PIECES

An interlinked collection of stories about a fictional Irish American family.

McGuigan's collection of 16 tales follows the changing fortunes of the Donnegans, a large clan beset by many tragedies, the worst of which is that the head of the family, a violent alcoholic named Peter, frequently terrorizes his wife and his six young children. Moira, one of these kids, becomes the main focal point of many stories here, which feature an ever increasing cast of nieces, nephews, cousins, and more distant Donnegan relations. The family emigrated from Kilrush to the United States in 1849, but McGuigan's stories cover a span from 1955 to 2008. Several works effectively show Moira’s progression from child to mother; in “The Snow Fort,” set in her adulthood in 1984, she reflects on her anxiety over her sensitive boys, Sean and Michael, as she comes to terms with an impending separation from the kids’ father: “How complicated it was to love a child….Even when the boys were infants, she feared she wasn’t doing it right.” However, other members of the family also get time in the spotlight; for instance, in the 1986-set “To Express How Much,” aspiring author Kevin Donnegan wants to host a writing group at his home, but he’s silently terrified that his father will come back to the house loudly drunk while the group is in session: “It has taken him so long, so many years about this, to name it,” McGuigan writes evocatively. “Kevin just didn't want to be the one to make it plain, the ugly thing that no one in the house wants to name.” The empathy and delicacy of the author’s handling of the generational impact of abusive behavior are almost unbearably effective in this story and others. Indeed, the works are full of haunting intangibles that will resonate instantly with readers who’ve lived through similarly difficult domestic situations.

A careful and extremely sensitive work of generational fiction.