Read Ireland Book Reviews, March 2002

Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodovar by Colm Toibin
In this book, the author looks at the life and work of some of the greatest and most influential artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in the main figures whose homosexuality remained hidden of oblique for much of their lives. Either by choice or necessity, being gay seemed to come second for many of these writers. Yet in their private lives, and also in the spirit of their work, the laws of desire changed everything for them and made all the difference. Ranging from figures such as Oscar Wilde, born in the 10s, to Pedro Almodovar, born nearly a hundred years later, this book studies how a changing world altered their lives in ways both subtle and serious. Colm Toibin interweaves close reading of their work with detailed analysis of the personality behind the work to illuminating effect.

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Republican Days: 75 Years of Fianna Fail edited by Mairtin Breathnach
This book covers the 75 year history of Ireland’s most popular political party. The reading of this history indicates the extent to which the party has been a force for political progress and social reform. It was Fianna Fail which for all intents and purposes removed the link with Britain and placed a Republican Constitution before the people. And on the social front, the party introduced a massive program of slum clearance and social housing. It also helped establish the public health service and the system of free secondary education. This publication clearly illuminates the history of Fianna Fail.

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Flotsam and Jetsam by Aidan Higgins
Aidan Higgins is one of the most highly respected Irish writers of the past fifty years, heir to such masters as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. The short prose and fiction collected in this volume spans Higgins’s entire career and provides readers with a compelling introduction to a major Irish and international literary figure.

Marble Gardens by Deirdre Purcell
Sophie and Riba have known each other since childhood. They’ve played, fought, shared traumas and bedded their lives in the substance of friendship. Though they couldn’t be more different - Sophie is elegant and diffident while Riba is flamboyantly extrovert - the bond between them seems unbreakable. Then Riba’s teenaged daughter Zelda falls gravely ill. Frustrated by the limitations of conventional medicine, Riba pins all her hopes on alternative methods. Sophie is torn between her loyalty to her friend and her fear that Zelda, whom she loves like a child she cannot have, will not get the help she desperately needs. United in their distress, Sophie and Riba’s husband Brian find themselves drawn to each other. Time is running out for Zelda, for two marriages, and for a friendship. In this powerful drama, the author explores the drama and dilemmas of friendship, family and marriage.

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The Blue Hour by Kate Thompson
Maddie Godard: chief copywriter, the Complete Works, advertising agency. Smart sussed scared. Because when your self-esteem’s been trampled and your world overturned, you have to act fast. Maddie escapes from busy Dublin to seemingly tranquil Saint-Geyruox, an idyll in rural France. There, she is led into temptation by beautiful, roguish Sam, cajoled into becoming a life model by renowned artist Daniel Lennox, and haunted by a portrait of a woman with a secret to share. Can this mysterious beauty help Maddie exorcise her demons? In this moving, bittersweet, joyously romantic tale, Maddie Godard confronts her inner-most fears, makes new friends, and learns that life really is worth living.

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Gone by Martin Roper
Disillusioned with his marriage to the controlling Ursula, haunted by the death of his sister, and unsettled by the vandal threatening the security of his home, a young Dubliner, Stephen, moves to New York hoping to make a clean break. He is quickly swept up in an affair with Holfy, a fiercely independent woman fifteen years his senior, but before long finds himself living a divided life, unable to sever this ties to Ursula, Dublin and the past. As Holfy begins to fray, Stephen’s sense of dislocation intensifies, leaving him for a home that no longer seems to exist. This is a novel crafted of raw emotion and sensuality, an unflinchingly honest, bitter portrait of a man faced with the great uncertainties of death, desire and truth. It is the debut of an astonishing new Irish talent. (I have reduced the price of this book from 30 Euro to 20 Euro for Read Ireland Book Review subscribers only because I truly feel that this is one of the finest debut novels I have read in a very long time and it deserves as wide a readership as possible.)

