In one of her suburban short stories, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne has her central character, Brenda, rhapsodise over the work of Richard Ford. Brenda loves the American writer's work because of "the dense psychological detail of place and person and love". The same could be said of Ni Duibhne's own stories in The Pale Gold Of Alaska. In a few words she can conjure up entire lives and she is best when describing the sharp anxieties of love, whether illicit, romantic or the love of a parent for a child. She is a powerful storyteller, and so real and clearly drawn are the situations that the reader is left wondering at the end of each story about the future lives of her mostly female central characters. What does happen to television executive Brenda and her married lover after their failed tryst in Italy? Or to Pat, who spends a life-defining holiday with her American boyfriend and his parents, whose grudging approval of the Irish girl is based on the fact that "at least she's white". Ni Dhuibhne places most of the nine short stories in Dublin's suburbia and this brings a freshness and contemporary realism to the tales. Readers who favour the sparse modern style of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford will enjoy this book.
