Realistic rites of passage

THE greatest disservice to the 10 stories in this excellent collection would be to suggest that their primary interest lies in their choice of themes. Certainly, it is good that we now have Irish fiction for the young adult which does not shrink from confronting aspects of contemporary life such as drugs, teenage pregnancy, homelessness, domestic violence and AIDS. But in taking on such matters, especially in the "realistic" mode, the writer runs the risk of sacrificing narrative to issue the book becomes of sociological rather than literary significance.

It is a great tribute to O Laighleis that his priorities do not become confused. Two factors in particular contribute to this.

Firstly, he writes in a style which in its sparseness and precision makes an oblique, rather than an explicit, statement. We want to know bow, if at all, his creations are going to disentangle themselves from "the vicious circles" - to quote the title story - of their existences: but we frequently have to come to our own conclusions. Does the exgambler of "Resolve" manage to avoid succumbing to his old addiction? Does the disgraced teacher of "Vanquished" find refuge in the waters of the canal?

Secondly, O Laighleis chooses - appropriately - to match this obliqueness with a tone of voice which skilfully avoids the twin dangers of sentimentality and condescension. He pays his creations (and, by extension, his readers) the compliment of allowing them to live with the consequences of their own choices. Complex circumstances defy easy outcomes, as is brilliantly shown in "Umbilical", where a teenage mother who has abandoned her baby re examines, with each passing television news bulletin, the consequences of her action. Nowhere is there any moralising, any condemnation or endorsement of Ursula's behaviour.

This combination of style and tone provides a maturity which rarely characterises writing targeted mainly at a teenage readership. It may not quite be, in Beckett's phrase, that "that's how it is on this bitch of an earth": but an underlying bleakness unquestionably haunts the vision here. There is - again to quote the title story - "an illumination of sorts", but it is the kind of illumination which, rather than scattering false notions of cheerfulness, shines in the intensity of its honest scrutiny of human motivation and response.

We are not, in fact, far into the collection before we begin to appreciate the irony of its title. These are worlds where, if any fulfilment is attained at all, it attained only at the cost of lengthy trial and long moments of self doubt. Even in "Awkward", where Dara (at 17) does manage to seize his first two kisses and where we leave him "so happy that he wants to roar and shout", the victory is gained more by accidental than concentrated effort. (It would be fascinating to know what the "real" male adolescent makes of the fumbling Dara: will he laugh or cry?).

While each of the stories makes a very strong impact, it is, perhaps, the final one - "Heredity" - which leaves the most lasting and most disturbing impression. In only a few pages O Laighleis portrays the claustrophobic intensity of a family cracking under severe pressure, triggered initially by the father's alcoholism and, subsequently, by his verbal and physical abuse of the mother. Caught between is Paul, three weeks away from his Leaving Certificate, gradually steeling himself into some kind of protest against his father's brutality. When the showdown comes it is for both father and son a moment of remarkable discovery.

First published last year in the Irish language - when it justifiably won a Bisto award this book now makes a most welcome appearance in English. It deserves the widest possible audience. {CORRECTION} 96041600046