The women in Louise Kennedy’s story collection, “The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac,” do not have it easy, not even close, between poverty and cheating husbands but they make what they can out of life. Kennedy, who grew up near Belfast, is also the author of the acclaimed novel “Trespasses,” about an illicit love affair during the Troubles in Ireland. She lives in Sligo, Ireland.
BOOKS: What are you reading?
KENNEDY: Garrett Carr’s forthcoming novel “The Boy From the Sea.” It’s told from the point of view of a town, which sounds mad but is so engaging. It’s about a fisherman who takes in a baby who has been found on a beach. He also wrote a gorgeous nonfiction book, “The Rule of the Land,” for which he traveled the entire length of Ireland.
BOOKS: Is that novel a typical read for you?
KENNEDY: Honestly, I’m not finding it so easy to read fiction right now. Reading a novel sometimes feels like a frivolous thing to do. I’m kind of annoyed at myself for thinking that because there is great truth in fiction. I can always read nonfiction. I used to be a chef and still read about food and wine.
BOOKS: What’s the last food and wine book that you read?
KENNEDY: M.F.K. Fisher’s “An Alphabet for Gourmets,” a collection of gorgeous essays. They aren’t just about food. The book’s about family, comfort, how to live, and grief. She was widowed quite young with very young children. The prose is amazing.
BOOKS: Was your reading different when you were a chef?
KENNEDY: I always read a lot, mostly fiction, especially short stories. Irish people don’t have the bias in favor of novels that other people have. The Irish writer Frank O’Connor coined a term that he regretted. He said that novels tend to come out of empires, like France or England, because they required a certain amount of confidence, which Irish people didn’t have for a long time. He said short stories were the voice of submerged populations.
BOOKS: Who are your favorite short story writers?
KENNEDY: My absolute favorite writer is Edna O’Brien, who’s best known for her novels, but who wrote everything, including short stories that were quite daring. Her collection “The Love Object” is my favorite book.
BOOKS: What kind of reader were you as a teenager?
KENNEDY: Oh God, it could have gone badly wrong. On a school trip to the Isle of Man, I bought an exciting looking book, V.C. Andrews’ “Flowers in the Attic.” The story was about a brother and sister whose mother locked them in an attic, and they eventually fall in love. I was enthralled and appalled. I was saved a lifetime of reading books like that by a neighbor who lent me Joan Didion’s “The White Album” and told me to never read drivel again.
BOOKS: What did you read after “The White Album”?
KENNEDY: Turgenev, Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” and all of Jane Austen. I didn’t get along with the Bronte sisters. I enjoyed “Jane Eyre” up until she married Mr. Rochester. Then I was having a laugh. I thought “Wuthering Heights” was nuts and not well written.
BOOKS: Do you still read classics?
KENNEDY: I haven’t for a while but I moved a load of books that I was never going to read off my bedside table and put a copy of “Middlemarch” there. I sometimes keep poetry books beside my bed. I have two collections by Ciaran Carson, who was considered unofficial poet laureate of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. His use of language really resonated with me.
BOOKS: Are there any books that do a good job of depicting life during the Troubles?
KENNEDY: One is Bernard MacLaverty’s “Cal.” It’s about a young Catholic guy who accidentally gets involved with the IRA and with the murder of a policeman. Another is Anna Burns’s “Milkman,” which comes at the Troubles at a slant. That’s an amazing book.
BOOKS: Is there a way you would change yourself as a reader?
KENNEDY: I used to read a hell of a lot but now I’m much more likely to be wandering around looking for my phone than where I put down the book I’m reading. Everybody I know is like that. The amount of sloppy, stupid nonsense that we have in our heads because of our phones is terrifying.
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter @GlobeBiblio. Amy Sutherland is the author, most recently, of “Rescuing Penny Jane” and she can be reached at [email protected].
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