The Empty Family: Stories

by Colm Tóibín

On the heels of his breakout success, the bestselling and award-winning novel Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín returns with a stunning collection of new stories.

In the breathtaking long story “The Street,” Tóibín imagines a relationship between Pakistani workers in Barcelona—a taboo affair in a community ruled by obedience and silence. In “Two Women,” an eminent and taciturn Irish set designer takes a job in her homeland, and must confront emotions she has long repressed. “Silence” is a brilliant historical set piece about Lady Gregory, who tells the writer Henry James a confessional story at a dinner party.

Silence --
The empty family --
Two women --
One minus one --
The pearl fishers --
Barcelona, 1975 --
The new Spain --
The colour of shadows --
The street

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

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Colm Tóibín FRSL, is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. Tóibín is currently Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not a very promising start, I know, when a reviewer’s lead sentence begs your indulgence. In this case, it’s to allow my personal reading history with the talented Mr. Tóibín. The first book of his I read was the much-loved Brooklyn in 2010. In fact, I would have purchased the movie rights then and there if I’d had the spare millions lying around. Then I read The Master, his well-written deep-dive into the character of Henry James. That one didn’t strike me as cinematic, but it was engaging all the same. At that point, Tóibín was a big blip on my bodar* screen. That’s why, when my lovely half-Irish wife and I were on our magical tour of Dublin, I could often be found in the T section of its bookstores. I happened upon this collection at one of them. When I told the sales clerk that I’d enjoyed several Tóibín books in the past, she graciously corrected my pronunciation. I’d said TOY-bin (like Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein, expressing a prurient interest in Madeline Kahn and her “turban”). She told me it was actually CALL-um Toe-BEAN. So now we all know.

I’m lazy when it comes to reviewing short stories. There’s no way I’m going to do even capsule summaries when it’s more than a handful in the collection. The best you’ll get from me is a few loosely related themes, an overall tone, and maybe a mention of an outlier or two. With that in mind:

Common themes – love, displacement, lust, despair, gay life, loneliness, and as The Observer aptly noted, “the unvarying dilemmas of the human heart.”

Overall tone – refined in its writing, raw in its emotion, powerful in its impact, and shifting in its people, places, and times.

Outliers – actually, there was just one, and it was bad. First, let me establish the baseline apart from which this one story stood. In general, the characters seemed like real human beings. Their concerns many not have always been our concerns exactly, but you were caught up in their situations and cared about how they fared. The emotions were honest and the writing was superb. Of these other stories in the majority, each, for me, was in 4 and 5 star territory. Then there was “Barcelona, 1975.” I’d be willing to give Tóibín the benefit of the doubt if I had a clue which doubt it might be. Did I simply not understand the point? Was it to shock an audience with graphic gay sex? I don’t think so since readers who’d be spooked by that would not have made it that far anyway. Was it to show the perils of the libertine bathhouse culture at that time? Somehow that didn’t seem right either, since there was no hint that it was a cautionary tale. Nor was it sold as the most liberated and satisfying lifestyle a man of that persuasion could hope for. In fact, there was no emotion whatsoever. The closest equivalent I can think of is a set of instructions for assembling a bookshelf from IKEA. One part is inserted into another, and the parts may be different sizes, but that’s about all you get in the way of plot. That’s all the character development you get, too. Sorry, Colm, but that one stuck out like a sore thumb. Actually, I take that back. A sore thumb would have been the most interesting plot point in that story.

Rating without the outlier: 4.5

Rating with the outlier: 3.5 rounded down to 3 because the exception was audaciously poor.

*Bodar = (bo)ok (d)etection (a)nd (r)eading

[Constantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: Excellent

Genre: Literary Fiction + Short Stories + LGBT

This is the first time I read a book written by Colm Tóibín. The Empty Family is a collection of nine short stories. Some of the stories I liked right away and others took me some time until I connected to them. They all have different themes. What really I liked about the author’s writing is the subtility in both story and characters. Everything is subtle and everything is more about human relationships and how they affect the character’s life in a way or another. I liked some of the stories more than others but overall they were all very satisfying.

The reviews for this book are quite polarizing. Some readers loved the stories others did not. Fortunately, I am falling in the former category. My favorite stories are “Silence” which is about Lady Gregory, the wife of Sir William Henry Gregory, and her affair with the author Henry James. “Two Women” is about two women meeting after the death of a man they shared at some point in their life. “The Pearl Fishers” is more philosophical in my opinion and is about religion, sex, and finding self. “The New Spain” is about a communist girl who is returning to her country after her grandmother passed away and facing problems with her parents over the will. To be honest each story is thought-provoking and talks about one or more issues and subjects in a very subtle way. The beautiful writing made each one of them captivating. I loved this book a lot.

