These gritty stories are marked by dark wit and avid artistry. Nothing is sugarcoated in this collection, set in an Ireland in which the compromised present sits adjacent to, and often on top of, an ancient past ... The world might well end in a cul-de-sac, but endings in this collection yield the beginnings of insight, awareness, and spiky, wry humor. Layering past with present, and defeat with determination, The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac abounds with details of the flora, fauna, and folklore of Ireland — and is rich, too, in its exploration of men and women, their roles and cohabitation of complicated, troubled lives. Out of all this, the gimlet-eyed Kennedy gives us, to echo Welty, literature with backbone.
Kennedy knows how to ratchet up the tension by teasing out details ... Kennedy’s droll wit and spot-on dialogue brilliantly illuminate her characters’ travails.
Kennedy's approach to the roots of suffering offers a refreshing change ... Kennedy packs these stories with life, but I'd welcome an entire novel about the future of Mairead and several others she introduces in these entrancing tales.
Dazzling, heartbreaking ... With their sensitivity to people’s vulnerabilities and failings, and their sharpness of imagery, these 15 taut tales recall Annie Proulx at her best: salty, wise, droll and keen to share the lessons of a lifetime.
Outstanding...contains 15 stories, each a scrupulously worked dark gemcontains 15 stories, each a scrupulously worked dark gem ... How do great short stories such as these create their three-dimensionality? By knowing what not to say. Louise Kennedy’s control of the material is extraordinarily deft ... I am haunted by these unforgettable short stories and believed every single line of every one of them. Louise Kennedy is a very major talent.
Robust, insistent prose ... Kennedy’s voice, and her unforgiving gaze, are electric ... Many moving moments in a collection that consistently captivates the reader.
It is refreshing indeed to encounter a book that challenges this stagnate status quo. And if the results are at times mixed, Louise Kennedy’s atmospheric, cynical collection The End of the World is a Cul de Sac certainly qualifies as a worthy attempt, sending ripples if not shockwaves against that monotone edifice, marketability ... Kennedy is skilled with scenic movement ... Kennedy’s comfort with the spectral Irish landscape is notable and well-used, along with representing her most vital link to that rich literary ancestry which suffuses the book with a propellent atmosphere ... Meets this urgent need of art—however we may define it.
Sharply unapologetic stories ... Accomplished ... Perceptive ... Reflect the formative experience of living through years of conflict, and confirm [Kennedy's] place as a trenchant, keen observer of the violence and turmoil that live inside.
Louise Kennedy’s writing is bold, fearless, and brutally edgy as it simultaneously shines laser focus on a series of untenable predicaments while illuminating the fine, attendant details in an implied manner that leaves the reader intuiting cause and effect connections in the individual snapshots of human drama ... These are deep-probing, slice-of-life stories seamlessly woven in stark vignettes without a filter ... Louise Kennedy’s brass tack writing takes center stage in each of her haunting short stories. She begins in media res and unfurls precisely why and how the main character got there. A writer who sets the scene then leaves the stage to the reader, Kennedy is not one to pass judgement, rather, she creates indefensible quandaries and turns the story over, asking the reader to take the next step.
Incisive ... Each story reverberates with a sense of the far-reaching effect of choices made or imposed. It adds up to a remarkable and cohesive collection.
