The title of this collection of
Emma Donaghue’s short stories applies to both the protagonists and to the
subject matter of the stories: sensitive individuals thrown into situations
that are either taboo, or which must be approached with a degree of delicacy.
The book is divided into five themed sections, dealing with subjects ranging
through birth marriage and death, taking in desire and the accidental
relationships that occur in the course of a life. The book is a fictional
survey of common life situations, with a variety of settings and characters.
Short stories are what they are, though, and Donaghue has not attempted to
integrate these disparate lives into any metanarrative other than that of the
unprepared individual thrown into circumstances not of their making.

There is a considerable diversity
in this collection. Some of the stories (like Through the night, and The
cost of things) are straightforward uncomplicated narratives of ordinary
situations, providing a clear sighted vignette that invite us into a life for a
brief period, then politely show us out, the effect being rather like being
shown through an open house be a realtor. In others though (like Pluck, The
Sanctuary of Hands, and The Welcome, it is as if the residents are
at home, and we get under their skins in ways that leave us a little unsettled.

Donoghue’s writing is plain and
engaging. There is enough imagery and description to situate us clearly in
places as dissimilar as Florence and Louisiana, and plenty of dialogue to allow
us to hear her characters. She has clearly taken the writing advice dished out
by the writer in residence who is the subject of WritOr although she does
slip in a few cumbersome adverbs (like ‘confusedly’ and ‘exhaustedly’) and in a
few stories (Necessary Noise and The Cost of Things) the
narrative seems truncated rather neatly, rather than working towards a more
satisfying denouement.

Donoghue apparently has something
of a following as a ‘gay writer’, a term I find quite meaningless. This is not
a reflection on Donoghue who needs no such empty label. She clearly has an
affinity for gay characters, especially women, and this collection includes a
couple of fine examples. Speaking in Tongues is charged with sexual
craving as it simultaneously follows two erotic encounters of the same woman,
seventeen years apart. In a very compact story, Donaghue manages to explore
both adolescent and adult sexual desire, and in the process reveals characters
that are much more than devices for a good romp. Speaking in Tongues is
a warm and poignant story about fully realized characters who matter. The
Welcome is set in a feminist commune where gender identity is indeterminate
and one’s only obligation is to realize one’s own sexuality. As a commentator,
the naïve, inexperienced Luce provides an insightful analyst. If the commune’s
idealistic standards and expectations of sexual self exploration do not create
enough tension, the whole story goes up a gear following a violent outburst
from its newest member, the enigmatic JJ. There are other references to gay
sexuality in the book, notably in Team Men, although that story about
two adolescents is a lot more understated than Speaking in Tongues or
The Welcome. There is plenty in all of these stories to mark Donaghue as a
canny and wry observer not just of gay issues, but of life in general.

There were a few stories that I
thought missed their mark. WritOr follows a writer in residence whose
days are filled with appointments with no-talent dreamers who seek only his
anointment of their truly execrable attempts to write. The problem is that the
reader gets about as fed up as the writer, and wishes the whole thing over. In Oops
a fumble in the bathroom during the night leads to an amusing complication. This
very brief incident has its full realization years later, but I found it hard
to cast the original tension that far forward. Do they know it’s Christmas takes as its central characters two academics and their canine fur children
Proust, Gide, and Mallarme. This is one of those ‘Christmas is the worst time
of the year’ stories. As forty three year old Trevor moans that his ‘children’
have been unfairly displaced by some real ones (albeit Australian) my
sympathies were with his father, who points out that at least his
granddaughters don’t climb on his arm and start humping it.

Choosing a favorite story from
among this collection is made a little difficult by the variety on show. I liked
Pluck for the sustained and credible tension created by a single facial
hair. And Good Deed is a powerful story of moral conflict wrought from
the simple ingredient of a chance observation. The story makes for
uncomfortable reading at times, and Donoghue doesn’t let readers off with a
neat resolution. In the end I found Sanctuary of Hands the most
rewarding. A woman seeking solace through travel finds herself in the Pyrenees, where she visits a troglodyte cave. If she is discomfited by having to edge into
the darkness with a party of intellectually disabled tourists, she is mortified
when she asked to take one of them by the hand. This is a complex and
satisfying tale based on an accidental encounter. I found it both moving and
memorable.

Emma Donaghue is certainly a
talented writer. These stories are scattered over the globe, and have the
enticing aspect that you are never sure where each new story will take you. It
might be a hotel bedroom where a woman is trying to conceive with donor sperm;
it might be the brackish swamps of Louisiana. Wherever it is, Donaghue will
prove an informative and reliable guide. If there are one or two stories here
that don’t achieve the standard of the best, I’m tempted to say, c’est la vie.
This is a fine collection.

© 2006 Tony O’Brien

Tony O’Brien is a short story
writer and lecturer in mental health nursing at The University of Auckland, New
Zealand: a.obrien@auckland.ac.nz

Categories: Fiction