Book Review: Homesickness

 By Colin Barrett

• Pub Date: 2022

• Where I bought this book: Prologue Books, Columbus, Ohio 

• Why I bought this book: I'm a sucker for short story collections by Irish writers

 *****

 

   The writing here is lovely. The descriptions are spot on. The characters are people you might see passing on the street. They are well drawn and quirky, and you can see in them someone you know.

    But the stories are, shall we say, a bit mundane. They portray little more than a routine day in an ordinary life, sometimes trite, and a wee  bit confusing.

    I really wanted to like this book. The blurbs talked of emotion and originality, of people struggling to find a life beyond the normal.

   Oh, there are some shining moments. There are one-off characters you'd like to get to know better, such as Jess, who is asked a question while drinking in a pub. "Jess took her time before answering, as she took her time before answering any question. She was looking at him, and he was looking at her, and she was looking at him looking at her."

    I know these people -- the great football lad from a small town who falters when he moves to the big city, a wanna-be poet whose talent never goes beyond the local poetry slam. The characters include three orphans struggling with life on their own, and a family of brothers sitting in an Irish pub, looking for a bit of adventure.

    So the actors are there. The settings are classic: A kitchen. A workplace. A pub.

    But you want more. You want a tale to spark a glimmer of hope, despair, or meaning. You want substance, significance, a moment to savor. Instead, you get striking if strange characters, who simply live lives of quiet desperation.