'Hermit for Hire'

Catriona Lally's contribution to The Far Tower: Stories for W.B. Yeats begins with a very famous quote from 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'. Unfortunately, it soon turns out that to 'live alone in the bee-loud glade' is not so easy nowadays.

An Irish pensioner, fed up with a life of tea, telly, and the shops, decides to find a log cabin and become a hermit. He goes into considerable detail online, finding plenty of cabins - log and otherwise - but none that are suitable. He even finds that there are log cabin flatpack kits - who knew? - but is well aware that he can't 'assemble a flatpack stool without wondering where all the leftover screws were supposed to go and why the fourth leg was a bit rickety'.

This engaging story is a healthy mediation on the gap between the ideal world envisioned by poets and the sad reality most of us are compelled to struggle with. Thinking of basics, like how to milk a cow, does tend to make one appreciate the comforts of a bustling consumerist age. Eventually our hero is compelled to stretch out on the sofa in front of the telly and have a nice cup of tea. There is beauty, even poetry, in the mundane.

This pleasant tale doesn't outstay its welcome and I look forward to seeing more of Lally's work. Next, I'll be reading a story by Supernatural Tales veteran contributor John Howard.