Review of Books
Tom Deignan reviews a selection of recently published books of Irish
and Irish-American interest.
 Mystery
Declan Hughes offers another look at modern Dublin’s dark side
in his latest suspense novel The Price of Blood. Private eye Ed Loy is
down on his luck and broke, so he has no choice but to take what seems
to be an unsolvable missing persons case. All he’s got to go on
is “Father Vincent Tyrell,” a priest who’s been reported
missing by his brother F.X., a prominent racehorse trainer. A bit of luck
not only puts Loy on Father Vincent’s trail, but also might very
well implicate other members of the Tyrell family. As with Hughes’
first Ed Loy book The Wrong Kind of Blood, The Price of Blood is a fine
page-turner, which provides a revealing look at the underside of Celtic
Tiger Ireland.
($24.95 / 320 pages / William Morrow)
 It is easily one of
the most curious developments in the Irish literary scene that John Banville
– arguably the most interesting contemporary novelist with a literary/intellectual
flavor – has donned the pseudonym Benjamin Black and churned out
three suspense novels. Following Christine Falls and The Lemur, Banville/
Black now offers up The Silver Swan. If Declan Hughes suggests that Dublin
has a dark side today, Benjamin Black suggests the very same was true
50 years ago. Black’s protagonist Garret Quirke, a pathologist,
is asked by an old friend not to perform an autopsy on the body of his
wife, Deirdre, the victim of an apparent suicide. Of course, this would
not be much of a mystery if Quirke actually listened to his old pal, so
Black goes back in time, bringing Deirdre to life, and revealing an underground
system of blackmail and deception so vast it threatens Quirke’s
own family.
For better or worse, there is not much of Banville the intellectual novelist
in the Benjamin Black books. But they offer memorable characters, as well
as (in the case of The Silver Swan) a fascinating exploration of Ireland
in the 1950s.
($25 / 304 pages / Henry Holt)
Fiction
 David Park’s
novel The Truth Commissioner could have been a bland Orwellian satire,
in which matters of justice and retribution are taken out of the hands
of soldiers and victims and become the work of robotic bureaucrats.
Instead, Park has taken a fascinating premise – the creation of
a truth commission to bring closure to the people of Northern Ireland
– and has chosen to focus less on the closure and more on the people.
This is the right choice, as he proves in The Truth Commissioner, an engrossing
read which tells us more about the personal, rather than political, cost
of The Troubles.
At the center of Park’s novel is a teenaged Catholic boy who disappeared
from the North over a decade ago. This development links two ex-IRA men
and the Englishman (with some Irish roots) who is presiding over the North’s
Truth Commission. Of particular interest is the former IRA soldier who
is drawn back into the Troubles after he has relocated to Florida, where
all he wants to do is marry his pregnant girlfriend. Park pulls off a
very difficult achievement with this novel. He offers something fresh,
new and interesting about the Troubles.
($25.95 / 372 pages / Bloomsbury)
 The premise of Cláir
Ní Aonghusa’s new novel Civil and Strange is a little shaky.
Ellen, a married woman pushing 40, finally escapes from a loveless marriage
in Dublin and retreats to the picturesque village where she spent lovely
days in her youth. Go figure – Ellen just might find love again.
You might want to call this “How Ellen Got Her Groove Back.”
But overall Aonghusa makes this work, thanks in large part to the book’s
second most important character, Ellen’s Uncle Matt, who himself
knows a thing or two about unhappy marriage, but also dispenses undeniably
sage advice about life and love.
Aonghusa has written poems and short stories – Civil and Strange
is her first novel.
($24 / 320 pages / Houghton Mifflin)
Poetry
 Formerly the
editor of the Galway literary magazine The Burning Bush, Michael S. Begnal
is an accomplished poet, whose new collection Ancestor Worship has just
been published. Though American-born, Begnal mingles the Irish and English
languages in his work, which reflects on ancient history as well as pop
culture. Take, for example, this sample from the title poem, which recalls
Frank O’Hara: “It’s like when Lennon laid / his New
York album on you, / and appeared in pictures / in his new image–
/ Revolutionary, / sudden Irishman, / Manhattanite.” Begnal’s
poems are filled with similar humor and the joys and anxieties of living
in the shadow of those who came before us.
(12.00 euros, 80 pages www.salmonpoetry.com)
Non-Fiction
 Wartime heroism is
often a deserved celebration of those who have displayed bravery in the
face of danger. There is another kid of war hero however who is usually
a symbol more or less created by the public and the media so that the
trauma of war becomes slightly more tolerable. This is not a new phenomenon,
as an excellent new history book notes. Drummer Boy Willie McGee, Civil
War Hero and Fraud, by Thomas Fox, tells the story of the boy who gives
this book its title, and is credited, at the tender ago of 15, with capturing
several hundred rebel prisoners during a key battle in Tennessee.
