Colm Tóibín can't stop naming his characters Paul
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The world right now is a disaster. It's easy to feel helpless. But there was a moment when millions of people around the world said enough. I'm Sison Kim Simong. Join me for Boycott, the fight to end apartheid. How Australians joined others around the world to push back against racism and won. Whites only teams. We thought that to the average Australian that would be despicable. Boycott, the fight to end apartheid. Search for ABC Rewind on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello, I'm Claire Nicholls, and this is The Book Show, where I bring you conversations with your favourite fiction authors. Later, you are going to meet Patmina Sarbet. She has written a total page-turner of a book about a migrant family, a tragic death and the stories that swirl around this moment. But first up, it is always a good time when the Irish writing legend Colm Tobin is here. Colm is best known for his novels Brooklyn, Long Island and The Magician. And he's about to publish a new book of short stories called The News from Dublin. Colm Tobin, welcome back to the book show.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Tell me what you love about writing short stories.
I had a lot of trouble with them when I was starting. It wasn't until I was in my 50s that I got the hang of how to start a story. I was always starting stories with too much information, too much effort. You could see the strain. It's almost like writing a poem where you have to let the image flow. You have to get something slow, but at the same time, it has to do some work. And that balance then is required. I think often if you think of some situation that's really ironic, or ambiguous, you can get a story from it in the way that it won't fit into a novel. So I think the difference is almost complete between story and novel. And these stories have been written over the last 10 years. I have to say, when the book was coming out, I dropped a few stories, just I didn't think they were good enough.
And this meant that a few stories I had drafts of or half done, I really got going. It was good. It gave me energy. So last year, I finished three of them. Three of them I just had there. And that was quite exciting because it was the publication of the book.
What insights does Colm Tóibín share about writing short stories?
You know, people think about writers being dreamy or, oh, inspiration has to come or the moon has to change or something. But actually it was just that I had a book coming out and I was going to be too short and I needed to put three more stories into it. I need to get up early and just do those. I mean, it wasn't that I was waiting for the idea for them. I had it already, but I hadn't done the work. So I had to sit down and really, really work on three stories in the book.
Nothing motivates you like a deadline column.
That's true.
I find it fascinating that you say you got better at these in your 50s because I was going to ask you to put on your teacher hat column and tell us why a short story is harder to write than a novel.
Yeah. You know, in a novel you always know that you can go into backstory, you can explain the past, you can deviate, you can have someone stop for a drink. Mm-hmm. But in a short story, really everything has to move in a certain direction. It's like shooting an arrow. But if the reader knows that or thinks that or sees it happening, then you lose the reader. So it has to look, it has to, use the word dreamy again, it has to look almost dreamy with no dream. It has to be wide awake. And for that to happen, first of all, actually the thing I discovered in the end really was the longer you leave an idea without writing it, right? Say the opening paragraph or the opening page, the longer you leave it, the more likely it is to be good because you've thought it through all the time.
It comes into your head at various times and you're fully, you're seeing it in full. With that opening of the book, it's a story called The Journey to Galway. I had the opening page on my laptop
Can you just explain briefly, Colm, what that story is about?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:31
2
What insights does Colm Tóibín share about writing short stories?
2:31–5:34
3
How has Colm Tóibín's writing evolved over the years?
5:34–8:01
4
What themes are explored in Colm Tóibín's new collection?
8:01–10:59
5
How does Colm Tóibín use character names in his stories?
10:59–22:36
6
What is the significance of the character Zora in 'Good People'?
22:36–26:03
7
How does Patmina Sabit address the topic of honor crimes in her novel?
26:03–31:14
8
What challenges do immigrant families face in the American dream?
31:14–40:41
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Book Show
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