Reviews
"It is perhaps difficult to imagine where Caldwell might go next, having gone all the way and far over the top in this collection; but then presumably it was difficult to imagine what William Burroughs or Kathy Acker or Irvine Welsh might do next." -- Guardian, "A work more attentive to--and understanding of--the terrible derangements of simply being alive I have not read in a long time." -- Guardian, "A work more attentive to - and understanding of - the terrible derangements of simply being alive I have not read in a long time" --Ian Samson, Guardian "Fiercely inventive" -- Irish Times "The most important Irish short story collection since Dubliners " -- Spiked "A supercharged gothic debut from an Irish writer to watch" -- Guardian "A dark debut story collection of jet-black gems" -- Irish Times "A number of Irish debut short story collections were published this year; standouts were June Caldwell's Room Little Darker and Elske Rahill's eagerly anticipated In White Ink " -- Irish Times "Pure class short stories with a bang of dark off them" -- Blindboy Boatclub "A glitteringly dark collection of short stories, one of the best in recent years" -- Irish Times "Caldwell brings an ultraviolet gaze to bear on the grubbiness of human hurt and the cruelty of desire" --Elske Rahill, Irish Times. "If Dubliners was a realist masterpiece, Room Little Darker is its hyper-realist counterpart, applying Joyce's stated rubric of "scrupulous meanness" to the city's contemporary inhabitants, and a future that's approaching all too fast" --Frankie Gaffney, Irish Times "I remain deeply troubled by June Caldwell's debut collection of short stories" -- TLS, Books of the Year
Synopsis
From one of Ireland's most grindingly authentic and radically original talents, Room Little Darker explores the clandestine aspects of modern life through jagged, visceral tales of wanton sex, broken relationships and futuristic nightmares. An abusive father haunts his daughter and wife from the confines of a nursing home; a couple with an appetite for S&M discover their escapades have led them into something unimaginably bleak; a desperate addict scours the depths of degradation in a nightmare Dublin; an unborn foetus narrates her torturous experience of the Irish legal system; a paedophile acquires a robotic little boy as part of his sex therapy. At once hilarious and profoundly moving, Caldwell's stories probe sexuality and disturbing psychology, and the darkess and light that lives within us all., Room Little Darker explores the clandestine aspects of modern life through jagged, visceral tales of wanton sex, broken relationships and futuristic nightmares - in stories both hilarious and profoundly moving., From one of Ireland's most grindingly authentic and radically original talents, Room Little Darker explores the clandestine aspects of modern life through jagged, visceral tales of wanton sex, broken relationships and futuristic nightmares. An abusive father haunts his daughter and wife from the confines of a nursing home; a couple with an appetite for S&M discover their escapades have led them into something unimaginably bleak; a desperate addict scours the depths of degradation in a nightmare Dublin; an unborn foetus narrates her torturous experience of the Irish legal system; a pedophile acquires a robotic little boy as part of his sex therapy. At once hilarious and profoundly moving, Caldwell's stories probe sexuality and disturbing psychology, and the darkness and light that live within us all.
