Heaven Lies About Us: Stories [Hardcover]

Eugene McCabe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2004

In these twelve stories, McCabe plumbs the soul of the Irish border counties, where confusion, divided loyalties, and heightened emotions are part of everyday life, whether that life is lived in the aftermath of "the great hunger" or in the face of the current Catholic/Protestant conflict. A master of arresting dialogue and intimate characterization, Eugene McCabe demonstrates his outstanding gift for short fiction in this revelatory and haunting collection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Serious with a capital "S," this book of short stories from septuagenarian Irish scribe and Butler Awardâ€"winner McCabe (Death of Nightingales; Victims; etc.) is bleak in the extreme. The tales, mostly of Irish working poor, are brimming with stark religious imagery and traditional Irish guilt and retributionâ€"his characters live with God hanging over them at every juncture, alcohol providing their only respite. McCabe is unquestionably a talented writer capable of inserting tiny details ("yellow teeth in red gums, his face white like a monk's") that vividly illuminate his characters' wretched lives. In the title story, a small child is raped by her older brother. Their mother's insistence that she part with her best friend/stuffed bear is heartbreaking, and the conclusion is more devastating still. Later, in "Victorian Fields," a woman's husband and his brother set out to steal her land; to do so, they portray her to the authorities as an incestuous whore who is carrying another man's child. The physical and emotional torture she suffers at their hands is horrific. In "Cancer," a character remarks that "Livin's worse nor dyin', and that's a fact": a recurring theme applicable to most of the stories' characters. Over the course of an entire book these chronicles of "famine, horror and hatred" are grimly unrelenting. McCabe's writing, while often quite beautiful and poetic, demands much stamina and perseverance from readers.
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From Booklist

The title of McCabe's collection of 12 short stories set in Ireland is bleakly ironic. From the great famine through the Troubles, religion, here, is a flashpoint for hatred or has been reduced to a joyless recitation of rules and regulations, stripped of all comfort and generosity of spirit. For Marion, the troubled young girl in the title story, it's a well-worn teddy bear, not her fanatically religious mother, who provides respite in the face of her brother's brutal sexual assaults. In the brilliant, bloodcurdling "Victims," about a conflicted band of IRA terrorists who take a group of British aristocrats hostage, it is the calculating leader and his ruthless right-hand man who recite prayers in flawless Latin. In "Music at Annahullion," an old, abandoned piano stirs up an ancient feud between two brothers, one devoted to God, the other to drink. McCabe does not spare his readers in these unflinching, starkly dramatic depictions of emotional and spiritual suffering. Richly imagined and written in spare, haunting prose, these are unrelenting, poignant, and powerful stories. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1 edition (April 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582344272
• ISBN-13: 978-1582344270
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,592,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AS PERFECT AS WRITING GETS..., October 19, 2004

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heaven Lies About Us: Stories (Hardcover)

Eugene McCabe amazes me more with everything I read by him. I first discovered his incredible talent in his novel DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES -- it caused me to seek out other works. While his output is paced in a way to cause his fans to ache for more, the quality of it all is first-rate. More than anyone I've read, he captures the song of Irish speech and the symphony of the Irish spirit, joys and sorrows alike, in his words.

The characters in these stories come to life before the reader's eyes, and in the reader's imagination, in a way that few authors have managed to master -- and they do so in such a natural manner as to make the transition from the printed page to the living, breathing world seem effortless. That's one of the marks of a great writer -- the work draws the reader in without even a 'bump'. We are transported to Ireland -- past and present -- and bear witness to the drama of these characters' lives. The unimaginably horrific times of the famine years; the day-to-day struggle not only to survive, but to do so in a way that allows the soul and spirit to continue to thrive in the body; the 'troubles' that have for so many generations threatened to claw the country to bloody bits; the conflicts between the classes.

If I had to single out an individual story in this collection for my highest praise, I would have to cite the title piece, 'Heaven lies about us'. McCabe relates the story of a young girl with a terrible secret, who knows she must share it but fears the consequences -- her pain and dread, and the pure heartbreak of her story left a stone in my heart. He has captured every aspect of her situation from her point of view -- and done so with such skill that the characters and setting seem to settle into the room with the reader.

McCabe, born in Scotland (his parents were Irish), returned to Ireland in the 1940s to live -- he lives and works his farm in Co. Monaghan, and writes...thank God he writes. His heart, soul, eyes and ears are at home in Ireland, and his powers of observation are keen. It's a gift that's rare -- I can read these stories over and over and they still move me very deeply.

These stories are collected in this volume for publication in the US for the first time -- it's a great opportunity for American readers to experience his work. He's a true master, and I consider it a deep blessing to have discovered him.