FICTION

THE MAN WHO DREAMT OF LOBSTERS by Michael Collins (Random House: $19; 223 pp.) In these eight stories by a talented young writer, the metaphor for Irish life is claustrophobia. The land is hemmed in by dark clouds and a darker history. People crowd into broken-down cars, wrap themselves against the rain, huddle in stuffy, overheated dwellings and chafe, usually in vain, against an inherited strait-jacket of cruelty.

In the very first story, “True Love,” Michael Collins gives us an unforgettable image: that of cold, hungry children waiting for hours in the flooded parking lot of a pub while their fathers celebrate a dog’s victory in a hunting trial. Hennessey, the owner of the dog, is “a coward among the clamor of other males.” He dares not alienate his cronies, either to protect his daughter from sexual advances or to treat the dog’s injuries. Before the night is over, the dog dies; his weeping, cursing children have been shoved a little further down Hennessey’s own loveless path.

Indeed, for a while it seems that cruelty and a vivid, muscular prose style are all that Collins does give us. A coach bullies an injured runner to compete. A fugitive who claims to be an IRA gunman finds life even more sinister and deadly among New York’s “emerald underground.” A blind old man tries to molest his retarded grandson. A crippled youth is trapped even more by his family than by his useless legs. Neighbors of an impoverished widow forced into prostitution steal her dead baby from its grave and tell her she will get it back only if she leaves.

Only gradually do we sense a counter-theme: the endurance that has sustained the Irish for centuries. The “whore mother” strives bravely to feed and warm her children. The crippled youth leads a romantic fantasy life. Hennessey’s daughter tries to shield her younger siblings. And Collins himself reminds us that the spring of Irish eloquence is inexhaustible. It seeps out from under the bright green grass that tourists see: dark water flavored by peat and ashes and Guinness and blood. This collection is a particularly strong and bitter brew.