So I read Breakdown (2024) by Cathy Sweeney. Well written, easy to read. My main takeaway is:
Why do women think they have a monopoly on middle-class, middle-aged discontent and angst under the vacuousness of late capitalism, mindless consumerism and domestic tedium? I’ve some news for you: lotsa men feel the same way. Lots of people are unfulfilled, both men and women. Why is it always men’s fault? * Ah yes, the patriarchy. As if men didn’t suffer under that too. It’s hardly the boring husband’s fault that she’s a failed artist. Also: why do people like this nameless character have children in the first place? Did they think that they wouldn’t grow to dislike them so much, over time?
I would say that there is a very strange mother/daughter dynamic going on between Cathy Sweeney and Lucy Sweeney Byrne (who, incidentally, I would consider to be a far superior writer), particularly in the wake of this novel’s publication. Both share a disaffected worldview. Maybe I just find the disillusionment of younger women more interesting than that of the older cohort.
* This strawman argument against these strawmen is, of course, a commonly observable phenomenon among contemporary Irish women whom I’ve read, e.g. Eimear McBride, Niamh Campbell, Nicole Flattery. While it may be therapeutic to get things off your chest, I’m not sure how much it helps the discourse.
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