HOME ECONOMICS

But, for me, this book goes far beyond memoir. It is social commentary. It is a reflection on womanhood, work, and motherhood, all wrapped up in a beautifully written, self-deprecating account of Lally’s life as a cleaner in Trinity.

-- Katriona O’Sullivan * A Beautiful Memoir That Changed Me *

Her writing on motherhood – on its total impact on your time, your body, your sleep, your ability to think – is some of the best I’ve read. She captures things that academic research often can’t. She also writes powerfully about not being able to write – the doubt, the paralysis, the frustration. Despite her success, she presents herself as unsure, self-critical, constantly questioning. It makes her very easy to connect with. She is funny, honest and incredibly skilled. There are award-winning sentences throughout this book.

-- Katriona O'Sullivan * A Beautiful Memoir That Changed Me *

I love books that leave me changed, and this one did. It made me reconsider my own views on cleaning, on work, and on what we value. This is not a story about a struggling writer forced into cleaning. It is a story about motherhood, about compromise, about choice, and about the constant renegotiation of a woman’s life.

-- Katriona O'Sullivan * A Beautiful Memoir That Changed Me *

This is absolutely one to read about the reality of ‘making it’ as an artist, and how to live, make money and create.

-- Aoife Barry * The Journal *

Review for Previous Books

They say that the voice is dead in modern literature, that one good author’s voice sounds just like another. Caitríona Lally’s work makes a lie of that. She delights in language and in bringing multifaceted, believable characters and their complicated relationships to the page. If what you’re after is an accessible, funny and real read, pick this book.

-- Estelle Birdy

Review for Previous Books

Caitríona Lally brings a rare mix of inventiveness and readability to her second novel, a story about two troubled siblings and how they communicate

-- Niamh Donnelly

Review for Previous Books

Lally pulls it off by being inventive, funny and, ultimately, rather moving.

-- Claire Kilroy

It will stay with me. I would place it alongside books like Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain and Still by Julia Kelly for its honesty and prose. If you like wonderful words, deeply affecting stories and the odd laugh, this book is for you.

-- Katriona O'Sullivan * A Beautiful Memoir That Changed Me *

Her book highlights the level of tenacity required for writers - and by extension all artists - to make authentic work despite the pressures of life, work and family. But it also made me much more cognisant of the privileges I have in my own life around how I spend my time, and the caring responsibilities I have.

-- Aoife Barry * The Basic Income for the Arts scheme has its limits *
Home Economics succeeds beautifully as a study of creativity and survival, examining what ‘success’ and ‘failure’ really mean in a writer’s life – that constant negotiation between the practical and the imaginative. For a creative life, the lesson seems to be that our own personal home economics rarely add up. -- Hilary Fennell * ‘35 hours of cleaning work paid more than three years of writing’ – Catríona Lally on double jobbing in Home Economics *

As you can probably tell, I liked this book. As a memoir writer myself, there are things in Lally’s style I will take with me – her clarity, her restraint, her ability to find meaning in the ordinary, her honesty about what she does well and what she doesn’t. And her love for her children, even while acknowledging what motherhood costs her, is powerful.

-- Katriona O’Sullivan * A Beautiful Memoir That Changed