‘We Are Broken Things’ opens the book with a young woman going to see her dead father, a man she has only met once and feels nothing for. Moving backwards and forwards in time, the story also charts the sadness of her mother’s life. Rooted in family and relationships, like most of Paul’s stories, the emotions however are somewhat at a distance from the reader. There’s also the awkward inclusion of the title phrase in a text message which jars somewhat. However, it’s a story which focuses on what people feel and say, with no fancy tricks or cynical twists.

‘I’m Happy, You’re Happy, We’re All Happy’ follows the narrator’s relationship with a young man who hasn’t got over his previous relationship. The title belies the relationship’s trajectory. It’s hard to see what some of Paul’s characters see in their men, and this is true of Oliver. But perhaps that’s the point: he’s clearly unsuited to the loner young woman telling the story. The room they live in has the melancholy air of their relationship. Paul is good at describing surroundings, and avoids the overly pared down approach so many modern writers use. It’s through the extra padding of her stories that her style and voice truly emerges.

‘Here, This Tragedy’ focuses on a woman going out on a date who takes along her nineteen year old daughter, Susie, who suffers from serious learning difficulties. Yet again, Paul gives us a man who’s not worth the trouble, who ultimately bottles out. There’s more than one tragedy in this story, though. The only happy character here is Susie, who forgets her mother as soon as she walks out the door.

‘Supernovas’ sees a father taking his daughter out to an observatory with his “friend” Maya, to look at the stars. Later, Maya and her partner come round one evening and the girl watches the relationships and tensions between the adults. The parents relationship, like so many in this book, is rooted in the disappointments of long-term partnerships where affection nevertheless remains but the romantic illusions have worn off.

‘Guidance’ is told from the perspective of a child, a girl who has been warned about strangers. “Men you know aren’t strangers, and neither are men at church or policemen” she tells us. Of course, the most dangerous men are often the ones who are known and trusted. This is a story with a dark twist which is hinted at in the very naďve presumptions of her narrator. But the final paragraphs are bland, muted, belying the significance of what has gone before. This plays up the darkness but there’s also something unsatisfying about the end of this tale.

‘Kenny’ charts the tragedy of June, a young woman destined to follow her mother into mental illness, specifically depression. This leads to the break up of yet another relationship. Men in these stories are often feckless, or unable to understand their partners. Kenny, on the other hand, wants June back, regardless of what’s wrong with her. The question is whether June will ever come out of her numbed state.

‘Voices’ is a story that resembles ‘I’m Happy, You’re Happy, We’re All Happy’ though less in the plot than the atmosphere and characters. This is not a relationship on the rocks, but there are cracks all the same, like the crack in the ceiling above their bed.

One of the most amusing stories is ‘Connections,’ which follows a schoolgirl and her friendships and acquaintances, her crushes, and the fate of the boy neighbour who clearly fancies her. Although the darker undercurrent of Paul’s writing threads through this one, the overall atmosphere is upbeat, full of teenage angst and high jinks.

‘Aunt Dorothy’ draws a colourful character portrait of the aunt in question and her effect on the narrator and her mother. There’s a poignant quality to this story, and it’s humorous as well. Dorothy, like many of Paul’s characters, has a fascination for unusual words, describing herself as peripatetic. She’s a somewhat enigmatic character, whose past we only catch a glimpse of, in the form of a brief relationship-friendship in her youth that may or may not have been romantic.

‘Neighbours’ is reminiscent of ‘Abigail’s Party’ (which is referred to in the story) and ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ in that it’s set around a dinner party with two incompatible couples, where tensions lie under the surface, things are alluded to, and someone oversteps the mark. Here we have the disappointments of long term relationships again.

‘Renaissance’ sees the narrator’s mother making up for her past regrets and an unsatisfactory marriage, by taking up with another man. The alcoholism of the father is dealt with sensitively and with humour.

The final story is ‘Oh Tell Me The Truth About Love!’ A young girl sits on her bunk watching her sister get ready to go out, her position usurped by her sister’s new boyfriend. This is a story which neatly conveys the changeover between childhood and adulthood, with one sister further ahead and the younger unable to comprehend the apparently ludicrous decisions she has made.

Colette Paul writes about her characters with humour and warmth. These are not in-your-face tales. Nor are they set in glamorous locations. They are instead down-to-earth urban tales, primarily set around young women and girls. The central perspective is always female, but the narrators and viewpoint characters are no more perfect than the men they get involved with. Although the stories have a youthful freshness about them, there is also maturity in the emotional observations.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. She is currently completing her first novel. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here