Cabbage and Bones: An Anthology of Irish-American Women's Fiction

by Kathleen Ford, Maureen Howard (Foreword), Caledonia Kearns (Editor)

The story of Irish women in this country and their influence on American letters has until now been little recognized. In this unique and affecting anthology of fiction by Irish American women, the voices of some of our most important writers are finally celebrated. Organized chronologically from the 1930s to the present day, these twenty-four stories - some of which have never before been published in book form - explore the sometimes crushing love and obligations of family, the mixed blessing of faith, and the origins of identity and sexuality. They all serve to resurrect the powerful image, once buried, of Irish women as storytellers.

Noel Coward and Mrs. Griffin / Ruth McKenney --
C.Y.E. / Mary McCarthy --
Excerpt from The parish and the hill / Mary Doyle Curran --
Excerpt from Hour of spring / Mary Deasy --
Excerpt from Bridgeport bus / Maureen Howard --
Life after death / Elizabeth Cullinan --
One of them gets married / Jean McGarry --
The lover of horses / Tess Gallagher --
Nijinsky / Maura Stanton --
Queen wintergreen / Alice Fulton --
Excerpt from At weddings and wakes / Alice McDermott --
Mary's departure / Kathleen Ford --
My father's boat / Mary McGarry Morris --
My father's alcoholism / Eileen Myles --
Excerpt from One true thing / Anna Quindlen --
Versus / Jennifer C Cornell --
Pork chops / Eileen FitzGerald --
City life / Mary Gordon --
Daily affirmations / Erin McGraw --
Famine fever / Helena Mulkerns --
Achill ancestors and a stranger / Maureen Brady --
Excerpt from The map of Ireland / Stephanie Grant --
The other woman / Valerie Sayers --
How Ireland lost the World Cup / Annie Callan

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1997

About the author

Kathleen Ford was born in New Jersey and educated in Catholic schools before attending Columbia University. Jeffrey County, a novel set in rural Virginia, was published by St. Martin’s Press but Kathleen’s first love is for short stories. She’s published over 35 stories in commercial magazines such as Redbook and Ladies Home Journal, and in quarterlies such as Southern Review, North American Review, Antioch Review and Sewanee Review. A story entitled “Man on the Run,” which was first published in The New England Review, was reprinted in THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2012. Two of her stories have won PEN Syndicated Fiction prizes and in 2011 she was awarded a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship.

Kathleen lives in Charlottesville, Virginia where she teaches adult ESOL. She continues to write stories about Irish immigrant maids, the soldiers of World War I, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Reviews

[Terry Polston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a big fan of short stories. There were a few that were interesting in this anthology

[Joanne Cheek · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. The book and I, did not click.

[Belle Meade School]

813.5