Pauline would be an enigmatic siren after whom Declan lusted, while partly concealing his feelings from himself. We can easily imagine what a male author of the mid-twentieth century would have made of Declan’s story. Declan’s ownership of a car makes him useful to Pauline, a screenwriter who is living temporarily in a large rented house in the town. Also unlike Aidan, he has never worked in a hotel, bar or restaurant. Unlike his slightly younger brother, Aidan, he has a car. He is buying a house near the seaside town where he grew up, with the aid of a twenty-year mortgage. (At least one of these, “Color and Light”, is behind a paywall, but The New Yorker allows nonsubscribers to access a small number of stories for free each month.) “ Color and Light”, The New Yorker March 2019ĭeclan has a business degree and works as an office manager. The three stories in question are all available online. With that in mind, I’d like to take a look at three of Rooney’s short stories, including “Mr Salary”. I’ve suggested before that this is partly a function of the size and shape of the printed books that publishers have traditionally been expected to produce and that, as publishing changes, we can expect the short story and other shorter forms to assume an importance that economic realities have often denied them in the past. Many publishers, and not a few authors, see the writing of short stories as not much more than an apprenticeship for the more demanding and potentially rewarding task of producing a novel. And, while I like and admire the two novels, and hope to write about them eventually, I think it’s important not to overlook her strengths as a short story writer. “Mr Salary” left me in no doubt that she was a significant new Irish fiction writer.
As I didn’t buy a copy of Conversations until it came out in mass market paperback, there was a period of slightly more than a year during which I knew Rooney’s writing only through “Mr Salary” and perhaps another short story.
Shortly before the publication of Conversations with Friends, I saw that her story “Mr Salary” had been shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, so I read it.
Sally Rooney’s two novels to date, Conversations with Friends and Normal People, have been a phenomenal publishing success, so it’s worth reminding oneself that she first attracted attention as a short story writer. It features the two main characters from Rooney’s second novel, Normal People. It’s “ At the Clinic”, which was published in The White Review in 2016. Update : In addition to the three stories discussed below, another short story by Sally Rooney is now available online, free to read. “Oh my god, shut up” Sally Rooney, short story writer Portrait of Sally Rooney, from The New Yorker
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