At just 15, Willie McGee, an Irish kid from Newark, New Jersey, became
a public sensation. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, then joined the
army three years later, only to, more or less, disappear from history.
Fox fills in the blanks, which include an intricate web of lies, murder,
bigamy and a New York bartender who may or not be the famous drummer boy.
This is an Irish-American story that has gone unexplored for far too long.
($35 / 267 pages / McFarland)
 Acclaimed historian
R.F. Foster’s latest book, Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of
Change from 1970, is now available in the U.S.
Considered one of the foremost interpreters of Ireland’s recent
past, Foster has also written a celebrated biography of W.B. Yeats. In
this latest book, Foster attempts to explain how the foundation for the
Celtic Tiger Ireland of the 1990s was laid. He argues that politics, economics,
religion and, yes, a dash of luck turned one of the most sluggish economies
in Europe into one of the most miraculous.
As we all try to make sense of the massive changes which have taken place
in Ireland over the past two decades – from the fall of the church
and the end of the Troubles, to the new immigration and the downside of
all of that available money – R.F. Foster is probably the place
to start.
($29.95 / 228 pages / Oxford University Press)
 For a less weighty,
more colorful look at Irish life, pick up Ireland Memories by Patricia
Tunison Preston (with art work by Nora Keane). In this sort of catch-all
gift book, watercolors of famous Irish scenes stand alongside recipes,
travel recommendations, poetic descriptions and more.
($14.99 / 90 pages / Destinations Press)
Memoir
 When Bill Watkins’
first memoir A Celtic Childhood was released almost a decade ago, the
world was awash in Frank McCourt-mania, so Watkins’ book might have
slipped under the radar, dismissed as “just another Irish memoir.”
But Watkins’ book, about growing up in England and Ireland with
a Welsh father and Irish mother, was infused with humor and poignancy.
He has now written another memoir, entitled The Once and Future Celt,
which recounts time Bill spent in his early 20s with Romany Gypsies (including
his efforts to woo a forbidden girl), as well as his efforts to find employment
in Birmingham, England, and his father’s decision to offer up some
juicy family secrets. Watkins is among the best of many people these days
who are exploring the nature of Celtic – as opposed to strictly
Irish – identity.
($16.95 / 344 pages / Scarletta Press)
 Biography
Rose Murphy has found an Irish life story not yet told sufficiently in
her new book Ella Young: Irish Mystic and Rebel. Young rubbed elbows with
Yeats and Maud Gonne, while also participating in the Civil War, which
ravaged Ireland in the 1920s. Later in life, she emigrated to California
and dazzled crowds with her recollections, while also falling in with
a group of pre-hippy, pre-Beat West Coast free thinkers.
( $26.95 / 165 pages / Dufour)
 For decades now, Andrew
Greeley has entertained, provoked and even angered many Catholic readers
with his murder mystery novels (featuring Nuala Anne McGrail and Bishop
Jackie Ryan) as well as his often controversial writings on race, gender,
class and the Catholic Church.
Greeley’s latest book (just out in paperback), Jesus: A Meditation
on His Stories and His Relationships with Women, is sure to please some
readers more than others. Though not nearly as controversial as some of
his writings on, say, sex abuse in the church or matters related to church
doctrine, Greeley is nevertheless reinterpreting the Jesus we read about
in the Bible.
For some people, Greeley is playing with sacred dynamite. Don’t
forget, not too long ago, the Martin Scorsese movie Last Temptation of
Christ revisited Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene. Anger
and protests followed. Many may disagree with Greeley, but few have ever
doubted his sincerity or reverence for Jesus. That certainly comes through
in this book, which focuses on Jesus’ relationship with various
biblical women, while reminding readers that the church is often criticized
for its male dominance.
Interestingly (from an Irish standpoint), Greeley places great emphasis
on Jesus and the power of storytelling. Meanwhile, Greeley will never
be accused of dabbling merely in biblical research from 2,000 years ago.
He uses Jesus and the Bible as a lens through which to discuss controversial
religious films such as The Da Vinci Code and The Passion of the Christ,
as well as current events such as the Iraq War, and violence in Dufar.
All in all, Greeley does yet another fine job of showing us the relevance
of Jesus, not because He is some static figure offering one single truth,
but because His stories and messages can be read by so many diverse people
in so many illuminating ways.
($10.95 / 176 pages / Tor-Forge) |
