Old Romantics by Maggie Armstrong

 

Old Romantics by Maggie Armstrong.

Published 18th April 2024 by Tramp Press.

From the cover of the book:

Slippery, flawed and acute, Old Romantics is a collection of alternative romances told from a nether world of love and disenchantment by an astonishing new talent.

The linked stories follow the interior biography of an indistinct Dublin woman, from early adulthood into motherhood and the trials of young family life right up to pandemic times. Whether a catastrophic road trip, an ill-advised career move or a sinister encounter on the beach, these stories dig at the heart of what it is to be alone and alienated in your world. The heroes of these escapades are thickly masked and often unreliable as they pursue each other. Love is sometimes obsessive and often delusional. Motivations are slippery, expectations are shattered, and self-knowledge is hard-won yet inevitable. 

This collection opens the under-seam of what it is to fall in love and back out again. Romance has a rotten heart, but love is real and infinite. From bad dates that call to mind an Irish ‘Cat Person’ by Kristen Roupenian, to comically observed workplace absurdity, Maggie Armstrong is a powerful new voice in Irish fiction.

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Old Romantics is a collection of twelve short stories by Irish writer Maggie Armstrong, linked by echoing themes which perversely have very little to do with conventional notions of romance - and it is that which makes this book so mind-jarringly compelling.

Generally speaking, the collection follows a chronology from teenage angst to motherhood and strained family life, through scenes of sexual awakening and off-kilter relationships, with a little side-order of work place weirdness. In every case there is a discord between fantasist levels of expectation and the harsh thwack of reality, and the way the narrative flips between stream of consciousness-like first person intensity and third person separation fits nicely with each one.

There is pitch black humour to be found in many of these tales - I particularly liked the comic Black Mirror vibes of The Dublin Marriage (my favourite of them all), and the surreal road-trip of Old Romantics - but there is also a darkness of a different kind, which I found quite disconcerting. I was unable to shake the feeling that life is happening to these characters almost against their will, as they are so mentally detached from from the physical acts they are engaging in, and the bitter tastes of sordidness and hopeless despondency become quite overwhelming as you work your way through the stories. 

Repeated threads of dysfunctional relationships that leave their mark on fragile mental health make this a collection that is the antithesis of warm-hearted romantic fayre, and the sharply observed, thought-provoking way Armstrong uses them means there is a lot here to talk about, and to divide the crowd. This makes this book a great choice for book clubs and reading groups. 

I confess that I am in two minds about this collection, caught between the highly entertaining farcical tales, and the tragic ones that hit with a visceral poignancy. This is not a book I can easily refer to as one I 'enjoyed' as there is such a disenchanting edge to it, but I can tell you that reading it has been a fascinating experience. I suspect that I will be picking it up again in the future to reread some of these stories, as Armstrong's writing has a seductive pull to it that is hard to ignore. 

Maggie Armstrong is now a writer on my literary radar, and I look forward to seeing what comes from her pen next.

Old Romantics is available to buy now in paperback.

Thank you to Tramp Press for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Helen Richardson PR for inviting me to join this blog tour.

About the author:

Maggie Armstrong’s work has appeared in the Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee, and elsewhere. 

The author was longlisted for a 2023 Irish Book Award. 

She lives in Dublin.