The Diamonds at the Bottom of the Sea and Other Stories

by Desmond Hogan

At the heart of this collection of short stories is Ireland, a strange, myth-ridden land, with a gallery of characters called mad by society for their reckless disregard of convention and for their intense imaginations

181 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1980

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

'These stories are essays in mood, portraits of people society think mad, but who are in fact driven by an intense imagination and an unheeded recklessness of tribal conventions and taboos. A multitude of characters and all ages take on flesh and it's complex burdens and are placed in precisely those situations that best reveal the truth of their selves. The settings range from Italy to America, although at the heart of it all is Ireland, that strange, myth-ridden land that 'devours her own'. From the flyleaf of my hardback 1980 edition from George Braziller in New York.

Please note that the stories in this volume were published in the UK in 1979 under the title 'The Mourning Thief and and Other Stories'.

As a description of this marvellous collection I couldn't do better. What I can't resist commenting on is Desmond Hogan, an author who between the late 1970s and the 1990s was regarded, along with Salman Rushdie and Kazuo Ishiguro as one of the finest non English writers of the the English language. Yet by the first decade of the new millennium despite over a dozen highly praised novels and collections of stories he had disappeared to the extent that he had no agent and even his publisher had no idea of how to contact him. I can't think of another writer who wrote so much, so beautifully and was so universally recognised and applauded who slipped from view so quickly or thoroughly.

This situation is starting to change - thank goodness. In the meantime you can acquire Hogan's books, even in hardback at ridiculously low prices - I advise buying them while you can because if there's any justice for literary genius of staggering proportion then these books will be collectors item.

Hogan is one of the finest writers of English and one of Ireland's great writers. Discover him. Enjoy him - he is wonderful.

[Vivian Valvano · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7 stars. I've become an admirer of some of Hogan's fiction. I haven't read close to his oeuvre. The stories in this 1979 volume show originality, grace with language, awareness of marginalized persons, and recognition of mood. Not all the stories succeed, to my mind, but that's not uncommon in a collection. Those involving traveling people in Ireland, "tinkers," are excellent - moving, informative, occasionally humorous. Those about exiled characters are excellent; "Jimmy" is the standout, blending treatment of search for identity, reactions to perceptions about a person's sexuality, family complexities, small town paralysis, exile, and a thwarted life. Heartbreaking. First love plays a part in several stories, as does misunderstood love. Least effective are approaches to an otherworld and delineations of characters who are too far-fetched to accept easily.