[Sketchbook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be advised : Colm Toibin is the new "lit darling." The lemmings are racing to the Irish coast. I don't get it. Much of his writing is "beautiful," but it's also like one of those crusty French meringue / bisquits -- lovely to look at, but nothing inside. Having just read these 9 stories, I can recall only one. Yet I can rattle on about 7 or 8 stories x Maugham, Maupassant, Roald Dahl, John Colllier, and several by du Maurier (to name a few), read years ago.

Once again Toibin presents a stunt centered on Henry James...this time it's Lady Gregory, yes, that Lady Gregory, who co-founded the Abbey Theatre, and her pash w poet Wilfred Blunt. It's amusing. And so what? There's a story abt a fella at his dying mum's bedside (she had little feeling for him and he had little for her)...o, fuck, the pathos and wrenching hurt. May I say a few words abt the story that offends GRs? A young Irish lad unzips his same-sexuality in Spain (hey, where's the vaseline, bro, it hoits!). Now there's a meringue...the offense is that the graphic story has no point at all, except Toibin proves here and there that he can do it...(publish it, I mean.)

The best story is called "The New Spain," in which a prodigal daughter living it up in London on money from gra'mere, returns home and realizes her greedy family can do nothing without her consent, according to gra'mere's Will. Here's a comic comeuppance to those who want to destroy de lande in Menorca.

Toibin is a writer of "atmosphere," not plot or character. His endings just sorta drift away with the tide, which is why I cannot remember them. Example, 2 lines : "The moon hangs low over Texas. The moon is my mother." Try that line in your prep school story class and you'll need all the vaseline you can buy. Also some toothpaste.

Colm is taken very seriously, you see, as he's a serious, smart writer. He even refers, for the knowing, to artist Vija Celmins. But again, So what? Anyway, I am now persuaded to poke Lady Gregory and pop over to Menorca.

[Fionnuala]

Some of the stories in this collection are as nearly perfect as a short story can be. Toibin has a powerful ability to render the raw emotion of love and loss in words which echo in the readers mind long after the book has been finished.

[Jennifer (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book in 2011 and didn’t really like it. I gave it ⭐️⭐️.

My original review comments:
“Not a big fan of short stories. I liked Brooklyn and was surprised that some of these stories were so different.”

2021: I just finished Nora Webster and really enjoyed it. I think I’ll give this book another chance.

Maybe my reading taste has changed. Maybe I can appreciate each story better ten years later. I enjoyed each story very much. I found Colm Tóibín’s writing style beautiful.

Updated rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

[Sheenagh Pugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

If all the stories in this collection were as absorbing as "Silence" and "The Colour of Shadows", I'd have given it a 5 or 4. On the other hand, if they were all as inconsequential and self-absorbed as "Barcelona, 1975" or "One Minus One" it'd be a 1.

They all concern people alienated in some way from home and family, and usually returning home if only temporarily. I'm not sure if I like collections of stories to be as themed and alike as this. I think one advantage of a collection of stories is the variety of theme and voice it can contain, and there really isn't much of that here. In particular this is true of the first-person stories, in which the voice is seemingly always an Irish gay man who is estranged from his family, working (if at all) in the arts and putting it about quite a lot. This character, under different guises, crops up in America, Dublin and Spain and he's pretty infuriating everywhere. He is given to saying over-dramatic things like "The moon hangs low over Texas. The moon is my mother" ("One Minus One"), which is an opening to make the heart sink. He's also given to describing his sex life in that mechanical "fit tab A into slot B" style that manages to be both tedious and risible and is surely a candidate for the Literary Review's Bad Sex Awards.

I generally liked the third-person stories far better than the first-person ones. This isn't an infallible guide: the first-person story "The Pearl Fishers" has more humour, momentum and observation than the other first-person stories, while the third-person "The Street" seemed, at least to this reader, interminable and could surely have been told at half the length. But by and large, the third-person stories seem to me to have way more to say, and it isn't all about him, as it generally is when he uses first person. With most writers, "I" is a lie; they use first person to get under the skin of people who aren't them. I don't think he does; I fear his "I" really is, more or less, himself, and the writing is the less interesting for that.

The third-person "Silence" is a fascinating speculative fictionalisation of the lives of Lady Gregory and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. It's beautifully written, in a style that somehow suits 19th-century people without actually being 19th-century, and has some interesting things to say about how we use fiction to cope with reality. And in "The Colour of Shadows" the situation of a man caring for his aged aunt and reassessing other loyalties is brought sensitively alive. The male protagonist, Paul, is again the Archetypal Gay Irishman Distanced From Family, but he comes over as far more tolerable than this character in the first person, partly because he seems more concerned with his aunt than with himself, eg at a moment when his aunt, her faculties beginning to fail, mistakes him for someone else and begins talking about him:


"Paul got involved with a rotten crowd up in Dublin, Tom. A rotten crowd!" [...]
"Aunt Josie, it's Paul. This is Paul."
In the shadowy light she stopped talking and peered towards him.
"What?" she asked.
He wondered if it would be possible to run out of the room and behave as if this scene had never taken place, make her feel that she might have dreamed a visitor, so that she could put it out of her mind, as he would, too.


