MOTHERS AND SONS
Colm Toibin
Scribner
2007
Ms. Hen read this book because she
is interested in Ireland. She is not a mother or a son, and she most likely
never will be, but she wanted to try to understand human relationships.
She discovered that this isn’t simply a collection of short stories about
mothers and sons; they are stories about how hard life can be at times, and how everything can seem like it won't get any darker, but it does.
The word that came to Ms. Hen’s
mind to describe these stories is visceral. There are moments in each of the
stories when she could see or smell the things that make up life itself, that
it’s not just writing, she felt as if she was living these characters’ lives.
In the story “The Name of the
Game,” Nancy opens a chip shop in order to pay off her
debts and help get away from the small town where she feels trapped. Her
son thinks the business is permanent and he will inherit it one day, but she
dreams of moving to Dublin. The shop, which is above their home, makes their
home smell like cooking oil, “But despite the money, nothing could be done
about the smell of cooking oil, right up to their bedrooms.” Ms. Hen could
smell the fish and chips in their house. She’s never been covered with the
smell of fish and chips, but she can imagine how horrible it could be. Nancy’s
young daughters are mortified when the children at school mock them.
The story, “Three Friends,” is
about the death of Fergus’ mother. His three friends take him to a rave on the
beach shortly after she dies where they drink and take a variety of drugs. Fergus
doesn’t want to think about his mother’s death, and his friend Mick makes
advances toward Fergus while they are swimming the next morning. Fergus is high
and confused, but he enjoys what happens. Ms. Hen understands that people do
outrageous things when they are grieving, when combined with drugs. Ms. Hen isn’t
sure if Fergus would do such a thing if he wasn’t in grief, but she doesn’t
know. From reading the stories in this collection Ms. Hen grasps that life
can be unpredictable sometimes.
The collection concludes with the
story, “A Long Winter,” which is set in Spain, the only one not that does not
take place in Ireland. It is about a family of farmers: a mother, a father, and two sons Miquel, and Jordi, who is about leave to join the military. The
father and Miquel discover that the mother has started drinking, and they try
to stop her. The mother becomes upset, and leaves the house. The men try to
find her. When Ms. Hen read this story, she could imagine the place where these
people live: a rural village in northern Spain where it snows and the
neighbors hate each other, where people do their best to exist day to day, but
they don’t always succeed.
Ms. Hen thought this might be a
book that did not have any hens, but she was pleasantly surprised that
the last story contains some rather important ones. On the farm, the mother
cooked and took care of the rabbits and hens. After the mother disappeared the
hens didn’t like it, “Slowly the hens began to lay fewer eggs and the rabbits
began to die.” The mother disappeared and the hens didn’t like the way Miquel
took care of them, and they revolted in their own way.
Ms. Hen loved this book. It’s special in the way that it shows the reader other parts of the world, and how people
are different everywhere, but yet are the same. Everyone just wants to be happy
and survive, as displayed by the stories in this collection.
Ms. Hen gives MOTHERS AND SONS five feathers up.
Mikki Mikao photobombs the picture |
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