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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Boomer with Attitude / News Read something Irish
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Happy St. Patrick's Day. Read something.
That's right, before you get loaded on green beer, take time to pay tribute to Ireland's tradition of great writers, only a few of whom are that well known in the United States.
You know the legends: Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and James Joyce; and maybe Ireland's Nobel Prize winners, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. And you've no doubt heard of, or read, Angela's Ashes, the phenomenal autobiography by Frank McCourt. But how about Flann O'Brien? Or Patrick McCabe? Here's a quick guide to getting up to speed on more modern Irish writers, with a few recommendations. Happy O'Reading!
Flann O'Brien: Amazing satirist and pioneer of "metafiction," died in 1966. Recommended: At Swim-Two-Birds, one of the last books James Joyce read and highly recommended.
Brien Friel: Brilliant playwright whose 1990 work Dancing at Lughnasa was made into a film with Meryl Streep.
Roddy Doyle: Maybe the master, of modern, dialogue-driven lit. The author of the famed Barrytown Trilogy (The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van), his greatest work may be The Woman Who Walked Into Doors.
Brendan Behan: Gritty, hilarious writer whose riotously profane
Anne Enright: Winner of the 2007 Booker Prize for her extraordinary novel The Gathering.
John Banville: Dark, dense writing, but with a wicked sense of humor. Most renowned books are The Book of Evidence and The Sea, which won the 2005 Booker.
Patrick McCabe: Fantastic novelist who, like many Irish writers, produces works filled with violence and wild humor, known for The Butcher Boy and the highly recommendable Breakfast On Pluto.
There's also Jennifer Johnston, a writer revered in Europe but nearly unknown here. None of her books are currently in print in the U.S. but are available on used book websites. Particularly recommended are The Captains and the Kings, Fool's Errand, and The Old Jest, which was turned into a 1989 film with Anthony Hopkins.
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