If Paul had been one of his first-person protagonists, I suspect this rather moving concern for the aunt's feelings would have been absent; it'd have been all about him.

I haven't read any Toibin before. If I do try the novels, I'll check first and see if I can find something that isn't first-person and obsessed with his favourite protagonist, because I suspect this avatar will never be anywhere near as fascinating to anyone else as he is to his author.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've given this 4 stars, instead of 5, because I liked his Mothers and Sons: Stories even more. And because one story in the middle, while just as well-written as the others, eluded me. As usual, his work is full of characters that live, and his stories are written in such a deceptively simple style that the endings hit you with a quiet devastation -- something that can make a story for me. And I don't think the 'devastation' is necessarily bleak, as the character is showing an accommodation to his/her circumstances.

There are a few stories that include graphic depictions of sexual activities, which I usually think is unnecessary, but here, for some reason, they don't seem gratuitous, especially in the story, "The Street."

I'd read two of these stories before online in The New Yorker and it was a pleasure to read them again. The one titled "One Minus One" has almost the same kind of feel as the title story, which is a poetic tour-de-force. (I see that "One Minus One" was included in the earlier Mothers and Sons: Stories -- not sure why it's collected here too.)

[Кремена Михайлова · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много ми харесаха разказите.
Точно колкото тези на Пиер Мейлак.

[AdiTurbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best collections of stories I have read in a long while. Toibin is a master, whose every written word is fully thought out. The stories all revolve around love and its loss, loneliness and family. The concept of family is used here in its broader sense, and means many different things to the different characters — safety, acceptance, meeting sexual and emotional needs, and much else. There is great accuracy in the depiction of psychological and emotional landscapes. Superb writing, moving and compassionate without ever resorting to sentimentality.

[Sotiris Karaiskos · Rating 5 out of 5]

9 stories, quite different from each other, without any specific link, written by the highly competent Irish writer who I think this way of literary expression suits him. Because there is no connection between these stories contained in the book, I should take things from the beginning.

In the first short story we have the story of a man who has moved away from his family and especially from his mother until he finally returned to her only for her last moments. So he is confronted with his memories and his remorse that he was not the good son he needed to be. Very beautiful short story, touching and heartbreaking about death, that reminds us that we should not postpone anything that has to do with the expression of love to our own people because the end we never know when it will come.

 In the second we have the story of an extramarital relationship long ago of a woman who is forced to marry a much older man and is withering in a married life without any passion and little love, finds a way out in a beautiful poet who awakens her body but also her soul. A story that we certainly encounter in many literary works, but the author, with his beautiful writing, makes it completely new.

 The next two are related to nostalgia. The first is virtually not a story at all, as the writer simply describes very well the influence that the Irish soul has from this environment, the wild beaches that are being hit by the great waves. The second has to do with a different part of nostalgia, in which the homeland is something idealized when you are away but when you visit it you simply can not stand it. Within it there is the reminiscence of an old love, another form of nostalgia perhaps. Excellent short story also.

 From the 4th story, we get to the next one which is also about reminiscing of an old love through the encounter of old lovers. This love, of course, is homosexual, between two men, but this, though complicating the situation, is of little importance. Interim, however, also includes religious issues such as belief, the investigation of the divine and the need to reform the church after the various sexual scandals. Interesting short story but in the end I stayed with the feeling of something unfinished.

 In the 6th short story, we are moving to Spain for another story of a disappointing return home. The protagonist, after eight years of absence, is returning to her home country, who has now got rid of the dictatorship to find it quite altered and on the way to change even more, something that fills her with great disappointment. But this, which is not changing, is family conflicts that have, among other things, a political side and lead to conflict. In the way, however, he understands that there may be something positive in the people of Spain who make everything worthwhile. Nice, optimistic and warm short story. I liked it a lot.

 In the next we come back to the issue of the gradual loss of a loved one, except that in this short story death brings an end to a smoother relationship, so the remorse is missing, but the loss does not hurt less.

 The last two are related to homosexual love and are taking place in Barcelona, ​​where similarities are finished, as their purpose, style and impressions are different. The first one takes place in the 1970s and takes us to a hedonistic period of existence where everything revolves around sex, I confess that I could not find any particular meaning and perhaps this is due to its shortness. The second one is more romantic, it is happening in our time and tells us the story of the love of two Pakistani immigrants who, in the uncertainty of being in an unfamiliar country, find comfort on each other but as long as they have moved away from this conservative country which has no admission to homosexuality, the country itself can not leave them quiet as their countrymen carry it wherever they go. Maybe it has a wild start, but its ending hides tenderness and emotionality that for me at least is enough.

 So in the end I can say that I find most of these stories extremely good, with many of them giving me the most excellent impressions. Some did not like much, maybe because I could not figure them out. In the end, however, remains the impression of the ones that gave me something and drifted from it I can not put less than 5 stars.

