Irish Lit & Times discussion
Favorite Irish Work
date
newest »


1. The Collected Short Stories of Frank O' Connor.
2. The Heat of the Sun : short stories by Sean O' Faolain.
3. Ireland : short stories by William Trevor.
Thesis - the short story form brings out the best in Irish writers.
In support of my thesis, there is Joyce's "Dubliners". On the other hand, I found Colm Toibin's recent collection "Mothers and Sons" to be generally below the (excellent) level of his other work. Then there is Flann O' Brien, clearly one of the best writers ever to come out of Ireland, who never wrote a short story, that I am aware of.
I don't know whether it's possible to link to books from within a comment, but I have written a little more about why I like each of the three books listed above in their respective reviews in "My books".



My Perfect Man reads Yeats' mythological poems to me before I go to sleep, and his love poems to me just whenever. :)
Short story: I have to agree Joyce´s "Dubliners" is pretty fantastic!
My knowledge of Irish novelists pretty limited. I so look forward to my "to-read" list growing!


Favorite satirist (is that even a word?): Jonathan Swift: "A Modest Proposal". It simultaneously makes me gag and laugh my head off.

Anna, you are right about gagging and laughing over "A Modest Proposal". And I share your love of Yeats. "The Cap and Bells"--nobody does it better.

It's a fascinating memoir.
Jonathan Swift is a perennial favorite, along with any other malcontent.
I also like Seamus Heaney.
The motherf***ing O'Brien classic _The Poor Mouth_.Takes the piss out of Irish stereotypes and takes the piss out of the Irish.

;-)

McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" is art at its best; his two sequels are astonishingly disappointing. I read Angela's Ashes to my father over and over again in the years before he died. It brings tears to my eyes even to look at it on my shelf.
Cahill's "How the Irish..." is really kind of light stuff, and not all that accurate, historically. My own book is somewhat sturdier and far more accurate, although the themes are merely related and not identical.
How about Behan? "Borstal Boy" is a classic, simulataneously heart-breaking and riotously funny.
Becket, I think, was the greatest writer to come out of Ireland in the twentieth century (excepting the poetry of Yeats).
And has ANYONE actually finished "Finnegans Wake?" I've started it over seventeen times in the last thirty years...
Heaney's "Beowulf" is incredible. I never knew Beowulf was Irish...

I have to disagree with Peter about the merits of "Angela's Ashes", but since I've voiced my objections to that book elsewhere on goodreads I won't trot them out again here.
Nuala o' Faolain's memoir, in contrast, rings true, as does that of Edna O' Brien. I am also reminded of a book by Rosemary Mahoney, "Whoredom in Kimmage", which was published in the early to mid 1990's, and was a readable and insightful account of a year that she spent in Ireland.
As Brendan said, Flann O' Brien's "The Poor Mouth" is hilarious, as is "The Third Policeman".
Contemporary Irish authors I like include Colm Toibin and Roddy Doyle. William Trevor is still going strong. I also recently came across a writer/poet called Ciaran Carson - based on his translation of "The Inferno", I am curious to read more of his work.
And I have to confess to a residual soft spot for Maeve Binchy, whose regular Irish Times columns were a mainstay while I was in college.
Finally, there is Oscar. Richard Ellmann's biography of Wilde is excellent, are as all of his writings on Joyce that I've read.
Peter: I no longer even try - Finnegans Wake is unreadable.

There is no a-ha moment of _Finnegan's Wake_. It's rumored that Joyce wrote a slightly more straight-forward work then substituted words that sounded alike to make the whole thing more opaque.
It's the bliss of a dream sequence, of epic power mixed in with gritty dirt and blood of everyday life.
It's monumentally unreadable and wonderfully readable. And when it ends, oh, the cycle, the circle. I cried.
It's the bliss of a dream sequence, of epic power mixed in with gritty dirt and blood of everyday life.
It's monumentally unreadable and wonderfully readable. And when it ends, oh, the cycle, the circle. I cried.
Yes, I definitely had a sense of closure, uneasiness, lines of dialogue and narrative and nonsense winding together only to be yanked apart as the book turns over.
I retract my anti-"aha" statement.
I retract my anti-"aha" statement.

Well, I guess I'll have to go back to it again...it's definitely on my "things to do before I die" list...
I would have NEVER read it without a graduate class of brilliant, creative, and Irish-loving students around me.

Oh yeah, and I am checking the Flann O'Brien books mentioned below by David out of the library.



I mean, that said, I'm still going to pick the other giant and say Yeats' poetry. I've read some collections of Irish short stories that were good overall, but no author really stood out for me singally.

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘cop out’ (as in, deep down, we all know Joyce is the king but we just felt like posting contrarian thoughts?) but it’s not right to disparage other people’s tastes and opinions.
You mentioned Joyce’s fame, and I can’t help but wonder if you were predisposed to already liking a book that probably had the word ‘classic’ somewhere on its cover. One of my favorite news stories of the last year is a guy who sent the text of some of Jane Austen’s works to publishers, re-titled and re-credited as his own manuscript.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Fan_submits_J...
Only one editor called him on the malarkey. The rest sent him the standard form of, “Sorry, this isn’t quite what we’re looking for…”
For my tastes, I'd like to consider myself right in the middle of the bestseller reading populists and the Greenwich Village lit snobs. (Sorry, but you seem like the latter.) If all one reads is Rowling and Patterson, then he probably needs to challenge himself a little more. But any time one person connects with another with just printed words on a page, it’s a great thing. Or at least better than watching television.
Jane Austen is outdated. What modern publisher wouldn't turn her down? Who writes like Austen anymore?
What a silly argument.
And don't knock TV. The best TV of the history of TV has come along in the past 10 years.
What a silly argument.
And don't knock TV. The best TV of the history of TV has come along in the past 10 years.

While I love every name up here, there are a few that are missing. What about Synge and O'Casey? Or Lady Gregory and the rest of the Abbey Theatre crowd? And what about Oscar Wilde (I would gladly read his checkbook if that was all that was available!)? and Becket? A complete and utter genius.
When last in Ireland, I was able to see a production of A Cry from Heaven by Vincent Woods. Completely captivating. If you get a chance to see it, do. But leave your children at home -- not "traditional family values"...


Joyce's Ulysses is my "desert island" book, I think. Either that or Dante's Divine Comedy, but that's a different country.




McGahern never won a Nobel for literature but if there had been a Nobel for "human transport" he would have won it on the strength of this work alone.

I'm really glad to hear that. I'm looking forward to reading the book.

"Ulysses" is a great book, although, of course, it does take a lot of work to wrap your head around the style. It explores so many complex ideas, though, that you can always find something interesting in it.


Books mentioned in this topic
Frankenstein (other topics)Claddagh Pool (other topics)
Opinions? :)