Only once, in Undertow, is the reader addressed by a daughter who is a member of a complete family unit for the duration of the tale. For the purposes of this discussion, I will utilize all of the stories but will, of course, concentrate more intensively on selections most representative of Cornell s elliptical and gnomonic motif. Consequently, we will see what is missing and what is left in greater Belfast as depicted by Jennifer C. Cornell. Cornell s stories are similarly, but not exactly, this kind of a relief and a surprise to me. Belfast emerges as an entity more essential than backdrop, but it never takes on the role of protagonist.
Departures is, first and foremost, about people.
From whence they come helps determine who they are. The New York Times Book Review carried the erroneous information that Cornell was raised in Belfast. See James Saynor, Happiness Forestalled. The paper issued a correction, noting that Cornell was raised in Boston and that the error was initiated by misinformation supplied by Cornell s publisher. Not being raised in Belfast has not precluded Cornell, who lived there for years, from achieving verisimilitude.