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Posts from the ‘Ireland’ Category

29
Mar

#Ireland: Poetry

 

  1. I have been struggling with poetry since December 2017
  2. I read:
  3. Poetry for Dummies (reference with basic glossary etc)
  4. Why Poetry?    (review)
  5. The Hatred of Poetry  – Ben Lerner (86 pg)
  6. And I have learned so much from watching simple
  7. ‘learn poetry videos’…on You Tube for young school children!
  8. So last night I tried to gather my strength and apply what I learned to
  9. …a poem by the Irishman Dermot Healy.
  10. It is the forward for his book
  11. …Dermot Healy Collected Short Stories (2015)

 

  1. I looked at the stanza’s tired to discover rhythm in the line breaks.
  2. There are no line breaks….the poem is one long sentence.
  3. There was no rhyme… not even eye rhyme that would help me.
  4. The first line “Feeling for the right word“
  5. reminded met of  “Feeling into Words”, an essay in Preoccupations
  6. ..by Seamus Heaney.
  7. Heaney was Dermot Healy’s mentor.

 

  1. I found a few images that seemed to
  2. …lead me to the theme of of the poem.
  3. But it was getting late…I turned out the lights.
  4. I shut the book
  5. So what was the main idea in the poem?
  6. Well, the saying ‘sleep on it’ does really work.
  7. I discovered that Healy was
  8. …describing his writing process
  9. as a physical experience!

 

  1. Images of a
  2. lost limb,  fingers,  being breathless,  young flesh
  3. …blood through the veins,  exercise (writing) as healing.
  4. It was fascinating to finally  find something in the poem
  5. …that just  hours ago
  6. were  only words, sounds and shapes.
  7. This may seem trifle…something of small importance
  8. …but it is a giant leap for me towards
  9. appreciating poetry!
  10. #ReadAPoem

 

The Lost Limb

  • Feeling for the right word
  • Leave me breathless for the many
  • As if through a lost limb sewn on    (image)
  • Feeling gradually grew

 

  • Through cold young flesh
  • Lit some fingers with old identity
  • And excitement, while others
  • Craved possession

 

  • Of life withheld,
  • Hung awkwardly till breathing as one
  • The first words came like blood   (image)
  • Down distressed veins

 

  • And, with a healing yaw,
  • New writing began like an exercise  (image)
  • Over and back across the empty yard
  • Turn, start all over.

 

 

26
Mar

#Ireland Sally Rooney

 

Wrap-up  #ReadingIrelandMonth19

  1. I have had a busy month reading Irish authors.
  2. There is so much talent on the Emerald Isle.
  3. I want to thank Cathy for hosting.
  4. I will be back next year!
  5. @746books.com

Books read:    List #ReadingIrelandMonth2019

 

Shortlisted books Kerry Group Best Irish Novel of the Year:    read 4/5

  1. Timeline: 4 years
  2. Structure: no chapter titles to indicate what we can  expect
  3. Rooney uses a chronological timeline:
  4. Begin January 2011 – End February 2015
  5. Genre: romantic tragicomedy
  6. Setting: Carricklea, Ireland and Trinity College Dublin

 

Quickscan:

  1. Sally Rooney draws on elements of the social world
  2. that she  inhabited growing up in Castlebar, Ireland
  3. …and then in college.
  4. She studied English at Trinity Dublin, and
  5. …the book is very much about her
  6. …observing that  social milieu.
  7. Two star-crossed lovers:  Connell and Marianne.
  8. “…like two little plants sharing the same plot of soil
  9. growing around one another, contorting to make room.”

