Ms. Hen writes things

Ms. Hen does not just review things, she also writes things, as you may have read before. Here are a few of the stories she has published recently.

"The Problem with Filou"
https://www.whlreview.com/no-12.3/fiction/ShannonOConnor.pdf

"Sugar-Free Caramel Girl" Amazon
Tell-Tale Inklings #3


"Small Steps"
https://oddballmagazine.com/2018/01/31/fiction-by-shannon-oconnor-2/

In case you're wondering why Ms. Hen turned yellow, and why there are two Ms. Hens, I bought the yellow one because the original Ms. Hen is a little beaten up, and has a hole in her. I wanted to buy a new brown one, but the brown one is not for sale anymore! I bought the yellow Ms. Hen instead, and she's more noticeable the the brown one. Everyone likes the yellow Ms. Hen, and her official name is Madamoiselle Hen.

S.

Ms. Hen reviews Beyond the Pale

Beyond the Pale

William Trevor

The Viking Press

1981

Ms. Hen picked up this book at the Little Free Library in Downtown Boston, in front of Walgreens. That one does not always have good books, but Ms. Hen managed to find this treasure one day recently. She has read other books by William Trevor, and she always loves them. He died recently at the age of eighty-eight, which Ms. Hen is in awe of. She admires writers who can live a long life and keep on writing. Mr. Trevor was one of the preeminent Irish short story writers of our time.

Ms. Hen finds it difficult to write reviews of collections of short stories, mostly because she can’t write about every story in the book; she has to choose only a few. Ms. Hen thinks that the best literature is about characters with messed up lives. All the people in the book are dysfunctional in one way or another, which Ms. Hen thinks is beautiful. There’s no point in reading about characters who are deliriously happy, or so she thinks.

In “Beyond the Pale,” four friends set out from England to Ireland for their summer holiday, who are bridge partners. Two of them are married to each other and two of them are single. Some strange events occur and it seems as if their bridge foursome will break up. This story is about the tenuous existence of ordinary people, and what keeps them together and what disintegrates relationships.

“The Teddy Bear’s Picnic,” is about a married couple, and the wife’s announcement that she is having a teddy bear’s picnic with her childhood friends. The husband is distraught and mortified; he does not want to go to a picnic for teddy bears with a group of adults. He is used to getting his way, and does not like to be told what to do. He hopes his wife will get pregnant soon, so he does not have to bear her boring life. Ms. Hen thinks this story is interesting, but dated; it’s about a married couple who don’t understand each other and don’t really know each other.

“The Paradise Lounge,” is about a couple having a love affair, which is ending. They go to a village where they don’t know anybody to stay at a hotel. In the bar, a woman observes them and she knows what is conspiring between them. She wants to tell the woman having the affair she is lucky, but she does not.

In “Beyond the Pale,” the narrator dreams that Cynthia is murdered, " 'Promise me you didn’t do it,' I whispered to Strafe, but when Strafe replied it was to say Cynthia’s body reminded him of a bag of old chicken bones.” Ms. Hen thinks this is funny, in perverse way.

Ms. Hen loved this book. She likes reading short stories because she has to discover a new world again and again within a book. A lot of people who read don’t like short stories, but writers do, because writing them is quick, and there’s less commitment than a novel. Ms. Hen raises her glass to writers who can create a small universe in a short time.

Ms. Hen reviews WHEN MADELINE WAS YOUNG

When Madeline Was Young

Jane Hamilton

Anchor Books

2006

Ms. Hen happened to buy this book because she was in a bookstore, and she had heard of the author, and she liked the title. She read the description, and was intrigued by the story of the woman who became incapacitated and was treated like a daughter by her ex-husband and his new wife.

Madeline is a beautiful woman who suffered an accident in the 1940s. She was riding a bicycle with her husband, after they had been married for a year, and she falls and hits her head and become mentally challenged. Aaron, the husband, has an acquaintance who is studying nursing, so she comes to help them, and eventually Julia and Aaron get married, after he divorces Madeline. They treat her like a daughter, and they have two more children.

This novel is told from the point of view of Mac, Aaron and Julia’s son. He is a sensitive, smart boy who grows up to become a doctor. The novel revolves around the present day conversation between Diana, Mac’s wife, and Mac about whether or not he should go to his cousin Buddy’s son’s funeral. Mac doesn’t want to go, but Diana thinks he should out of family duty. Buddy was a rough young man, and Mac hasn’t seen him in a long time.

Ms. Hen thinks it’s interesting that Mac is the one who is telling the story. He is not the most important person in the book, and the choice to shape the novel around him is different. Ms. Hen thinks Mac is a great character, and she understands why he is telling the story, but she might have wanted to know what is happening in Madeline or Julia’s mind.

This novel is primarily a story about a family, dysfunctional in its own way. Mac muses that if Madeline had had her accident in the new millennium, she might have had access to better treatment and recovery. Relatives said that they thought Madeline should have been in a home, but Julia would not hear of that. They handle her like a perpetual little girl, which may have stunted her growth, if she could have had any. In the 1940s and 50s, not much was known about the right way to treat the disabled. Many people stayed at home with their parents, and were not given the type of education and therapy that is given today.

Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel, even though it is very slow. It is not a loud novel; it is quiet and calming. There is fighting and sex, but even so, the noise level does not go up. Ms. Hen took her time reading WHEN MADELINE WAS YOUNG.  It is not a novel that a reader plows through, but rather wades through, gently.

There are some chickens in this novel, and they are mostly food. One of Ms. Hen favorites is when Mac and his family visit Buddy, “He was eating a pile of barbecue chicken wings and drinking a beer, nodding occasionally.” Ms. Hen likes this because it is a visceral scene, a man in his backyard after his son’s funeral eating chicken wings.

Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel. It is complicated and strange, and the characters are compelling. They are different from the people Ms. Hen knows, and getting to know strangers and getting in their heads and learning their particular pain is the purpose of fiction.