Pond
Claire-Louise Bennett
2015 • The Stinging Fly
A sensation I had very strongly growing up was that I was between worlds, on a kind of threshold—perhaps many children feel that way and that’s why they like to stand behind closed curtains … and certainly the act of writing felt intensely magical, sometimes frighteningly so: it was a way of transcending the everyday situation in order to commune with or at least remain open to the deeper energies of the universe.
— Claire-Louise Bennett
Pond
Claire-Louise Bennett
2015 • The Stinging Fly
A sensation I had very strongly growing up was that I was between worlds, on a kind of threshold—perhaps many children feel that way and that’s why they like to stand behind closed curtains … and certainly the act of writing felt intensely magical, sometimes frighteningly so: it was a way of transcending the everyday situation in order to commune with or at least remain open to the deeper energies of the universe.
— Claire-Louise Bennett
Description
Feverish and forthright, Pond is an absorbing chronicle of the pitfalls and pleasures of a solitudinous life told by an unnamed woman living on the cusp of a coastal town. Broken bowls, belligerent cows, swanky aubergines, trembling moonrises and horrifying sunsets, the physical world depicted in these stories is unsettling yet intimately familiar and soon takes on a life of its own. Captivated by the stellar charms of seclusion but restless with desire, the woman’s relationship with her surroundings becomes boundless and increasingly bewildering. Claire-Louise Bennett’s startlingly original first collection slips effortlessly between worlds and is by turns darkly funny and deeply moving.
Excerpts
Interviews
- The Paris Review: 'The Mind in Solitude – An Interview With Claire-Louise Bennett'
- Vogue: 'Claire-Louise Bennett Talks About her Genre-Bending Debut, Pond,and the Magic of Solitude'
- The Honest Ulsterman: Claire-Louise Bennett
- Galway Advertiser: ‘I Wasn’t Ever Going to Write a Novel Along Familiar Lines’
Prizes & Awards
Reviews
- Andrew Gallix, The Guardian
- Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
- Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times
- Catherine Taylor, Financial Times
- Joseph Turner, Cherwell Newspaper
- Michael Hyde, World Literature Today
- Brian Dillon, London Review of Books
- Meghan O’Rourke, The New York Times
- Linnie Green, Los Angeles Review of Books
Audio
Video
- Arts Council: What the Hell/Heaven Are We Doing? - Claire-Louise Bennett
- Kennys Bookshop: Claire-Louise Bennett Reads in Kennys Bookshop
