In 1999 the Modern Library joined the frenzy for Best of lists naming the top 100 English-language novels of the 20th century James T Farrell came in at number 29 with his Studs Lonigan trilogy Young Lonigan The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan and Judgment Day Amid the subsequent sound and fur
Tom Deignan
Tom Deignan, a columnist for the Irish Voice newspaper, writes regularly for America.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Storytelling at Its Irish Best
In the very useful Penguin Book of Irish Fiction 2000 editor Colm T ib n ultimately selected but one short story from the prolific Benedict Kiely an unenviable task to say the least T ib n chose Homes on the Mountain a modest-seeming tale about a 12-year-old boy and his extended family tw
Posted inBooks
Still a Mick
Ernest Hemingway rsquo s famous comment about taking up a collection and sending John O rsquo Hara off to Yale once for all may have been a cheap shot but it was one O rsquo Hara rsquo s boorish streak nearly begged for In his unorthodox yet enlightening new biography Geoffrey Wolff makes the case
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Boston Boy
The most startling fact about Edwin O’Connor’s life was its brevity The acclaimed author of such mid-century Irish and Catholic classics as ‘The Last Hurrah’ and ‘The Edge of Sadness’ seemed a fit and healthy man. Yet he died when he was just 49 in 1968.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Paradise Lost
During an interview several years ago Edna O’Brien told me a story about an appearance of hers in the 1960’s on an Irish television program during which the host said to the studio audience: “Hands up all of you who think Edna O’Brien has shamed her country.”
Posted inBooks
A World Away
Alice McDermott rsquo s fiction like William Kennedy rsquo s is to be praised if for no other reason than that it transcends the tradition of Irish-American fiction established by James T Farrell back in the 1930 rsquo s Since Studs Lonigan first swaggered onto the literary stage Irish-America
Posted inBooks
An Gorta Mr’: The Great Hunger
In recent years several states have passed laws mandating that the Irish Famine of the 1840 rsquo s be taught in public schools alongside African slavery and the Jewish Holocaust Equating this trinity of horrors Famine curriculum supporters say is not only appropriate but historically enlighten
Posted inBooks
Meanwhile, Back in Albany…
In a new book of essays entitled Reading William Kennedy Syracuse University Press Michael Patrick Gillespie writes that Kennedy rsquo s novels are infused with Catholic dogma however a broad more diverse ethical system than that articulated in The Baltimore Catechism informs his writing That
Posted inBooks
Bleak Houses
Frank McCourt rsquo s impoverished youth in Limerick recalled so vividly and brutally in Angela rsquo s Ashes actually could have been much worse according to the acclaimed author rsquo s cousin ldquo When we were in Killarney industrial school rdquo Pat Sheehan tells the writer and documen