Under the Rose, by Julia O'Faolain: Welcome new showcase for a glorious Irish talent
The 20 stories included – originally published between 1968 and 2006 – showcase her varied abilities
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Your support makes all the difference.The subtitle “selected stories” is often an excuse to swell an author's oeuvre by an extra title, the works contained therein already readily available elsewhere. On the other hand there are those collections that are absolutely necessary – a welcome reminder of a forgotten author's prowess. Irish novelist and short-story writer Julia O'Faolain's Under the Rose is a case in point.
O'Faolain has been writing since the 1950s – her novel No Country for Young Men was shortlisted for the 1980 Booker Prize and her memoir Trespassers appeared three years ago, but the vast majority of her writing now languishes out of print.
Under the Rose goes some way to correcting this. The 20 stories included – originally published between 1968 and 2006 – showcase a glorious talent. Although settings range from Ireland and the USA to Italy and France, O'Faolain's heritage comes to the fore, and she isn't afraid to tackle the less comfortable aspects of her country's history straight on. “Daughters of Passion”, the earliest written piece included, is about a female IRA member on hunger strike in prison: “She knew the system and the system didn't change because some little Irish terrorist wouldn't eat her dinner”, while “In a Small Circus” deals with sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, though admittedly with something of a twist. A now grown man grapples with the information that the beloved priest of his childhood has been accused of molesting a young boy; but it's not that this brings back memories of his own abuse, instead the “real shock” is that the man is overcome with envy: “I think I'm jealous […] of the abuse victim. I am! I'm jealous of the bastard!”
O'Faolain writes about men with an astonishing believability – “Rum and Coke” elegantly captures the complexities of a father-and-son relationship: “My sisters were married, so on whom could my father's hopes focus if not on me? I might have resented this if I had been surer of it. As it was, I was desperate to impress him.” She's even better when it comes to women. “In our convent school, the nuns used to warn us that women, if given a chance, could become much more wicked than men,” she writes in the Afterword. “This shocked but also flattered us, even though we were unable to imagine any great wickedness.”
Her adult imagination, as it turns out, was more than up to the task. In the Italy-set “Man in the Cellar”, written in the 1970s, when, O'Faolain explains, “Italian feminism peaked”, a subjugated wife finally snaps: “Marriage, like topiary, distorts growth.”
Faber, £13.99. Order for £11.99 (free p&p) from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030
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