V is for Vignettes and Verses - Claire O'Connor

I’d rarely be into short stories and poetry (despite listening to a pile of hip-hop), but every so often an author such as Colin Barrett and Irvine Welsh catches my interest with smaller tales, and now Claire O’Connor has been added to that list. If there’s one thing V is for Vignettes and Verses hooked me with, it was atmosphere and subtlety.

The collection has some highly experimental stuff going on, and this is what gives each story a raving flair, some like a highly-dosed acid trip, while the depictions of time and place are spot-on. Without spoiling anything for anyone else who definitely should read this collection, the standouts for me are as follows:

1. Dreams of India: this opening short takes place in Mumbai as the unnamed narrator has a brief but almost naive encounter with two beggars. There seems to be a semi-autobiographical element being carried through here, and the Ulysses-like depiction of Mumbai city life is striking with its clear class distinction.

   
   

2. Flour Sacks in Petticoats: this one transports readers back to the past with vocabulary, behaviour and finer details like meals of dripping and bread. Set in a rural town, this story’s use of subtle clues helps reveal itself without spoon-feeding. This one is particularly brutal, more so through implication than action, and it conveys its theme of rural isolation very similarly to the likes of Patrick McCabe (The Butcher Boy).

   
   

3. Loss: this one is slightly more complex, as readers would definitely need an understanding of its backdrop to fully realise, as Loss deals with the harsh realities of farming, no longer the glorified work it once was.

   
   

4. It’s Not a Trip: hilariously, this one really is about the psychedelic trip of Jack, who angers his girlfriend after she doesn’t like what his trip turns out to be.

Among the other excellent shorts are some poems such as The Hag of Beara, and an oddly situated story called Homage to the Stag which features a darkly comedic, but fairly open, ending. Tinker and the Force initially was what I thought a realistic depiction of Toy Story would be until the grim narrative started to reveal itself more.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this collection and would like to see more stories of this calibre from this author, especially ones along the lines of Flour Sacks in Petticoats for its mere atmosphere alone. It's definitely a five out of five for me. The collection is available in both physical copies and digital on Amazon.