 

  1. Connell: popular, quiet, studious, sport jock, good-looking,
  2. cared what people thought of him
  3. …considered quite a catch.
  4. Marianne: unpopular, feels lonely and unworthy,
  5. secretive, independent-minded – the ugliest girl in school
  6. Connell feels “…being alone with Marianne is like opening a door away from normal life…”
  7. Marianne feels “…he bought her goodness like a gift…”

 

  1. How does Connell change?
  2. March 2011:
  3. Connell pretends not to know Marianne in high-school.
  4. He wants to live in two worlds…good-looking, popular
  5. …but still dating the ugliest girl in school. No one must know.
  6. January 2015:
  7. Unlike him to behave  so openly in public
  8. by embracing Marianne and saying: ”I love you”
  9. …on New Year’s Eve.

 

  1. How does Marianne change?
  2. March 2011:
  3. Marianne feels like an observer…be it an awkward one.
  4. January 2015:
  5. Marianne feels dependent upon another human being
  6. …for the first time in her life.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I have seen 1 star reviews….and 5 star reviews about this book.
  2. For a long time I pushed Normal People to the bottom of my TBR.
  3. The book has been nominated for many prizes and
  4. has been reviewed on blogs, magazines and in  the newspapers.
  5. When a book gets so much exposure….I recoil.
  6. Now I have to read it for Kerry Group Irish Novel shortlist.

 

  1. I read pages of teen-age sexual relationships, parties, boozing
  2. …dysfunctional family including Denise… Marianne’s  mother
  3. …and a jealous and violent  brother Alan.
  4. One of the highlights in the narrative was a minor character
  5. who played a major role:  Lorraine, Connell’s mother.
  6. Life for a millennial is not easy
  7. ….and Sally Rooney has articulated the
  8. …stress and strains of growing up and falling in love.

 

  1. Was I impressed?  No.
  2. Lorraine is the only character that saved this book.
  3. The narrative has an emotional impact
  4. that resonates with many readers.
  5. It is a very easy read and lacks depth.
  6. By that I mean…symbolism, metaphor, images.
  7. This book may be interesting for other millennials
  8. …but I found the plot uninteresting
  9. …on/off romance between two college students.
  10. It was a very average book about
  11. #NormalPeople.
25
Mar

#Ireland Emer Martin

Shortlisted books:  read 3/5

Quickscan:

  1. Magdalene laundry survivors are honoured.
  2. Atlantic, children are wrenched from their parents and put in cages.
  3. Both the laundries and the systematic practice of harvesting children
  4. to feed labour requirements of industrial schools
  5. …carried out by the “Cruelty Men” of the title.

 

Conclusion:


Strong point:

  1. Honest, raw, brave look at dysfunctional Irish society 1930s-1960s.
  2. Writer is talented and knowledgeable about the effects
  3. of religious and industrial institutions on the lower class.
  4. She also blends Irish myth, folklore, and landscape
  5. …into a witches (Irish hag) brew.

 

Weak point:

  1. I think Emer Martin wants to squeeze
  2. so much shock and awe
  3. into the narrative to  that the
  4. pain of reading the book overwhelmed
  5. the pleasure of reading it…in my case.
  6. I had to put the book down in disbelief.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Some may like this book….some may not.
  2. Martin explores difficult topics with a touch of Irish surrealism.
  3. The beginning of the book was meant to ‘hook’ me
  4. …and nudge me further  into the novel.
  5. The first chapter just baffled me.
  6. You’ve been warned.
  7. It took my unshakeable resolution to finish
  8. reading this shortlist (foto)
  9. …that prevented me from closing the book after 100 pages.
  10. Will it win Kerry Group Best Irish Novel of the year?
  11. I think that there are better books on the shortlist.
  12. I hope you take the time between now and 29 May 2019
  13. …to read the shortlist and choose your winner!
  14. Dark side…of Irish history.

 

 

24
Mar

#Ireland John Boyne

Shortlisted books:  read 3/5

Quickscan:

  1. The story of one man’s cut-throat path to literary stardom
  2. starts impressively but then the author loses his way.
  3. BEST QUOTE:
  4. “When the gods wish to punish us
  5. …..they answer our prayers.” (pg 124)

 

Part One: Before the Wall Came Down:

  1. Maurice’s journey through 8 cities
  2. …with mentor Erich Ackermann (66 yr)

 

Interlude: The Swallow’s Nest

  1. Maurice’s vist with Gore Vidal.
  2. The title of this chapter refers to Gore Vidal’s villa in Ravello ‘La Rondinaia’
  3. The Swallow’s Nest’ was built in 1925 on the Amalfi coast
  4. Vidal bought the villa 1972.