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As for Ireland by M. Mallace
This book provides concise and easy-to-read information on the most important facets of Ireland’s history, art, architecture, mythology, government, literature and spectacular gardens. Lush photos, detailed drawings, anecdotes and literary references are sprinkled throughout the book.

Oxford Companion to Irish History 2nd Edition edited by S.J. Connolly
With over 1,800 entries, this book, now in its second edition, continues to offer a comprehensive and authoritative guide to all aspects of the Irish past from earliest times to the present day. There is coverage not only of leading political figures, organizations, and events, but also of subjects such as dress, music, sport and diet. Traditional topics such as the rebellion on 1798 and the Irish Civil War sit alongside entries on newly developing areas such as women’s history and popular culture. The editor, with the help of the existing 87 contributors and a small number of new contributors, has updated and revised the text to take into account recent research and events since the first edition published in 1998. The coverage has been expanded to offer a fuller treatment of prehistoric and early historic Ireland and more comprehensive information on literary history. There are also new entries on individuals who have died since the first edition was published. In addition, the sections dealing with the politics in the Ireland and in Northern Ireland have been rewritten to take full account of developments up to the end of the 20th century. New and/or rewritten entries include: Visual Arts (art schools, ceramics, furniture, history, painting and sculpture); Politics / Religion (Brendan Corish, James Dillon, Sean MacDermott, Alfred O’Rahilly, peace process, Progressive Democrats, Michael Tierney, Workers’ Party, Sinn Fein, IRA); Literature (Dun Emer Press, Lady Augusta Gregory, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Lady Jane Wilde); Prehistoric and Early Ireland (Bronze Age Ireland, Celtic Ireland, crannog, La Tene in Ireland, Mesolithic Ireland, Neolithic Ireland, rath); Agriculture, Devon Commission, John Henry Newman, Ulster Scots. In addition to A-Z entries, the Companion includes a section of maps showing the shape of modern Ireland, post-reformation ecclesiastical divisions in Ireland, political divisions circa 800, Ireland circa 1350, Ireland in the late 15th century, and the pattern of transport and communication in Ireland. There is also a subject index, which groups headwords into thematic batches to provide an alternative way to access the entries.

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The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn
Imagine a drug that makes your brain function fantastically efficiently, tapping into your fundamental resources of intelligence and rive. Imagine a drug that lets you learn a foreign language in a day. Imagine a drug that makes you process information so fast you can see patterns in the stock market. Eddie Spinola is on such a drug. It is called MDT-48. It is a viagra for the brain, a designer drug that is redesigning his life. But while the drug is helping Eddie to make some money he’s only previously dreamed about, he is also beginning to suffer some ominous side effects. And when he tries to trace the other users, to find out how he can kick his addiction, he discovers a terrifying truth. Some of them are dying. And those that aren’t are already dead This is an astonishing debut novel of a young Irish writer with the magical imagination, great stylistic assurance and narrative energy of a natural storyteller.

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Days of Blue Loyalty: The Politics of Membership of the Fine Gael Party by Michael Gallagher and Michael March
This book is a unique study of the ordinary members of Fine Gael, based on an extensive survey of over 1,700 party members. This is the first such analysis of any Irish political party. After an examination of the historical record of the Fine Gael party, the book explores the questions of who the members are, what they do, why they do it, and whether the party gains any electoral benefit from having members. Is the Fine Gael party demoralized or is the organization at grass-roots level thriving? The book presents and explores the views of members on current issues and political personalities, and provides answers to questions such as: what do Fine Gael members identify as the crucial difference between their party and Fianna Fail; what do they think about Fine Gael’s prospects, and who is the most highly rated of those who have served as Taoiseach? The analysis is presented in a lucidly written text, using eye-catching graphics and straightforward tables, accompanied by a fascinating set of photographs. This book will appeal to anyone interested in Irish history and/or Irish politics.

