Short story collection review

Dark Roots

By Cate Kennedy

Published by Atlantic Books

Kennedy’s sparkling debut collection is characterised by the sheer confidence of her writing and her knack of actually being able to tell a good tale.

This may sound like an obvious (indeed, mandatory) requirement for a good short story, but it is surprising how often authors fail to deliver on the initial promise of their stories.

With Cate Kennedy’s work, however, the reader becomes entirely absorbed in a number of very different scenarios and narrative voices, all of which ring entirely true.

Some of her stories end with killer punchlines and payoffs; others come to pleasingly ambiguous conclusions designed to do exactly what short stories are supposed to do: make us think beyond the final full stop.

There are common themes to some of these tales, and a very subtle link between each one gives a pleasing sense of continuity to the collection. Nevertheless, each story stands alone as a work in its own right.

There is a sense in which these could be classed as stories about ‘women’s issues’ (pregnancy takes centre stage in two stories, and at least three female characters are marooned in relationships with uncommunicative or boorish husbands), but this would be to unfairly pigeonhole the collection: indeed, every male should read the title story – about how a 39-year-old woman’s confidence in her physical appearance collapses as she begins a relationship with a younger man – and wince.

Kennedy is equally good at being funny, and there are lovely twists to the end of two of the stories, of which I will – for obvious reasons – say nothing, but she is also heartbreakingly tender about death and the way in which love can become routine, remote and, if we’re lucky, rekindled.

Reviewed by James Smith, Booktrust website editor

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