Dark Roots

By Cate Kennedy

SHORTLISTED FOR 2007 PREMIER'S QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS: AUSTRALIAN SHORT STORY COLLECTION

OPRAH MAGAZINE ‘NEW VOICE OF THE MONTH’

In these sublimely sophisticated tales, Cate Kennedy opens up worlds of finely observed detail. Her stories are populated by people at tipping points in their lives — moments that find them poised between a familiar past and an unfamiliar future. In ‘The Testosterone Club’, a neglected wife plans an unsavoury revenge on her boorish husband. In ‘Resize’, a married couple realise their too-tight wedding rings may symbolise wider aspects of their relationship. And in ‘Cold Snap’, a young boy senses that the newly arrived tree changer may have some sinister intents. Heartbreaking, evocative and richly comic, Dark Roots unveils the traumas that incite us to desperate measures, and the coincidences that drive our lives.

PRAISE FOR CATE KENNEDY

‘stunning ... Each story picks you up, takes you out of your life and smack bang into the middle of another place and time where the troubles and joys are laid bare and stripped back to their essence with incredibly spare and gifted writing. This collection is a joy to read...’ The Sunday Age

‘These are precisely observed pieces, deserving of a wide audience.’ The Guardian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribe Publications
• Release date: Sep 18, 2006
• ISBN: 9781921753060

Cate Kennedy

Cate Kennedy is the author of the highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, which won the People’s Choice Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2010. She is an award-winning short-story writer whose work has been published widely. Her first collection, Dark Roots, was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. She is also the author of a travel memoir, Sing, and Don’t Cry, and the poetry collections Joyflight, Signs of Other Fires and The Taste of River Water, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry in 2011. She lives on a secluded bend of the Broken River in north-east Victoria.

Reviews for Dark Roots

[crazymamie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I truly loved this book, and only a couple of the stories fell just shy of the perfection mark, which is why it gets not quite a full five stars from me. I picked this up from the library for the ANZAC challenge - Cate Kennedy is an Australian author, and I was not familiar with her work. I have been branching out into short story collections, although it is not my favorite format. This collection is different - I loved the humor, the wit, the charm of people caught in the actions of every day life. Some of these people are at crossroads moments, and what was unexpected was that in the beginning of most of them, I had no idea of the sex of the main character. You learn that as the story unfolds, but first just the voice that could be from any skin, any gender - just...human. The first story, What Thou and I Did, Till We Loved was sublime; a perfect read for me on what it means to love someone. And the writing! The writing is gorgeous, and thought and feeling flow with each sentence, taking us along on the journey of each story. The unexpected sharp smack of dark humor and the hum of edginess all woven into the structure that is a paragraph. This collection is a feast for the senses. When I had finished reading it, I wanted nothing more than to turn back to the first story and begin again. Which is just what I did. Highly recommended, even if, like me, short stories are not your favorite. This collection shows how very much can be done with so little - fully-fleshed characters and plot and an advanced story arc all in miniature. Small, but not abridged."I watch people sometimes, wonder how they can walk around with the weight of what they know. Wonder if they feel like me, stumbling with lead shoes on the bottom of the ocean, swimming in a sea of the unsayable. It's a mistake we make, thinking that it's words that tell us everything. It's sound that breaks glasses, cracks windows, sends cats up trees. Bats hear more than humans, understand more noise, let alone dogs. Maybe we're just not getting it, standing here listening for sensible speech, dying of loneliness and waiting for whatever it is. How do we know we're not calling and calling all the time, our throats so tight with it, it's too high to hear?"

[pam8enser · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't too sure about this when I fist started it. The last book of short stories I read was Miranda July's collection. I liked it, but I wasn't enthralled. This is completely different. I LOVE these stories. It is a rare thing when I read a short story that I want it to be more than a short story. What I love about Cate Kennedy is that she is totally in my head. Even though I might not experience what is going on this all of the stories, I can somehow relate to all of them.

There were a couple of stories that I found amazing and wanted more of the story. Obviously "The Testosterone Club" was one of them. The idea of slowly killing her husband and friends by pickled vegetables was fantastic. "Seizure" was also one of my favorites. I can't wait till more from her comes out. I really really enjoyed this.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I read about 75 pages of this one before giving up on it. The stories were, to me, dull and dry, with dull, dry characters that I cared nothing about. It seemed like the author was making an effort to be avant garde. It just didn't work for me.

[lildrafire · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this collection of short stories by the Australian writer Cate Kennedy. She was able to develop interesting characters quickly and streamline plot lines so easily that her writing looks effortless. I look forward to reading more of her work.