It Isn't This time of Year at All: ! An Unpremeditated Autobiography

by Oliver St. John Gogarty

Book by Gogarty, Oliver St. John

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 1970

About the author

Irish poet, author, and politician.

Reviews

[Mesoscope · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting but disjointed and exceedingly uneven presentation of reminiscences by Oliver Gogarty, most often remembered as the inspiration for Joyce's Buck Mulligan in Ulysses, but an intriguing figure in his own right. A brilliant and accomplished doctor, poet, and senator, Gogarty knew everyone on the Dublin scene, from Lord Dunsany to Lady Gregory, and famously escaped being shot by British soldiers in the 1916 uprising by jumping into the Liffey and swimming to escape.

This book is organized as a collection of topical vignettes in which he reflects on his encounters with various personages. Of chief interest to me is his self-defense against his presentation in Ulysses, which he entirely misunderstands. His extremely critical appraisal of Joyce's personality does have the ring of truth to it, however, and he excuses what Joyce would pillory as superciliousness in his character as his attempt to get the withdrawn and sullen genius to lighten up and stop being so Jesuitical about everything.

This book contains something for anyone interested in the period and milieu, though its wide and uneven range of concerns and the precious quality its prose will probably prevent most readers from calling it a classic.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for something funny, and it was supposed to be. However, it is British, - wry and droll in places. The author drops lots of famous names around -- he is Irish but as things become political he is forced to go to London. He calls Einstein "Bertie" and becomes a character in the book Ulysses by Joyce. He endures threats on his life and even a kidnapping in the midst of the Irish Republican Army revolts. I believe he must have taken notes or had a diary because he shares specific recollections in his life from the time he was very young, and this is published very late in his life. Well written, of course.

When I looked up his name in an internet search, the top hit was a restaurant named after him in Ireland.