Write of Passage Cathy Sweeney
A writer living in Dublin, Cathy Sweeney’s short fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Egress, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Tangerine and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut short story
collection, Modern Times, was published in 2020. Breakdown is her debut novel
You’ve long been a fan of cinema and art. Do those media in uence or shape your writing?
While writing Breakdown, I had Edward Hopper’s Automat as my screensaver. e image embodies the vacuum that exists at the heart of capitalism and inspired the cover design of the novel. In terms of cinema, in some ways my character is a female version of Howard Beale in the lm Network, who is ‘mad as hell and not going to take it any more’.
Breakdown also suggests a wider world that is breaking down, but it ends on a hopeful note. Does that chime with your hope for the future?
It’s a controversial ending for a mother not to return to her family, but I agree that it can be interpreted as hopeful. e character has made an alternative life and in doing so, she has rediscovered the sensation of aliveness. She has also found a way to live with the breakdown that is evident all around her and I believe there is some freedom in that.
Finally, what, if anything, can you say about your next book?
I am at work on a very di erent kind of novel. If a story consumes me at an emotional level but feels technically impossible, then I am hooked. Again.