Reviews for Life without children : stories

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In each of these 10 stories we enter a life and a marriage—either intact, fraying, or sundered—within which the various and frequently unexpected effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on Irish society are depicted with irresistible irreverence. From the first story to the last, this instantly engaging chronicle of life during the pandemic lockdown in Ireland resonates with the voices of ordinary Dubliners who are enduring—and in an odd way relishing—the unprecedented social restrictions and upheaval that, in some cases, deliver hidden freedoms. “It was a decision,” a woman says of fleeing her suburban existence in "Gone." “Just, I hadn’t packed a bag...or thought about what I’d need to take....But when I heard the word. Lockdown. I was out of the house. Out of that life. I shut the door after me.” Alan in "Life Without Children," like most characters here, has reached the crisis age when the children are grown and gone, his parents are dead, and now he is “the oldest person he knew well,” a fact that “pleased him and kept him awake.” His wife leaves him, and he leaves his previous life to enter a more precarious one, as does each of the protagonists here, mostly by accident. A father walks the Dublin streets looking for the son he has driven away with his cruelty. A husband falls in love with his wife after decades of marriage only to face the terror of almost losing her to Covid-19. A son cruelly treated by his dying mother, ostracized by his family, and still drunk on the morning of the funeral he cannot attend tries to make sense of his kitchen, the contents of his fridge, the family pet: “He won’t be falling over again. He looked down at the dog, at his feet. —That right, Jim?” Humor of every shade, from near-slapstick to keen satire, prevents the collection’s moments of emotional insight from congealing into sentimentality. And Dublin itself, the broad streets and the even broader range of its natives’ speech—so pungent and quick—has rarely been so deftly captured. A moving and quick-witted portrait of Dublin lives under lockdown. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Many writers have danced around the pandemic, setting stories in its aftermath, but Doyle faces COVID head-on. These 10 simmering, inward-looking tales, set in Ireland in the midst of lockdown, turn the roiling psychic turmoil induced by the pandemic into a timely and yet timeless form of domestic drama. All variety of fissures, in relationships, in marriages, and in individual personalities, crack to the surface, as alternately befuddled, quietly desperate, and sometimes tender men and women attempt to deal with a new kind of dailiness, oppressive as much for its ordinariness as its lurking horror. In "Masks," a man walks and walks, head down, disgusted by the used masks he sees abandoned on the footpath. Until, finally, he strikes back with a gesture booth foolhardy and spectacularly defiant. In the title story, another man, visiting England, where COVID is being ignored, sees a chance for a new life, away from words like "cluster" and "asymptomatic." But amid the slow disintegration and abrupt cessation of old lives, there is always the sustaining black humor that is ever at the heart of Doyle's fiction.


Library Journal
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An end-of-her-rope nurse, a man unable to return home, a middle-aged son who cannot attend his mother's funeral: these are some of the characters in Booker Prize winner Doyle's new collection, featuring stories written mostly during last year's pandemic lockdown. Irish author Doyle investigates how we learned to survive loneliness and grief in a whole new way.


Publishers Weekly
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Doyle’s accomplished collection (after the novel Love) probes the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on a series of marriages. A mug angrily thrown at a wall during an argument in “Box Sets” turns out to be the last straw for a recently laid-off husband and his disillusioned wife. The mug doesn’t shatter, rather it prophetically breaks in half “along an old crack.” The title story features a father of four who is on a work trip in England, where he toys with the temptation to abandon his family back in Dublin. In “The Curfew,” regional lockdown guidelines induce sadness, panic, and hopelessness, all of which are compounded for a man after he receives a dire coronary diagnosis. “Nurse” features a healthcare worker reflecting on the inner turmoil induced by her daily reality, while in contrast, a man mourns the loss of his own routine in “Masks.” It is only during Doyle’s final few stories that his characters begin to find compassion and hope. A master of dialogue—whether strained, deceptive, or free-flowing—Doyle has a keen eye for the interconnectedness and the criticality of communication, which makes these stories shimmer. Doyle’s raw portrayal of living and loving under lockdown has a deep resonance. (Feb.)


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In each of these 10 stories we enter a life and a marriageeither intact, fraying, or sunderedwithin which the various and frequently unexpected effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on Irish society are depicted with irresistible irreverence.From the first story to the last, this instantly engaging chronicle of life during the pandemic lockdown in Ireland resonates with the voices of ordinary Dubliners who are enduringand in an odd way relishingthe unprecedented social restrictions and upheaval that, in some cases, deliver hidden freedoms. It was a decision, a woman says of fleeing her suburban existence in "Gone." Just, I hadnt packed a bag...or thought about what Id need to take....But when I heard the word. Lockdown. I was out of the house. Out of that life. I shut the door after me. Alan in "Life Without Children," like most characters here, has reached the crisis age when the children are grown and gone, his parents are dead, and now he is the oldest person he knew well, a fact that pleased him and kept him awake. His wife leaves him, and he leaves his previous life to enter a more precarious one, as does each of the protagonists here, mostly by accident. A father walks the Dublin streets looking for the son he has driven away with his cruelty. A husband falls in love with his wife after decades of marriage only to face the terror of almost losing her to Covid-19. A son cruelly treated by his dying mother, ostracized by his family, and still drunk on the morning of the funeral he cannot attend tries to make sense of his kitchen, the contents of his fridge, the family pet: He wont be falling over again. He looked down at the dog, at his feet. That right, Jim? Humor of every shade, from near-slapstick to keen satire, prevents the collections moments of emotional insight from congealing into sentimentality. And Dublin itself, the broad streets and the even broader range of its natives speechso pungent and quickhas rarely been so deftly captured.A moving and quick-witted portrait of Dublin lives under lockdown. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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