9 διηγήματα, αρκετά διαφορετικά το ένα άλλο το άλλο, χωρίς κάποιον συγκεκριμένο συνδετικό στοιχείο, γραμμένα από τον ιδιαίτερα ικανό Ιρλανδό συγγραφέα που νομίζω ότι αυτός ο τρόπος λογοτεχνικής έκφρασης του ταιριάζει. Επειδή δεν υπάρχει κάποια σύνδεση μεταξύ αυτών των ιστοριών που περιέχονται στο βιβλίο θα πρέπει να πάρουμε τα πράγματα από την αρχή.

Στο πρώτο διήγημα έχουμε την ιστορία ενός άνδρα που απομακρύνθηκε από την οικογένειά του και περισσότερο από τη μητέρα του μέχρι που στο τέλος γύρισε κοντά της μόνο για τις τελευταίες της στιγμές. Έτσι έρχεται αντιμέτωπος με τις αναμνήσεις του αλλά και τις τύψεις που δεν υπήρξε ο καλός γιος που έπρεπε. Πολύ όμορφο διήγημα, συγκινητικό ως και σπαρακτικό, με θέμα το θάνατο που μας υπενθυμίζει ότι δεν πρέπει να αναβάλουμε τίποτα που να έχει σχέση με την εκδήλωση αγάπης στους δικούς μας ανθρώπους γιατί το τέλος ποτέ δεν ξέρεις πότε θα έρθει.

Στο δεύτερο έχουμε την ιστορία μιας εξωσυζυγικής σχέσης πριν από πάρα πολλά χρόνια μιας γυναίκας που αναγκάζεται να παντρευτεί έναν πολύ μεγαλύτερο της και μαραζώνοντας σε έναν έγγαμο βίο χωρίς καθόλου πάθος και ελάχιστη αγάπη βρίσκει διέξοδο σε έναν όμορφο ποιητή που ξυπνάει το σώμα της αλλά και την ψυχή της. Ιστορία που σίγουρα την συναντάμε σε πάρα πολλά λογοτεχνικά έργα, ο συγγραφέας, όμως, καταφέρνει με την όμορφη γραφή του να την κάνει εντελώς ξεχωριστή.

Οι δύο επόμενες έχουν σχέση με τη νοσταλγία. Η πρώτη ουσιαστικά σχεδόν δεν είναι καν ιστορία καθώς ουσιαστικά ο συγγραφέας απλά περιγράφει πολύ όμορφα την επίδραση που έχει στην Ιρλανδική ψυχή αυτό το περιβάλλον, οι άγριες ακτές, που τις χτυπάνε τα μεγάλα κύματα. Η δεύτερη έχει να κάνει με μία διαφορετική μεριά της νοσταλγίας, στην οποία η πατρίδα είναι κάτι το εξιδανικευμένο όταν βρίσκεσαι μακριά αλλά όταν την επισκέπτεσαι απλά δεν την αντέχεις. Μέσα σε αυτήν υπάρχει και η αναπόληση ενός παλιού έρωτα, μία άλλη μορφή νοσταλγίας ίσως. Εξαιρετικό διήγημα και αυτό.

Από το 4ο διήγημα παίρνουμε πάσα για το επόμενο που αφορά την αναπόληση ενός παλιού έρωτα μέσα από τη συνάντηση των παλαιών εραστών. Αυτός ο έρωτας, βέβαια, είναι ομοφυλοφιλικός, ανάμεσα σε δύο άντρες αλλά αυτό αν και περιπλέκει την κατάσταση δεν έχει ιδιαίτερη σημασία. Ενδιάμεσα, όμως, μπαίνουν και θρησκευτικά ζητήματα όπως αυτά της πίστης, της διερεύνησης του θείου και της ανάγκης αναμόρφωσης της εκκλησίας μετά από τα διάφορα σεξουαλικά σκάνδαλα. Ενδιαφέρον διήγημα αλλά στο τέλος έμεινα με την αίσθηση του ημιτελούς.

Στο 6ο διήγημα μεταφερόμαστε στην Ισπανία για μία ιστορία απογοητευτικής επιστροφής. Η πρωταγωνίστρια της μετά από 8 χρόνια απουσίας επιστρέφει στην πατρίδα της που πλέον έχει ξεφορτωθεί τη δικτατορία για να τη βρει αρκετά αλλαγμένη και στην πορεία για να αλλάξει ακόμα περισσότερο, κάτι που τη γεμίζει με μεγάλη απογοήτευση. Αυτό, όμως, που δεν αλλάζει είναι οι οικογενειακές αντιπαραθέσεις που έχουν εκτός των άλλων και πολιτική χροιά και οδηγούν στη σύγκρουση. Στην πορεία, όμως, καταλαβαίνει ότι ίσως υπάρχει και κάτι θετικό στους ανθρώπους της Ισπανίας που κάνει τα πάντα να αξίζουν τον κόπο. Ωραίο, αισιόδοξο και ζεστό διήγημα. Πολύ μου άρεσε.

