Show Your Work: Essays from the Dublin Review

by Brendan Barrington (Editor), Sally Rooney, Kevin Barry

At a time when the essay is flourishing like never before, The Dublin Review publishes an essential selection of non-fiction pieces drawn from fourteen years’ worth of issues.

Show Your Work: Essays from The Dublin Review includes Sally Rooney’s stunning debut essay about college debating; Kevin Barry’s dazzling reflections on online life; Anne Enright on childbirth and literature; Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s search for a legendary ancestor; Patrick Freyne’s personal mental-health inventory; Colm Tóibín on journalism, the law, and the origins of his first novel; Roisin Kiberd’s sparkling examination of fitness culture; Mark O’Connell’s ‘Self-Portrait in Five Fears’; plus Kevin Breathnach, Eoin Butler, Dominique Cleary, Brian Dillon, Rob Doyle, Arnold Thomas Fanning, Selina Guinness, Caelainn Hogan, Darragh McCausland, Molly McCloskey, Susan McKay, Deirdre Mask, Karen O’Reilly, Glenn Patterson, and Dasom Yang.

274 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most short story/essay collections, it's going to be a mixed bag. In this case especially, it was sort of a surprise that each of the stories didn't just focus on an Ireland bent, but also included more European stories besides. That said, the abortion story especially will stick with me forever for having such a nuanced and grey view of the experience - I think in such a way that very perfectly sums up my feelings on the subject and how I expect I would feel if put through that experience. I also enjoyed the speech and debate story and the generational trauma story about the troubles. I was disappointed by the last essay about the Night Gym - it just wasn't the direction I thought it was going to go and left me with a lack of resolution.