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The men in Bullfighting are each concerned with loss in different ways “ of their place in their world, of power, virility, love “ of the boom days and the Celtic Tiger. ˜The stories, his memories, were wearing out` the narrator of the title story thinks, ˜and there was nothing new replacing them.` The stories move from classrooms to graveyards, local pubs to bullrings; featuring an array of men at their working day and at rest, taking stock and reliving past glories. In the first, ˜Recuperation`, a man sets off for a prescribed walk around his neighbourhood, the sights triggering memories and recollections of his wife, his children, his younger days. In ˜Animals`, George remembers caring for his children`s many pets, his efforts to spare them grief when they die or disappear, looking, in the eyes of his wife, like a hero, like ˜your man from ER`. But now his kids are reared and he`s unemployed, and he`s slowly getting used to that. ˜Suffer. Your man Krugman said, when he asked how Ireland should deal with the next ten years. Well, this is George, suffering.` Brilliantly observed, funny and moving, the stories in Bullfighting present a new vision of contemporary Ireland, of its woes and triumphs, and of the Irish middle-aged male confronting its new realities. It is a masterful new collection from one of the country`s greatest writers."
ISBN : 9780224091442
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Pages : 224
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