Short Story Collection: ‘Tales from the Death Zone’ by Andy Halpin
Tales from the Death Zone’, a short story collection by Tallaght native Andy Halpin, contends with the inevitability, tragedy, inherent mystery and occasional absurdity of death from a range of angles, reports Avery Lin.
Including poignant reflections on residing in the so-called ‘Death Zone’, colourful accounts of lives fatally drawn into it, and gently irreverent takes on classic motifs such as resurrection and the afterlife, the independent vignettes often share an uplifting affirmation of the human spirit’s perennial existence.
If some stories may come across as a senior citizen’s introspection on the impending event, as a palatable tonic for accepting loss or perhaps as a modern parable, a likely explanation is that the author hadn’t fully intended to eschew such qualities.
In the preface, Halpin indeed explains that the book had sprung from a desire to record his thoughts on life and its approaching ending after realising his place in what he aptly names the ‘Death Zone’.
Since the 2012 publication of his memoir ‘From Bray to Eternity: A Memoir of a Life Shared’, his writer’s instincts have also largely been shaped by the loss of his wife Annette to cancer in 2008, an event he identifies as upending his previous proclivity towards scepticism and cynicism.
Delivered through skillful yet unpretentious prose, the 18 stories avoid morbidity as the blurb promises – instead portraying eclectic circumstances around death with a dramatic, life-affirming or humorous spirit.
Through the eyes of the old and young, the flawed and evil plus a dog, the stories cast light onto death and its far-ranging causes, the agitated thoughts surrounding it, and its pervasive consequences with a recognisably local flair across a handful of familiar locations.
If in some of the stories, the characters may seem to invoke time-tested tropes, one defence is that the stories’ power lies not in their characterisation or plot twists, but rather in the unique testimony each pays to a portrait of human lives linked to death.
Fulfilling its wish to “induce a healthy respect and sense of gratitude for life,” some of the most compelling narratives are those featuring dynamic characters at the delivering or receiving ends of metaphysical influence, whether they be an aged slots-enthusiast or repentant teen.
Exhibiting a signature Irish humour and gift for authentically capturing human mannerisms and insights, Halpin engages with – and ultimately offers – the consolation of the soul’s essential immortality.
Hence, bridging the terrifically enigmatic divide between this world and the next, the reader is compelled to look upon that elusive existential precipice with less anxiety and a more humbled serenity.
‘Tales from the Death Zone’ (October 2022) is available for purchase from Amazon as a Paperback from €8.95 or as a Kindle eBook for €5.36. Halpin is also the author of ‘Twice Upon a Time’ (2013) and ‘Albert Walk’ (2022).
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