|
|
Life
1961- ; journalist with contribs. to Hot Press, The Guardian, and Sunday Independent (columnist); author of They Are of Ireland (1994) and Ireland on Three Million Pounds a Day (1995); also All the People All of the Time (2002), on alcohol and rock-bands; Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me (2003) is a satire of the world of boy bands and marketable talent; The Room (2005) is the narrative of an Irish rock star in recovery from alcoholism; wrote Massive Damages (1997), a play for Passion Machine Th. Co.; Breaking Out (2008) - a three-hander for Passion Machine - reprises the subject of The Room.
[ top ]
Works
|
Commentary
Sue Leonard, reviewing in Books Ireland (March 3004), calls Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me a ‘clever satire soaked in booze and drugs’ and ‘the nearest thing to “guy lit” in we’ve seen in a while’. (p.57.)
Róisín Ingle, review of The Room, in The Irish Times (31 Dec. 2005), Weekend: ‘[...] the appeal of this novel is in the blunt, bleakly humorous and searingly honest voice of Neil, who is as prose to self-flagellation as he is to self-deception when describing his day-to-day struggle, a struggle mirrored by thousands of others across the country. / For soccer fans, Roy Keane’s Saipan saga runs through the book [...]’
Ian Kilroy, review of Declan Lynch, All the People All of the Time, in The Irish Times (23 Nov. 2002), “Weekend”: calls it a first novel looking at ‘entertainments industry and rising fortunes of Victor Bartley, one-time showband man’. ‘When Victor’s second-rate TV presenter son is murdered, we are brought into the corrupt world of Ireland ’s premier rock god Richie Earls, his attending music biz vultures, and their retinue of rock chicks and hangers-on. / While Lynch does offer an at times genuinely blackly comic portrait of this low society, ultimately the motivations of the characters in the novel are unconvincing, as are their emotional lives and reactions to events.’
References
COPAC lists Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me (2003) as dealing with ‘Music trade - Ireland - Dublin, Fiction’ and ‘ Black humor (Literature)’; All of the People All of the Time (2002) as dealing with ‘alcohol, rock musicians, Dublin (Ireland), Fiction)’.
Notes
Massive Damages (1997) is an exploration of libel and the compensation culture. Two reformed alcoholics, a journalist and a showband singer, embark on a scam which should reap them considerable financial benefit. If the journalist successfully libels the singer then they can divide the loot that should hopefully come their way. Cast: 5 males; 4 females. (See Irishplayography details - online [.asp]; accessed 12.11.2012].)
[ top ]