FICTION: SORCHA HAMILTONreviews The Mango War and Other StoriesBy Martin Malone, New Island Press, 161pp. €10.99
THE TINY, fascinating details of working life are a recurring theme in this new collection of short stories by Martin Malone. A forklift operator loads wooden pallets of fruit and vegetables – eight high and with bananas at the bottom, “as the foundation”. A car park attendant “gags” broken ticket machines with tape and out-of-order signs and explains the policy on lost tickets – a €20 charge but “it’s a personal call”.
Often there is something hidden behind these particulars of ordinary life, however, a darkness that surfaces only later – like the uncanny twist in the story about a brief encounter between a sister and brother-in-law, or the sinister realities of race and loyalty behind a workplace friendship.
Born in Dublin, Malone has written four novels and many of the stories in this collection have been awarded prizes, shortlisted and broadcast. The title piece, The Mango War, won the Francis MacManus award in 2004. Malone, who served for over 20 years in the Irish army, including tours of duty with the UN peacekeeping missions in the Middle East, has also written a memoir called The Lebanon Diaries: An Irish Soldier's Story. It's a theme that finds its way into this collection – in one story a soldier returns bringing all the baggage of his Middle East tour of duty with him.
Family plays a strong role in this book, marriages either teetering on the verge of breakdown or long past the point of rescue. Often the observers are the children, the ones with the most to lose. In Lake of Dreams, a family holiday in France is destroyed by the father's announcement that he is leaving his wife. The son, left to watch the fights and tears, begins to sketch his parents – "they don't like the sketches I do of them. I put in too many wrinkles, especially about the eyes . . . I think it's the only way I can hurt them".
The wives and mothers in this collection are most often worn out or hard done by. In The ThingIs, the parents act like they are extremely fed up with each other "and don't know what to do about it". The mother has become a stranger to all – her husband, her entire family and perhaps even to herself. She has a wicked look: "pursed lips, uncombed hair, wrinkles rich and plenty like weeds in a garden left untended".
While Malone does not shy away from topics such as suicide and incest, there is often a glint of dark humour.
For example, the woman who taunts her boyfriend – who lost half of his ear during a stormy relationship years earlier – by pulling on her ear when he “starts”. The tragic-comic life of Breege, an ex-army woman who hangs around a café all day throwing filthy looks at the staff. Breege is full of tales from the dark side – prostitution, beatings, and what happens when you end up with a “bad crowd” – and even has a word of advice for the protagonist, a writer: “Write a real book and stop messing about with those stories that don’t have proper endings”.
Although some of the stories could, perhaps, have been teased out a little more, overall this is a collection of crisp, clean writing. One of the best lines is in a story called Dream Horse, where a son observes his father's enthusiasm for horseracing and its impact on his mother. A word of wisdom – a warning too, perhaps – is passed between generations: "Dad said that sometimes an animal can come to mean too much to a man".
Sorcha Hamilton is an Irish Timesjournalist