Στο επόμενο επανερχόμαστε στο θέμα της σταδιακής απώλειας ενός αγαπημένου προσώπου, με τη διαφορά ότι σε αυτό το διήγημα ο θάνατος φέρνει το τέλος σε μία πιο ομαλή σχέση, οπότε οι τύψεις λείπουν αλλά η απώλεια δεν πονάει λιγότερο για αυτό.

Τα δύο τελευταία έχουν σχέση με το ομοφυλοφιλικό έρωτα και διαδραματίζονται στη Βαρκελώνη, εκεί τελειώνουν και οι ομοιότητες καθώς είναι διαφορετικός ο σκοπός τους, το ύφος τους και οι εντυπώσεις που προκάλεσαν. Το πρώτο διαδραματίζεται στη δεκαετία του '70 και μας μεταφέρει μία ηδονιστική περίοδο ύπαρξης όπου τα πάντα περιστρέφονται γύρω από το σεξ, ομολογώ ότι δεν μπόρεσα να βρω ιδιαίτερο νόημα και ίσως αυτό οφείλεται την συντομία του. Το δεύτερο είναι κάτι πιο ρομαντικό, διαδραματίζεται στο σήμερα και μας αφηγείται την ιστορία του έρωτα δύο Πακιστανών μεταναστών που μέσα στην αβεβαιότητα της ύπαρξης σε μία άγνωστη χώρα βρίσκουν παρηγοριά ο ένας στον άλλον, όσο, όμως και αν έχουν απομακρυνθεί από αυτή τη συντηρητική χώρα που δεν έχει καμία αποδοχή για την ομοφυλοφιλία, η ίδια η χώρα αυτή δεν μπορεί να τους αφήσει ήσυχους καθώς την κουβαλάνε οι ομοεθνείς τους όπου και να πάνε. Ίσως έχει ένα άγριο ξεκίνημα αλλά η κατάληξη του κρύβει μία τρυφερότητα και μία συγκίνηση μου εμένα τουλάχιστον μου ήταν αρκετή.

Οπότε στο τέλος μπορώ να πω ότι βρίσκω τα περισσότερα από αυτά τα διηγήματα εξαιρετικά, με αρκετά από αυτά να μου αφήνουν τις πιο άριστες εντυπώσεις. Κάποια δεν μου άρεσαν και τόσο, ίσως δεν μπόρεσα και να τα καταλάβω. Στο τέλος, όμως, μένει η εντύπωση από αυτά που μπόρεσαν να μου δώσουν κάτι και παρασυρόμενος από αυτήν δεν μπορώ να μη βάλω 5 αστεράκια.

[Terzah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Colm Toibin's writing. It's so spot on much of the time that you wonder if there could possibly be any other way to say the things he says. I love the women he creates. They're so real, from the crusty to the geriatric to the young and the fierce and the selfish. Many of the stories in this collection didn't let me down. A big fan of his novel "Brooklyn", I was once again amazed at the reality of his characters and situations: the awkwardness of reconciling adolescent activities and attitudes with one's adult self; the despair of the nursing home; regret over missed chances and lost loves.

But then came the sex. Ah, why do writers--even the best ones--have to try to describe sex? It either comes across (as in this case) as grotesque, the original case of TMI, or as sappy and laughable in the manner of the Harlequin Romance. Books need the movie convention of just quietly panning away from the bed (or wherever the "action" is taking place) and letting the reader's imagination do the rest. I have never read a description of sex in any book that made me shake my head and say, "Yeah, he/she really captured it."

And then came the final and longest story in the collection, "The Street." It's been the favorite of many of reviewers. But it was my least favorite. There were long stretches of nothing-much-happening that even Mr. Toibin's prose couldn't redeem. And I felt it was just a retelling of "Brokeback Mountain" in a Pakistani immigrant setting, with a slightly happier ending (surprisingly). I sympathized more with one character's wife and children back in Pakistan than I did with the characters themselves. I know that says more about me and my views on adultery than it does about the story. But I am who I am, and it diminished this collection for me.

That said, I am still a huge fan of Colm Toibin. I think it's time to go back and read his earlier work.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I've read a short story collection. As one might expect, some were better than others. Certainly none were anything less than very good. I especially enjoyed "Two Women" and "Silence." The latter containing a description of sex with an older partner which I almost wish I had never read.

[Bookmaniac70 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Много фини, меланхолични разкази, обединени от една обща нишка, която преминава през тях - отсъствието, неслучването, несбъдването на привидно прости думички като семейство, дом....Времето изтича през огромни дупки и сякаш героите намират някакво успокоение в осъзнаването, че безвъзвратно са го пропилели, че поправяне не е възможно и има процепи, които не можеш да затвориш.

Въпреки прекрасното писане на Тойбин, не можах особено да се свържа с настроението на сборника, а секс сцените бяха някакво предизвикателство към читателя, което много не разбрах. Малко самоцелни ми се сториха. Да, възможно е да са преминали някакви мои граници, но все пак преди години четох "Каквото ти принадлежи" на Гарт Грийнуел и там нямах проблем със секса между мъже.

