Malarky by Anakana Schofield

Malarky

Anakana Schofield

Don’t be fooled by the comic eccentricities of Irish rural life depicted in the narrator’s inner monologues. Referring to herself as 'Our Woman' and her dull clod of a husband as 'Himself', this middle-aged Irish farmer's wife has her resilience worn away by grief and disappointment, tripping the narrative over into much darker and surreal territory. A modern day Molly Bloom, 'Our Woman' is a character whose voice you won’t easily forget.

Extract
Discretion. Our Woman settles on a slow cooker of mutiny.
All everything she plots while making jam and cleaning cupboards. In every sweep of crumbs to the floor, she feels herself nearer to victory. A pony, a Connemara, the future, all in a pony. She continues to chime on about the pony to Himself. Her husband looks blank but curious. Who is it she’s talking to about this horse stuff?
- Ah people who know about these things.
- Right. He says
- Whenever he says right he’s never listening. That’s a fact.
Parallels
  • Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle
  • Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell
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Explicit sexual content