Colour and Light {short story}

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. I liked the prose and the inner world of the protagonist, his thoughts were characterised in a way that felt natural and easy to understand but still unformed and vague in the way thoughts are. There’s this ineffable quality, though, that makes it feel like a larger story that was severely edited down, and I get this sensation that the edges are tattered where things have been ripped away.

Short story, first published in the New Yorker, listed for several awards and in anthologies.

The author has said herself that she wrote it between novels, and the tentative relationship and characters foreshadow her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You? A female writer rents a house in a small Irish seaside resort and meets a local man - are they friends, and is there romantic potential between them. Like Rooney's novels, this is all about conversations and thoughts and the spaces between them, and isn't really plot driven.

I really liked this in both eprint form and in an audio reading (as part of Two Stories), both borrowed as digital library resources.

I've been meaning to read one of Sally Rooney's books but keep pushing it off so this was my first real introduction to her work. Brilliant! As I was reading I always started to wonder why I was reading it, I just knew I couldn't stop and by the time I was done I'm needing more!

I've been meaning to read one of Sally Rooney's books but keep pushing it off so this was my first real introduction to her work. Brilliant! As I was reading I always started to wonder why I was reading it, I just knew I couldn't stop and by the time I was done I'm needing more!

Realistic fiction but I can't relate.

Some of the words:
I feel like my life basically isn't happening. I think if I dropped dead the only people who would care are the people who would have to cover my shifts. And they wouldn't even be sad, they'd just be annoyed.

Pauline frowns. She rubs the gatepost under her hand like she's thinking.

Well, I don't have that problem, she says. I think in my case there's too much happening. At this point everyone I've ever met seems to want something from me. I feel like if I dropped dead they'd probably cut my body into pieces and sell it at an auction.