Partly Sunny
by James O'Sullivan
This further collection of O’Sullivan’s short stories impresses no less than did his first, “Mostly Cloudy”, of 2018 and for the same reasons. The laser-like perception of human nature and motivation is still there, as is the classic dialogue in his depictions of the Kiwi vernacular. In fact, and as this reviewer was prompted to write six years ago, the quality of his perception is well-attested by the number of times the thought “Hey, I know someone just like that” pops into the reader’s head, for O’Sullivan is a keenly accurate observer and scribe of the human condition and this offers a rock-solid platform for his stories.
In his present offering, O’Sullivan mainly returns to the dark side of human nature inasmuch as most of his characters are either flawed or dependent in one way or another. ‘The Hitch-Hiker’ and ‘We Are All Australians’, for example, each concern central characters whose need to be needed drive their lives and actions. While it would be nice to think that Melody, in the former, turns away from her intended suicide because the hitch-hiker provoked feelings of altruism, the feeling persists that she has concluded that even her largely pointless life of rejection is better than his. Similarly, Catherine, the closet racist in the latter work, represses her true nature in expounding the need to be inclusive, even if her attitude towards her nearest and dearest shows quite the reverse.
Closer to O’Sullivan’s Taranaki home, even his depiction of rural life pack something of a wallop, for his stories dealing with small-town manners and morals range from a demented woman keeping the mummified corpse of her mother in a back bedroom to two stories involving murder and the clandestine disposal of the bodies. Similarly, despite the assumption of the city-slicker bystander in ‘Incident at the Dairy’ that racism is alive and well in the town, the dairy-owner’s reaction to the main character persuades us that something much deeper, more sinister and definitely locally-based is at work in his refusal to serve the main character.
There is social commentary in ‘Visiting the Doctor’ and ‘Fish and Chips Tonight’ when poverty leads to actions that shock, and outright revulsion at the psychopathic attitude of Polly in ‘Hens’; but the anthology contains some leavening of humour in “Raising Capital’ and ‘The Chief’s Daughter’, the last being something of a spoof on stories that include the presence of a princess whose peerless beauty is the motivating factor in fairy stories of derring-do.
Two outstanding stories of inter-generational conflict are ‘Give Me a Kiss’ and ‘Arriving Home’. The former contrasts a traditional Pacific Island attitude to life, work and charity with the reality of the heroine’s working life, and the contrast is nowhere more marked than in the title, for the same words are spoken by her gentle, traditionally-focused mother and a drug pusher who has just exacted oral sex as the price of his product. Throughout, and in a tribute to the author’s ear, the dialogue is accurate, contemporary and realistic. The latter, ‘Arriving Home’, also addresses the generational divide in the recounting of how a self-made-and-proud-of-it salesman alienates his talented daughter by refusing to acknowledge that her world contains aspirations and possibilities that his does not, and never will.
However, and true to the man’s talent, in ‘Leaving For England’ O’Sullivan shows that perhaps the generations are sometimes more alike than different. He does this by having a grandmother pick up Nietzsche’s theme of ‘The Eternal Recurrence’ in telling her own story of the traditional Kiwi OE in London when her grandchild is about to do the same; an OE in which she ‘had seen Pink Floyd play in a poky, godawful nightclub in the acidic bowels of Swinging London’.
All told, then, “Partly Sunny’’ bears the stamp of authenticity in its characters, its settings, its interactions and its themes. James O’Sullivan shows us ourselves in full measure, and if sometimes the ‘warts and all’ predominate, the thoughtful reader may conclude that this says more about us than he.
by James O'Sullivan
This further collection of O’Sullivan’s short stories impresses no less than did his first, “Mostly Cloudy”, of 2018 and for the same reasons. The laser-like perception of human nature and motivation is still there, as is the classic dialogue in his depictions of the Kiwi vernacular. In fact, and as this reviewer was prompted to write six years ago, the quality of his perception is well-attested by the number of times the thought “Hey, I know someone just like that” pops into the reader’s head, for O’Sullivan is a keenly accurate observer and scribe of the human condition and this offers a rock-solid platform for his stories.
In his present offering, O’Sullivan mainly returns to the dark side of human nature inasmuch as most of his characters are either flawed or dependent in one way or another. ‘The Hitch-Hiker’ and ‘We Are All Australians’, for example, each concern central characters whose need to be needed drive their lives and actions. While it would be nice to think that Melody, in the former, turns away from her intended suicide because the hitch-hiker provoked feelings of altruism, the feeling persists that she has concluded that even her largely pointless life of rejection is better than his. Similarly, Catherine, the closet racist in the latter work, represses her true nature in expounding the need to be inclusive, even if her attitude towards her nearest and dearest shows quite the reverse.
Closer to O’Sullivan’s Taranaki home, even his depiction of rural life pack something of a wallop, for his stories dealing with small-town manners and morals range from a demented woman keeping the mummified corpse of her mother in a back bedroom to two stories involving murder and the clandestine disposal of the bodies. Similarly, despite the assumption of the city-slicker bystander in ‘Incident at the Dairy’ that racism is alive and well in the town, the dairy-owner’s reaction to the main character persuades us that something much deeper, more sinister and definitely locally-based is at work in his refusal to serve the main character.
There is social commentary in ‘Visiting the Doctor’ and ‘Fish and Chips Tonight’ when poverty leads to actions that shock, and outright revulsion at the psychopathic attitude of Polly in ‘Hens’; but the anthology contains some leavening of humour in “Raising Capital’ and ‘The Chief’s Daughter’, the last being something of a spoof on stories that include the presence of a princess whose peerless beauty is the motivating factor in fairy stories of derring-do.
Two outstanding stories of inter-generational conflict are ‘Give Me a Kiss’ and ‘Arriving Home’. The former contrasts a traditional Pacific Island attitude to life, work and charity with the reality of the heroine’s working life, and the contrast is nowhere more marked than in the title, for the same words are spoken by her gentle, traditionally-focused mother and a drug pusher who has just exacted oral sex as the price of his product. Throughout, and in a tribute to the author’s ear, the dialogue is accurate, contemporary and realistic. The latter, ‘Arriving Home’, also addresses the generational divide in the recounting of how a self-made-and-proud-of-it salesman alienates his talented daughter by refusing to acknowledge that her world contains aspirations and possibilities that his does not, and never will.
However, and true to the man’s talent, in ‘Leaving For England’ O’Sullivan shows that perhaps the generations are sometimes more alike than different. He does this by having a grandmother pick up Nietzsche’s theme of ‘The Eternal Recurrence’ in telling her own story of the traditional Kiwi OE in London when her grandchild is about to do the same; an OE in which she ‘had seen Pink Floyd play in a poky, godawful nightclub in the acidic bowels of Swinging London’.
All told, then, “Partly Sunny’’ bears the stamp of authenticity in its characters, its settings, its interactions and its themes. James O’Sullivan shows us ourselves in full measure, and if sometimes the ‘warts and all’ predominate, the thoughtful reader may conclude that this says more about us than he.
Review by MJ Burr
Title: Partly Sunny
Author: James O'Sullivan
Publisher: Independent As Books
ISBN: 9780473710118
RRP: $20 + postage
Available: Paperback: fishpond.co.nz, or from author at [email protected]
Author: James O'Sullivan
Publisher: Independent As Books
ISBN: 9780473710118
RRP: $20 + postage
Available: Paperback: fishpond.co.nz, or from author at [email protected]
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