One of the blurbers on the back cover of this book says something about "the Dubliners of the new millennium", a thought which would be the kiss of death for most short story collections, (and a bit presumptuous when you are only seven years into that millennium, although the journalist in question won't be around in the year 3001 to answer for that, any more than we will to challenge it...). But Enright's short fiction might almost be tough enough to survive that sort of thing. These are stories about very ordinary things (birth, death, marriage, illness, parents, crazy college flatmates, ...) happening to very ordinary people, but they aren't in the least ordinary as stories.

There's only one in the book that looks a little like something you might write for a creative writing seminar — "What you want," where a cleaner at the opera house reflects on wishes and aspirations as she works — but even that manages to avoid the directions that stories of that kind are supposed to take. It's not about the contrast between her lowly position in life and her glamorous workplace (although it doesn't ignore that): it's a more general and very sympathetic working out of what the really important things missing from someone's life might be.

Enright is a clever story-teller, good at taking us inside the heads of her characters and getting us to see the world from their points of view. If I had to compare her with someone, I think Alice Munro might be a more obvious candidate than Joyce. Very enjoyable. ( )

I picked this up to read as the author was to appear at the AWF in Auckland, and I was still unsure as to whether I would go.
It is a short story collection focused on women of all ages and stages of life.
I struggled to enjoy the early stories in this book. However as the characters featured in the stories matured and confronted more adult problems I appreciated the observations on feelings and life. I guess I didn't indulge in those young reckless years. I am not a risk taker... ( )

All good stories and some great..."gritty", I can imagine a real reviewer saying. ( )

I'm beginning to think that I'm just not a fan of Anne Enright and that I should probably give up on her at this point. I thought the writing was fine in her most successful book, The Gathering], but I wasn't exactly enamoured with the overall story. This one, a collection of short stories, was a mixed bag, but I really only enjoyed two of them. A lot of unlikeable characters (many of them drunk) in unrealistic situations.

A generous 1.5 stars out of 5, simply because it wasn't as bad as The Wig My Father Wore. ( )

Book of short stories describing women's experience, their ambivalence, alienation or the gritty detail of a difficult moment. I found suprising moments of recognition. Excellent but discomfiting at times. ( )