Ще се чете още от този автор, то е ясно. "Нора Уебстър" беше великолепна!

[Boris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Страхотни разкази.
Бих им дал пет звезди, ако не трябваше да чета последния разказ за някакви пакистанци в Барселонa. Изпитвам алергия към истории за малцинства, винаги са за бедни и мизерни хора, които много страдат. Не, мерси.

[Maria Yankulova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Страхотни разкази, страхотен Тойбин!
Отнемам 1 звездичка, защото имаше прекалено много графични сексуални гей сцени.
Нямам нищо против тематиката, една от любимите ми книги е “Прелест” на Мацантини, но можеше доста да се обере от описанията…

Любим разказ - “Новата Испания”.

[Kaloyana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Хубаво написани разкази, но ако знаех, че повечето са гей любовни драми и приключения, нямаше да чета сега. Интересно, че никъде не видях за това.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

WARNING: there is some explicit sex in this book. It doesn't bother me, but I know some get upset about it and I didn't want someone to pick this book after reading my review and get gobsmacked.

[gorecki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I have only read two books by Colm Tóibín so far, The Testament of Mary and The Empty Family, I do believe he is a very good storyteller and I am sure I will reach for more of his work very soon. The Empty Family was the first collection of his short stories I've read, and I am not sure if I have missed to notice and grasp something, or if his short stories simply do not resonate with me that well.
Some of the stories in this book left me wanting more, wanting to know what actually happened. I usually feel quite comfortable with open endings. I don't always need to know exactly how a story ends and why. But with the easy and "factual" flow of Tóibín's narration that often reminds me of a friend sitting across the table from me what they've heard of experienced, I sometimes felt like I'd want to ask "and what happened next?". Especially since some of the stories were written in the form of memories, or personal experiences, or diary entries, often without the typical plot development and culmunation point of a work of fiction, but concentrating on telling what had happened at one point of the narrator's life, without much conclusion or actual result in the end.
I mentioned "factual" writing, and by that I mean the descriptive style, which I find typical for Tóibín's writing - recollecting events, people, and places in his narration, as if he were standing there and observing them as he writes or describes exact memories and experiences. There is little space left for contemplation as you receive a thorough description of people's actions and thoughts. And this is why I, in my personal experience of reading this short-story collection, felt that after the many details and the thorough descriptions I'd still like to ask him "and why did he do that?" or "and where did this take them?" or "and how did it end?" - because the style of his narration wakes this feeling of having a conversation with him when he suddenly stops speaking. I felt the stories lack an actual ending and I would need to place so many questions and understand what happened next, but there is no one to ask.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Разказите в "Празното семейство" ми харесаха по-малко от двата романа на Тойбин, "Нора Уебстър" и "Бруклин". В разказите има повече размишления, наблюдения, анализи на отношения и ситуации (плюс няколко смущаващи, дори вулгарни хомосексуални сцени), а аз предпочитам истории за хората. Но стилът и изказът на автора са все така прекрасни, всяка дума е на мястото си, няма нищо излишно, а всичко е ясно все едно е прожектирано на екрана в мозъка ми.

[Tress · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I enjoy about Colm Toibin's writing style is its simultaneous urgency and quietness. This effect was much more powerful in his novel Brooklyn, and drew me to want to read more of his writing. The Empty Family is a collection of short stories set in modern day Ireland, 1970s Spain and ninteenth Century England. Each story focuses on the emotional truth of its central character, a truth that is private and deeply held. Toibin has an almost magical way of drawing out these emotional truths while not exploiting his characters or making caricatures of them. For instance, the first story in the book, "Silence", which is set in the late 1800s, is about a widow who had been married to a much older man of some political clout and who now finds herself in demand at dinner parties as something of a decoration:

"She had liked being married; she had enjoyed being noticed as the young wife of an old man, had known the effect her quiet gaze could have on friends of her husband's who thought she might be dull because she was not pretty. She had let them know, carefully, tactfully, keeping her voice low, that she was someone on whom nothing was lost. She had read all the latest books and she chose her words slowly when she came to discuss them. She did not want to appear clever. She made sure that she was silent without seeming shy, polite and reserved without seeming intimidated. She had no natural grace and she made up for this by having no empty opinions. She took the view that it was a mistake for a woman with her looks ever to show her teeth. In any case, she disliked laughter and preferred to smile using her eyes."

I find the writing here to be quite elegant and well paced. This is probably my favorite story in the book as well, as the widow finds herself seated next to Henry James one night. She tells him a story from her own life, but carefully changes certain details so as to disguise herself in it and to protect a rather scandalous thing she has done from being found out. It was a very interesting twist in an otherwise quiet story.

