Shine/Variance

A terrific collection that continues the grand tradition of Irish storytelling. A delightful read worth every second of your time.

I have heard lots of good things about Shine/Variance and I was excited to read it, but I didn't really know what to expect. What I found was a completely unique approach to story-telling that was riveting, thoughtful, compelling, and connected to me on a personal level. Stephen Walsh's characters feel like he is writing about all the people you love and hate in this world. He uncovers people's core failures in a way that makes you weep for them one moment and want to punch them in the gut the next moment.I broke down laughing so many times at the honest way his characters stumbled through life overthinking the slightest obstacle and celebrating the tiniest victory. The author is a man that clearly spent some time putting together IKEA furniture and has the tears and scars to show for it. There is not a moment in Shine/Variance when you can put it down without walking around thinking about what you just read. The characters take over your own thoughts because they don't just seem real, they feel like people you know intimately.He captures the anxiety and stress we feel dealing with both the real and imaginary everyday conflicts we have with family, work, and just walking around in the world. The book will make you laugh at yourself, and it will make you feel more connected to everyone and everything in the universe. I cannot recommend it highly enough. 100 Stars!!!!

The stories in Shine/Variance tease out the complexities of daily life and reveal the tragicomic thought processes of the intimate inner self. The stories resonate with their authenticity. The more I read the more I became self-conscious about the dilemmas we all wrestle with each day; and how our lives can be painfully sad but also funny. The stories delicately interlace our everyday insecurities with laugh out loud moments. The writing is wonderfully sharp, clever and insightful.

True to that tradition of good character writing but not a trace of traditional, Irish romanticism. At last an Irish writer who deals with the minutiae of modern Ireland; budget flights, package holidays, baristas, coffee, instruction manuals, checkouts, contactless, business, work and call centres. 'Variance' is a good title, as these stories vary wildly, all play their own language games. There's tragedy in the mundane and Stephen does what good writers do, he surfaces it confidently.

When you read a story and it continues to creep into your thoughts for a long time after, you know there's been a deep connection with your inner consciousness. That's how I would describe these stories about what appears to be, on the surface, stories about normal people and normal stuff. However, the genius in how they are written continues to develop in your mind long after the story has concluded.