Best European Fiction and the long shadow of Joyce

Judging from Aleksndar Hemon's selections in "Best European Fiction 2012" many European women fiction writers are working in the long shadow of Sylvia Plath (suicide, death, sadness - maybe we're all under that shadow?) and Irish writers work under the long shadow of Joyce. Obviously. But the surprise is that the Scottish writers in this anthology falls under that shadow as well - but maybe that's because he's of Irish ancestry (maybe even birth) and living in Scotland: anyway, can anyone read the McLoughlin story about a young boy (lad) who goes with his Dad to a football (soccer) game and not think about Portrait of the Artist? We have the same perspective strictly and artfully limited to the perceptions of the boy, as he is both spectator and participant in a Dad's day at a riotous football match: his first visit into a pub, a long bus ride to the match, the young boy's scary perspective on the tumultuous events of the match, the dim awareness of the cultural tensions (the boy and his Dad rooting for a Celtic team playing a Scottish team - and the sense of being an outsider and in an under class), the fear of separation and of injury, minor humiliations - and most of all the language, with the very particular Scottish-Irish idioms and phrasing, such as: He didn't understand, but. This story isn't on the Joycean level - what is? - in that there's no true epiphany - but a very well crafted story that brings us into the life and consciousness of another.