Unfortunately, I found myself growing progressively disenchanted with Toibin with every story. While his writing held up, the subject matter became increasingly pornographic. The majority of the stories' protagonists were gay men; each story after about the first two seemed to delve a little further into the details of the men's sexual encounters, and really, it became exploitative. It seemed like a bait and switch to me. The reading experience for the first quarter of the book was completely divorced from the experience of the rest of it. This actually seems to happen a lot with short story collections, and every time I finish one I wonder why I keep trying them.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an quietly accomplished author Colm Toibin is, as large men are often graceful dancers this large writer has a feather like touch. This collection contains stories set in Ireland, Spain and brief interludes in America. As ofen in his writing Toibin discusses the idea of home and what home is comprised of : an old women moves into a care home in the West of Ireland, a young woman returns to Spain to find her grandmother"s home desecrated, migrants in Barcelona make themselves a home together. These stories also explore a range of family relationships and how connections with both lovers and family sustain and destroy ourselves.

Toibin"s writing is sometimes very beautiful especially when he is describing abstract feelings like loss and regret, or painting us a picture of Ireland. Like his great master Henry James he has sentence construction down to a fine art, even though his beautifully constructed sentences are less convoluted than those elegant one"s of James, Toibin"s have a quiet, reflective immediacy and an evocative integrity that makes his prose at times almost elegiac.

My favourites are The Pearl Fishers, a tale of exposure, The Silence, which is a story baded on a Henry James anecdote and Two women, a tale of an encounter between two women who have a lover in common.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are superbly written and I would give 5 stars to at least two of them, "Two Women" and "The Colour of Shadows," while for sheer beauty of language the title story stands out. There is a gay element to each of the stories except for "Two Women" and "The New Spain" (the longest story here and, in my opinion, the least of them.) One reviewer here said that there was graphic and gratuitous gay sex here. Graphic some of it certainly is, but hardly gratuitous. I would say that it's next to impossible to convey the inextricable tangle of emotion and physical acts without some graphic elements. I love James and Austen and many other authors whose work has no element of actual sex, graphic, gratuitous or otherwise, but that's not the kind of fiction Toibin is writing here.

[Marjolein · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's about love and loss and family and home and its all queer

i do not think another short story collection will soon be able to top this- it's simply exquisite. I can't believe I get to be in THE SAME ROOM as this man in 1 WEEK and hear him speak about what it means to be a writer. odds are I will cry.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Songs of Lost Innocence

"Silence," the first story in this collection by Colm Tóibín, is different from the others, being set in the 1880s and telling of Lady Gregory's love affair with the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt—this long before her creative association with Yeats. The theme of a remembered love affair, however, crops up in several of the other stories, all of which are contemporary or set in Tóibín's lifetime; many of them have a strongly autobiographical air.

The title story, "The Empty Family," captures one of the major themes in the book: return and loss. A writer or academic returns to his home overlooking the sea near Wexford. The people he knew there have moved on with their lives, leaving him somehow incomplete. But he is writing to someone unidentified, perhaps a former lover, who is also connected with these people. The ambiguities make this brief story one of the most effective of all, but they are not all this oblique.

The theme is echoed in two other stories, "One Minus One," about another writer returning from America to be at the death-bed of his mother, and "The Colour of Shadows," in which a busy Dubliner drives down to Enniscorthy (near Wexford, and the Irish setting of Tóibín's Brooklyn and Nora Webster ) to put his elderly aunt into a home. The theme of an absent or deserting mother overshadows both stories, in a way that gives them a bitter twist, but is not fully resolved.

Return is also the theme of two of the more vigorous and colorful stories. In "Two Women," a Hollywood set designer, an elderly tyrant, comes to do a film in Ireland, only to be tormented by memories of her long affair with a celebrated Irish actor. In "The New Spain," an even more interesting story, a young Catalan woman, exiled in London for a decade because of her opposition to Franco, returns to the family house on Menorca to claim her inheritance. And when she sees how things have changed, she is feisty enough to do something about it.

These two are the only stories in which the romances are specifically heterosexual. Most of the others have a gay theme somewhere in the background, and in the two other stories set in Catalunya—"Barcelona 1975" and "The Street"—as also in "The Pearl Fishers"—the gay sex is very explicit indeed. This is not the Colm Tóibín who dealt so discreetly with Henry James' sexuality in The Master ; it is the most anatomically specific gay writing I have ever read, and may not be for everyone. And yet, and yet: "The Street," the longest story in the book, also paints an intricate picture of a sub-community of indentured workers imported to Barcelona from Pakistan, and the other two stories have the searing honesty of autobiographical truth.

I can respect honesty; I can admire discretion; I just wish that Colm Tóibín could find a single consistent voice, rather than appearing a different writer in each book. I had originally posted this review as five [Amazon] stars; after reflection, I have edged it down.

[Milena Tseneva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Признавам, че „Празното семейство“ бе глътка въздух, от която определено имах нужда, и все пак не се оказах съвсем подготвена за това, което ме очакваше между страниците. До финала се чувствах в ступор, шокирана от неколкократните залитания на автора към прекалено детайлни описания на интимни преживявания – сториха ми се твърде пошли на фона на общото впечатление, което си изградих за творчеството му. За мен подобни крайности са някак осъдителни, особено когато даваш много по-сериозна заявка за стил и начин на изразяване и, за жалост, това развали цялостното ми усещане за книгата.

