Cathy Sweeney: ‘I am naturally curious so I dwell on everything’

Tell me about your debut novel, Breakdown.

Breakdown is a novel about a woman who gets up one morning and, on impulse, instead of going to work, drives south on a motorway. Her intention is simply to take a few hours for herself – have a coffee, do some shopping, get her hair done – but she never comes back.

There are only so many plots. Mid-life crises and marriage breakups are nothing new. “The story of how a woman becomes a teacher and not an artist is an old one.” Was it a satisfying challenge to reinvent or deconstruct this material?

It was deeply satisfying to take a character who is almost a trope in literature – the woman who has everything but wants more – and rewrite her story from a feminist perspective.

Asking about fiction’s autobiographical roots is frowned upon these days but is there something interesting to say about how you transform experience into art?

Most fiction writers draw on personal experience, but also on knowledge, observation and imagination. The result is as similar to life as dreams are.

What do you dwell on when you look at the world these days?

I am naturally curious so I dwell on everything, from supermarket checkouts to the shape of a tree against the sky.

You have described “the untameable nature of desire” as “the oldest story in the book… a beast that stalks people”. Tell me more.

It would take a lengthy essay – or a novel – to explore the cost of sublimating desire to “life goals”.

How much freedom do you find in writing, in the life of the imagination? How satisfying is it to respond to the world through words?

I can no longer imagine any other kind of life for myself.

You were a brilliant English teacher – you taught two of my children – and you wrote a textbook. How could the subject be improved? Has it influenced you as a writer?

The current emphasis on reading for pleasure in the junior cycle is wonderful and I hope it carries into the senior cycle reforms. I found writing and teaching English to be complementary, for the most part.

Your debut collection, Modern Times, was well received. Danielle McLaughlin called it “magnificently weird, hugely entertaining, deeply profound”. Did anything surprise you about the publishing experience?

The sudden shift from the privacy of writing to the exposure of publishing came as a surprise.

How natural a progression was it from short stories to the novel?

I began writing Breakdown simply because I had a longer story to tell.

[ Colin Barrett: ‘My biggest fear was who’s going to want to read stories about lads in chip shops in small towns?’ ]

“Truth is a tricky thing, and not something that can easily be contained between ‘once upon a time’ and ‘the end’”. What can fiction teach us?

I think fiction and myth can teach us everything there is to know about human nature, not just in this moment, but all the way back to Ovid.

Did you move to John McGahern’s Leitrim as planned for “the austerity of the landscape” and the cheaper rents?

No, but I have moved three times since I did that interview, still chasing the mirage of cheaper rents.

Which projects are you working on?

I am working on a novel based on a period of time in the life of Oscar Wilde.

Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

I visited Montaigne’s tower in the Dordogne and it had a lasting effect on me.

What is the best writing advice you have heard?

Margaret Atwood said in an interview that the only way to write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read by any other person, not even by yourself.

Who do you admire the most?

I admire many writers but I am in awe at Anne Bronte’s courage in writing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?

I would pass a law empowering the state to take possession of all property that has been vacant for three years or more.

Breakdown: Cathy Sweeney

Listen | 53:35

Breakdown is the debut novel from author and former English teacher Cathy Sweeney. It tells the story of a disillusioned mother, living in a leafy suburb in Dublin, who leaves her house one morning and never returns. In this episode, Sweeney tells Róisín Ingle how she came to write Breakdown and reflects on the stories women still don’t openly tell about themselves even in modern liberal Ireland. In this wide ranging conversation, Sweeney also talks about her childhood spent moving from place to place, how becoming a mother at 18 shaped her life and why she’s turning her attention to Oscar Wilde for her next writing project.

Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?

A recent book I would recommend is Janet Malcolm’s final essay collection, Still Pictures. I also adored the film Corsage directed by Marie Kreutzer and I enjoy the New Yorker Fiction podcast.

Which public event affected you most?

The repeal of The Eighth Amendment in 2018.

[ Breakdown: A modern cautionary tale about the costs of limiting our options to suffocating roleplay ]

The most remarkable place you have visited?

La Sagrada Familia.

Your most treasured possession?

A wooden letter opener.

What is the most beautiful book that you own?

A Folio Society hardback edition of Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

I don’t have dinner parties, but lunch with Muriel Spark would be interesting.

The best and worst things about where you live?

The best thing about Wexford is the beauty of the natural landscape and there is no worst thing… I feel very at home here.

What is your favourite quotation?

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it” – Flannery O’Connor

Who is your favourite fictional character?

Anna Karenina

A book to make me laugh?

I love darkly funny short stories such as The Debutante by Leonora Carrington.

A book that might move me to tears?

I Will Never See the World Again by Ahmet Altan

Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney is published by W&N