Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett is a collection of twenty short stories of varying lengths told from the perspective of a semi-reclusive woman living on the outskirts of a rural coastal town in Ireland. The stories run from only a few lines to nearly twenty pages and offer a unique perspective of the life of one woman. Nostalgia runs through the novel following the first story in the collection in which the female protagonist as a child climbs over a wall and falls asleep on the grass clutching a seashell. The remaining stories are told with the same childlike perspective of the world as the first; full of immersive descriptions and not unlike Alice in Wonderland. The natural world around the woman becomes her very own wonderland and is a very apt setting for the mundane events of her life. She essentially becomes re-enchanted with the world around her due to her seclusion.
The way the woman views the world is slightly unsettling though completely overwhelming. She has let her surroundings completely swallow her, leading to a unique and interesting perspective of the world. As Bennett discusses, “In solitude you don’t need to make an impression on the world, so the world has some opportunity to make an impression on you,” and this idea is echoed throughout the collection. The woman’s semi-reclusive lifestyle leads her to notice the insignificant and minute detail in everything around her. It’s hard to categorise Bennett’s story in any way, and while most would describe it as a collection of prose, it also runs quite like a stream of consciousness leaving the reader disorientated and breathless as the woman describes furniture and rooms with an unusual level of detail, hinting at instability within her.
This instability is further touched upon when the title of the collection is considered. The titular Pond refers to a sign in the landlady’s garden, erected to label the pond that lies there. The literal nature of the sign almost destroys the magical aura of the woman’s wonderland and she quickly comes to resent the sign, wishing to take vengeance on it.
Bennett’s collection feels less like a structured set of short stories and more like tiny fragments of the woman’s life. She wishes to be alone and that is echoed in the events we witness; her sitting in a bath under an open window during a storm, her tidying up after a casual soiree. There is no straightforward, singular plot in Bennett’s work, but instead we get snapshots of the woman’s life and become completely engulfed by her world. From discussions of broken knobs on a cooker, to the woman’s annoyance at a dependence on alcohol to engage with men to a refusal to describe a sunset as it is something everyone has witnessed, Bennett’s work is unique in its own way and offers an innovative outlook on life and what the world has to offer us. While Bennett’s collection is not for everyone, it is a gritty and thought provoking read for the right person and very enjoyable.
