Getting It in the Head: Stories

Excellent, visceral collection of short stories. Not all zingers, but all of them with a hefty punch in the plot, and plenty of them will resonate and rest in my mind long after reading. Thematically focussed on Irish life, with often surreal or fantastical events that invade mundane circumstances.

This is an odd and sometimes disturbing collection of short stories that quite often cross the line into a dark, surreal world indeed. While a few of the stories were just OK, and one or two were ridiculous, enough rose into the realm of the superb to make this collection worthwhile for any connoisseur of twisted fiction.

McCormack’s characters are often sick and sometimes deranged, and the world he imagines, while still recognizable, quite often descends into outright horror. McCormack is an intriguing voice (although he does rely a little too much on the trite urban legend as the framework for some of his stories).