The stories are humorous but never cheerful, the characters often repellently fascinating
Tenterhooks is the debut short story collection from Galway-based, Franco-German writer Claire-Lise Kieffer, a graduate of the creative writing master’s at the University of Galway and this collection would sit very comfortably alongside the type of surreal stories popularised by writers such as Miranda July and Cathy Sweeney.
Kieffer has a talent for shifting the focus of her story in an enjoyably unpredictable way. This is exemplified in the title story about a brutish Galway garda who is waiting for a past secret to be exposed. While the outcome of the plot is easily guessed, Kieffer makes it a much more interesting story by shifting her ending to an unexpected element of the story, which imbues the story and the characters with deeper meaning.
Kieffer’s stories are humorous but never cheerful, and her characters are often repellently fascinating. The sales assistant in Marmite, who tricks hapless men into buying suits they don’t want, is an utter creep, but Kieffer’s characters more often evoke a sense of despair as they seek a way out of loneliness and alienation.
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