Ето защо и крайната ми оценка за сборника „Празното семейство“ си остава незадоволителна. Но пък в бъдеще може би отново бих посегнала към Тойбин, тъй като усетът му за разказване на истории е неоспорим.

Цялото ревю - тук: http://azcheta.com/praznoto-semejstvo...

[Lizp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully written collection of short stories by Colm Toibin.

The first is about love, separation, filial guilt, and a mother’s death, about procrastination being fraught with danger. The message conveyed is don’t hold back in making contact with loved ones. It is a very poignant and heartrending story, which is beautifully written.

Next there is the story of a woman in a loveless marital relationship with a much older man. She has a relationship with a man who awakens the real passion in her, and who nurtures her soul.

The next two stories are about nostalgia; nostalgia for a homeland that is idealised from afar, but the reality of which when visited is far from perfect. Nostalgia for an old love. Then there is the influence on the Irish persona by the wild environment, like intemperate weather with gigantic waves crashing on beaches. The focus on natural environment and its influence on people brought to mind Tim Winton.

We then go on to love, gay love, via the encounter of old lovers. Religion, God, sex scandals, and the need for church reform all feature in this story.

In the next short story, we move to Spain and a disillusioning return home to post Franco Spain after many years. Although family conflict features, ultimately there is a positive feelimg to this story, with an optimism for the future of the people of Spain.

The next story focuses on loss, love, and death. There is no guilt as such featured here. Again, it is a beautifully written story.

The last two are about gay love and sex. They are set in Barcelona. The first is based in the 1970s and everything focuses on constant sex. It’s a particularly short piece. The second is more soulful, set in the present day. It is the story of two Pakistani immigrants who find great comfort in each other and fall in love. It is especially difficult for them given that their home country simply doesn’t recognise homosexuality. It is ultimately a tender story.

I enjoyed all of these short stories. I highly recommend this anthology.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the exception of the title story, whose nameless first-person narrator's tortured elliptical reminiscences were too baffling to be affecting, the stories in this collection are terrific. With his characteristic understated prose and perfect pitch, Toibin examines themes of exile, loss, and regret. Most of the characters in these stories have made a choice to leave their place of origin (Ireland, Spain, Pakistan - in most of the stories Toibin is interested in exploring the regrets that such a choice can bring.

In "Two Women", a film project brings highly successful set designer, Frances, back to Dublin, where a chance encounter forces her to confront memories of the only man she ever truly loved; the narrator of "One Minus One" relives the emotions triggered by his return home to Ireland to be there for his mother's death; Carme, in "The New Spain" returns to her grandmother's home in Menorca, after an eight-year exile in London, where she is forced to come to terms with her family, and her grandmother's death, in the new Post-Franco Spain. Although regret about the road not taken is a dominant theme, most of Toibin's characters achieve a degree of resolution.

As always, Toibin's writing is superb; his skill when writing about women is particularly impressive. I liked all but one of these stories, but two in particular stand out: "The Silence" and "The Street". One brilliantly imagines a confessional encounter at dinner between Lady Gregory and Henry James, the other is the story of a taboo relationship between two Pakistani men working in Barcelona. Toibin's ability to write about such disparate characters in a way that is utterly convincing is one of his major strengths.

[Gail McConnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew he wanted me to move the telescope, to focus now on Rosslare Harbour, on Tuskar Rock, on Raven Point, on the strand at Curracloe, agree with him that they could be seen so clearly even in this faded evening light. But what he showed me first had amazed me. The sight of the waves, miles out, their dutiful and frenetic solitude, their dull indifference to their fate, made me want to cry out, made me want to ask him if he could leave me alone for some time to take this in. I could hear him breathing behind me. It came to me then that the sea is not a pattern, it is a struggle. Nothing matters against the fact of this. The waves were like people battling out there, full of consciousness and will and destiny and an abiding sense of their own beauty.

'The Empty Family', p.32.


You know that I do not believe in God. I do not care much about the mysteries of the universe, unless they come to me in words, or in music maybe, or in a set of colours, and then I entertain them merely for their beauty and only briefly. I do not even believe in Ireland. But you know, too, that in these years of being away there are times when Ireland comes to me in a sudden guise, when I see a hint of something familiar that I want and need. I see someone coming towards me with a soft way of smiling, or a stubborn uneasy face, or a way of moving warily through public space, or a raw almost resentful stare into the middle distance.

'One Minus One' p.4.

[Antoinette · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, much as Colm Toibin is a wonderful writer, I really only enjoyed about half the stories in this collection, so for that reason, I am only giving this book 3 Stars and really would not recommend it to anyone I know.

[Sivananthi T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing lyrical book exploring stories of loss and reconciliation.