. No-one seems to be doing anything about it but he knows, (he has been told) that you don't go up to a woman stranger and touch her, try to calm her down. He knows that that would probably make the situation worse, and would likely get you into trouble yourself. But he finds himself compelled to act, and does manage to help, despite his own need to shout, scream, somehow deal with all the strangers who are looking at him.
The second story is in a lighter vein, describing the almost sanctified, sacred atmosphere in a very high-class café. There is a nice put-down at the end when it is revealed that the establishment is only a few years old, and the air of antiquity entirely manufactured.
I found some of the stories a bit difficult to follow, and some really scary, but there is some brilliant writing able to convey deeply intimate, strange, worrying thoughts.
The second story is in a lighter vein, describing the almost sanctified, sacred atmosphere in a very high-class café. There is a nice put-down at the end when it is revealed that the establishment is only a few years old, and the air of antiquity entirely manufactured.
I found some of the stories a bit difficult to follow, and some really scary, but there is some brilliant writing able to convey deeply intimate, strange, worrying thoughts.
August 24, 2020
What is it exactly, that makes us feel whole? Formidably insightful, A.L. Kennedy’s latest collection of short stories is a shrewd examination of life’s defining moments. Not all these moments are loud – though the man having a panic attack at Kings Cross Station might argue otherwise. And yet, however small or seemingly unremarkable, each story invites the reader to enter a very particular struggle with characters who not only feel real, but whose aching vulnerability will resonate long after the moment has ended. Through a series of slice-of-life moments – from the man on edge of fame to the woman who walks out on her honeymoon – Kennedy examines instances of failure and injustice, success and almost success, love and urgent faith, asking the reader, just how lonely these struggles can be, if they also feel universal?
As always, Kennedy’s closely observed prose is bleakly affecting – a writer who’s yet to disappoint.
As always, Kennedy’s closely observed prose is bleakly affecting – a writer who’s yet to disappoint.
April 13, 2020
This was an interesting collection of stories and for the most part, I did like them but I just found the whole collection, for the most part, a bit underwhelming in places. There were a few stories that stood out because of the topic or voice was interesting but the whole book felt disjointed when reading in one go.
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
March 11, 2022
Clearly, I will have to read more A. L. Kennedy. The stories in the second half of this book are especially powerful. A remarkable variety of subjects and narrators, but in all pieces the same humanity and the same unflinching gaze.
June 28, 2023
My first book of short stories by A.L. Kennedy - and I'll definitely be reading more by this author. The tales in this collection, featuring a wide range of protagonists and settings, capture different lives that seem disparate, but which share a common vulnerability. Nimble and original.
May 5, 2021
A bit disappointed with this book didn’t find any story particular memorable.
May 31, 2021
A short story collection of enlightening, pleasurable and contemplative tales. Always something melancholy gets caught out of the corner of your eye when reading a book by A.L. Kennedy.
August 9, 2021
I have not understood all of it, but the chapter “New Mexico” was great, I have feel bored something but not for long so it’s okay
March 5, 2022
i know that people say that often & about many books but wow, this book really is criminally underrated. A L kennedy is an unbelievable talented writer and her range… simply wow.
August 23, 2022
Not my cup of tea. Will struggle on a little more before abandoning. First story was good, though.
July 7, 2024
The short story New Mexico made this worth reading for me but some of it is a bit hit or miss
November 8, 2025
A collection of short stories: more vignettes and situations than stories. Some well crafted, some well observed, some perhaps over-thought. Interesting rather than a great read.
September 14, 2023
My favorite stories from this collection were:
1 - Spider
2 - Waiting in the Jesus Queue
3 - Point for Lost Children
1 - Spider
2 - Waiting in the Jesus Queue
3 - Point for Lost Children
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews