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In this sparkling collection of nineteen stories, the bestselling author of Slammerkin returns to contemporary affairs, exposing the private dilemmas that result from some of our most public controversies. A man finds God and finally wants to father a child—only his wife is now forty-two years old. A coach’s son discovers his sexuality on the football field. A repressed young woman finds liberation in her roommate’s bizarre secret.
Many of these stories involve animals and what they mean to us, or babies and whether to have them; some reimagine biblical plots in modern contexts. With characters old, young, straight, gay, and simply confused, Donoghue dazzles with her range and her ability to touch lightly but penetrate deeply into the human condition.
"Lucid, concise, clever and poignant. Roaming the globe, from many walks of life, bearing their painful and wonderful aspects alike, Donoghue’s characters will remind readers of themselves in the here and now."—THE MIAMI HERALD
"Touchy Subjects parades a variety of styles, but I’d say Donoghue’s greatest talent is for humor . . . Written over a number of years, these stories demonstrate considerable versatility."—THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Born in Ireland, Emma Donoghue spent many years in England and now lives in Canada. She is the author of Slammerkin as well as two other novels, a collection of short stories, and a collection of fairy tales. Her novels have been translated into eight languages.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 October 1969, Emma is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue. She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours B.A. in English and French from University College Dublin, and in 1997 a Ph.D. (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. Since the age of 23, Donoghue has earned her living as a full-time writer. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with her lover and their son.
Biography courtesy of the author's official web site.
"The youngest of eight children, I would never have been conceived if a papal bull hadn't guilt-tripped my poor mother into flushing her pills down the toilet.
"The nearest I've ever got to 'honest toil' was a chambermaiding job in Wildwood, New Jersey, at the age of 18. I got fired for my 'low bathroom standards.' "
"My lover and I have a one-year-old son called Finn, whose favorite thing is to rip books out of my hands and eat them.
"I am clumsy, a late and nervous driver, and despise all sports except a little gentle dancing or yoga.
"I have never been depressed or thrown a plate, which I attribute to the cathartic effects of writing books about people whose lives are more grueling than mine.
"I am completely unobservant and couldn't tell you how many windows there are in our living room.
"I would be miserable in beige; I mostly wear red, purple, and black.
"The way to my heart is through Belgian milk chocolate.
Excerpted from Touchy Subjects by Donoghue, Emma Copyright © 2006 by Donoghue, Emma. Excerpted by permission.
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TOC WITH PREVIOUSLY PUBBED CREDITS:
—‘Touchy Subjects’ was first published as a self-contained chapter in Ladies’ Night at Finbar’s Hotel, devised and edited by Dermot Bolger (Dublin: New Island, and London: Macmillan, and San Diego and New York: Harcourt, 1999).
—‘Expecting’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996, and first published in You Magazine / Mail On Sunday, 8 October 2000.
—‘Oops’ was first published in a shorter form in Sunday Express (Summer 2000).
—‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ is adapted from a short radio play, part of my Humans and Other Animals series (2003), produced by Tanya Nash for BBC Radio 4.
—‘The Cost of Things’ was first published in The Diva Book of Short Stories, edited by Helen Sandler (London: Diva Books, 2000), and then adapted into a short radio play as part of my Humans and Other Animals Woman’s Hour series (2003), produced by Tanya Nash for BBC Radio 4.
—‘Pluck’ was first published in The Dublin Review (Autumn 2002); before publication, I adapted it into a ten-minute film of the same name, directed by Neasa Hardiman and produced by Vanessa Finlow (Language, 2001).
—‘Good Deed’ was first published in Rush Hour, ed. by Michael Cart (Volume 1, 2004).
—‘The Sanctuary of Hands’ was first published in Telling Moments, edited by Lynda Hall (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).
—'Team Men' was first published in One Hot Second: Stories of Desire, ed. by Cathy Young (New York: Knopf, 2002).
—‘Speaking in Tongues’ was first published in The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica, ed. by Rose Collis (London: Constable/Robinson, and New York: Carroll & Graf, 2000).
—‘The Welcome’ was first published in Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth, ed. by Michael Cart (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).
—‘Enchantment’ was first published in Magic, edited by Sarah Brown and Gil MacNeil (London: Bloomsbury, 2002).
—‘Necessary Noise’ was first published in Necessary Noise, ed. by Michael Cart (New York: Joanna Cotler Books, 2003).
ANNOTATED TOC BABIES
'Touchy Subjects' brings together Padraic and his wife's best friend Sarah in a glamorous Dublin hotel room for a discreet assignation. All she wants is his sperm, but self-insemination proves a tricky business, logistically as well as emotionally.
'Expecting' starts with the tiniest of social lies: an Englishwoman out shopping lets an elderly male stranger think she's pregnant because she can't be bothered correcting his mistake.
'The Man Who Wrote on Beaches' is an American, 'born again' at 43, who feels obliged to rethink his whole life, and decides to marry his partner and have children after all
'Oops' is what James thinks when he carelessly presses a button on an electronic contraceptive device in his oldest friends' bathroom.
In 'Through the Night', Una has what so many people want, a beautiful healthy baby, but sleep deprivation and post-natal anxiety have brought her to the brink, and a visit from her Irish mother only makes things worse.
In 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', an Irish academic couple besotted with their three 'babies' find their wary relationship with the man's parents erupting into conflict when the dogs are not invited for Christmas.
DOMESTICITY
'Lavender's Blue' is a marital power struggle about the apparently trivial issue of what colour an African-American couple will paint their house.
In 'The Cost of Things', a Canadian lesbian couple hit the rocks when their beloved cat becomes mysteriously - and expensively - ill.
'Pluck' follows an Irish stay-at-home father's descent into a morbid obsession with a hair on his girlfriend's chin.
STRANGERS
'Good Deed' sets the parable of the Good Samaritan in downtown Toronto, where a busy executive happens across an unconscious homeless man bleeding from the mouth
'The Sanctuary of Hands' is the name of a prehistoric cave in the South of France where an Irishwoman on a guided tour is mortified by having to hold the hand of one of a group of 'special needs' visitors.
'WritOr' (sic) is about a cheerfully arrogant Writer in Residence at an American university whose first semester turns into a descent through Dante's hells.
DESIRE
'Team Men' is set on a Yorkshire boys' soccer team, where new star player Davy is many things to Jon: an easygoing mate, a rival for the approval of Jon's authoritarian father (their coach), and an object of desire.
'Speaking in Tongues' is about the unexpected, nervous, mutual seduction of a 17-year-old student and a 34-year-old poet at a Galway conference on bilingualism.
'The Welcome' is the name of a Manchester feminist housing co-operative. In this peculiar little world, young Luce, precise and virginal, falls headlong for her enigmatic new housemate, and finds herself drawn into a domestic war.
'The Dormition of the Virgin', the diary of a nerdish English student on a mini-break pilgrimage to Florence, is about the gulfs between different nationalities and generations.
Set in rural Louisiana, 'Enchantment' is a Cain and Abel story about two cray fishermen (one black, one white) who become rivals when one of them has a near-death experience and - on the Lord's instructions - sets up as a swamp guide.
'Baggage' recounts a Limerick woman's strange weekend in Los Angeles, trying to track down her missing gay brother.
In 'Necessary Noise', the Gospel story of squabbling sisters Martha and Mary and their temporarily dead brother Lazarus is transposed to an Emergency department in present-day Manhattan.
Anonymous
Posted June 30, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
In this sparkling collection of nineteen stories, the bestselling author of Slammerkin returns to contemporary affairs, exposing the private dilemmas that result from some of our most public controversies. A man finds God and finally wants to father a child—only his wife is now forty-two years old. A coach’s son discovers his sexuality on the football field. A repressed young woman finds liberation in her roommate’s bizarre secret.
Many of these stories involve animals and what ...