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The White Road by John Connolly
In South Carolina, a young black man faces the death penalty for the rape and murder of Marianne Larousse, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the state. It’s a case that nobody wants to touch, a case with its roots in old evil, and old evil is private detective Charlie Parker’s speciality. But Parker is about to enter a living nightmare, a red dreamscape haunted by the murderous spectre of a hooded woman, by a black car waiting for a passenger that never comes, and by the complicity of both friends and enemies in the events surrounding Marianne Larousse’s death. This is not a simple investigation. It is a descent into the abyss, a confrontation with dark forces that threaten all that Parker holds dear: his lover, his unborn child, even his soul. For in a prison cell far to the north in Maine, the fanatical preacher Faulkner is about to take his revenge on Charlie Parker, its instruments the very men that Parker is hunting, and a strange, hunched creature that keeps its own secret buried by a riverbank: the undiscovered killer, Cyrus Nairn. Soon, all of these figures will face a final reckoning in southern swamps and northern forests, in distant locations linked by a single thread, a place where the paths of the living and the dead converge. A place known only as the White Road. This is the fourth book in Dubliner John Connolly’s series.

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An Accident Waiting to Happen by Vincent Banville
Private Detective John Blaine is back treading Dublin’s mean streets. With his marriage now on track, and little baby Emily to keep his attentions closer to home, it could be said that things are going better than ever for the private eye. That is until he gets a call from Bertie Boyer, owner of the Purple Pussy nightclub in Dublin’s Temple bar. He hires the P.I. to warn off some Romanian immigrants who are threatening to burn the place down. But the Romanians have a different tale to tell. Blaine smells a rat. But who is fooling whom? Time is running out fast, and before he knows it, Blaine finds himself right in the centre of the blaze. This novella is a gripping and funny tale of life on the wrong side of the tracks. (Autographed copies of this title only are available upon request.)

The Builders by Maeve Binchy
Nan Ryan lives by herself at Number 14 Chestnut Road. When it’s heard that the builders are coming to work on the deserted house next door, everyone has an opinion. Nan’s three grown-up children reckon she won’t get a moment of peace. Not to mention the mess they’ll create. Or the fat that she’ll end up becoming their tea lady. But when Derek Doyle’s shiny van arrives outside number 12, Nan is secretly excited. And when the handsome builder looks to Nan to help unravel the mystery of the previous residents’ vanishing, a special friendship begins to flourish. But as they soon discover, nothing is quite what it at first seems.

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Letter From Chicago by Cathy Kelly
Elsie and Maisie are sisters. They live on opposite side of the Atlantic. Regular letter writers, they like to boast about their respective families. But over time, the gulf between fact and fiction is getting bigger than the ocean that divides them. So when a letter arrives from Chicago saying that Maisie’s granddaughter is coming over to star with her Irish family, Elsie must face the truth at last. And with neither posh house nor pony to be found for miles, this working-class family has quite a mix-up on its hands.

Driving with Daisy by Tom Nestor
It is the 1940s in rural Ireland. Tom Nestor is a young boy. Every week, he is sent on an errand to the nearby town of Rath. Tom sets out on this journey as if it were an adventure into the Wild West, and he a cowboy. On his way, he meets a host of weird and wonderful characters, from Ned Wall, the farmer with half a face, to dear Miss Daisy, with her pony and elegant trap - a perfect lady. But times are changing fast, and the old ways are dying out. This memoir is a funny, moving and familiar story of a rural Ireland long since passed.

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Has Anyone Here Seen Larry? By Deirdre Purcell
Larry is an 87-year-old widow. She lives with her daughters Martha and Mary. Through old and frail, she remembers the time when she was golden-haired Larissa, as if it were yesterday, growing up in the Liberties of Dublin. Martha is the put-upon daughter. She runs the home like an army major, looking after her mother’s every need - and feeling utterly taken for granted. Her only escape comes with her regular outings to see her friend, Father Jimmy. At least he understands her! Mary, on the other hand, goes out to work, takes interesting holidays, and is mummy’s pet. Add to this that she never lifts a finger in the house, and something has to give. It soon does - one embarrassing evening when Father Jimmy comes to tea.

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