Part Two: The Tribesman (best-seller)

  1. Maurice’s marriage to Edith and the 8 months
  2. leading up to the publication on his best-seller.

 

Interlude: The Threatened Animal

  1. 10 years later
  2. …1 child (Daniel), 2 new books published
  3. Maurice is founder and editor-in-chief
  4. …of a  NYC literary magazine.
  5. Backstory: Maurice’s childhood
  6. The story kicks into high gear!
  7. This chapter is the turning point!
  8. Maurice has married Edith
  9. ….but she is about to tell him the ugly truth!
  10. Can Maurice find redemption
  11. …or does he continue with his relentless pursuit of fame?

 

Part Three: Other People’s Stories

  1. Maurice’s meetings in 6 pubs
  2. with the thesis student,Theo Field
  3. …and Daniel’s ghost. (his son)
  4. Part 3: “Other People’s Stories” was a tour de force!.
  5. John Boyne uses  a clever maneuver (technique)
  6. in handling a difficult situation
  7. while giving the novel a satisfying ending
  8. ….a sense of justice.
  9. Extraordinary!
  10. Title: A Ladder in the Sky is a metaphor for the
  11. Main theme:  ambition
  12. “…it’s like setting a ladder to the sky
  13. …pointless waste of energy.” (pg 304)

 

Strong point:

  1. Character:
  2. Boyne developed a complex, ambitious writer…Maurice Swift.
  3. Boyne creates a push and pull in the story.
  4. Maurice bounces off characters
  5. …who are generous and loving.
  6. This is the tension that starts the problems
  7. …drives the plot with twists and turns
  8. …and makes this book a page-turner!
  9. The ultimate resolution…a feeling of closure.

 

Conclusion:

  1. This book WILL WIN the prize
  2. ….Kerry Group Irish Novel of 2019!
  3. I am a difficult reader to please when it
  4. comes to contemporary fiction.
  5. But I did NOT SKIM one word of the story.
  6. The reader will be mesmerized by
  7. …devastating effects of ambition.
  8. This book is absolutely brilliant!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. John Boyne is the discovery of my #ReadingIrelandMonth19.
  2. He wrote  the best-seller Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in 2006
  3. …but I was more impressed by the story
  4. instead of investigating the author.
  5. Boyne has continued to write 5 star books!
  6. The Ladder to the Sky was excellent
  7. …my best 2019 read so far.
  8. Pay close attention to what you’re reading
  9. …and even closer attention
  10. …to what you may be missing.
  11. #SupriseEnding
22
Mar

#Ireland David Park

Shortlisted books:  read 1/5

 

Quickscan:

  1. Tom, the narrator, is travelling from Belfast to Sunderland in
  2. heavy snow to collect his son from
  3. Sunderland university for the Christmas holidays.
  4. It proves to be a very emotional journey.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Weak point: David Park is trying too hard…..
  2. Park’s writing is interesting, but a bit belabored.
  3. There are more words and images
  4. ….there than you really need to make the point.
  5. Example: “Ice-up car the words have nowhere
  6. to go and so they hang until frozen in silence”.
  7. Weak point:  the backstories felt like a chunk of events
  8. the author is simply trying to get out the way.
  9. Flashback scenes, dream sequences or piece of dialogue
  10. were dishwater gray…..recap information
  11. purely for the reader’s benefit…did not add tension to the story.
  12. The gimmick of a child asking father silly riddles got on my nerves.
  13. The use of a another gimmick…a the car’s navigational voice
  14. (satnav) as a constant thread in the narrative
  15. …was annoying.
  16. I tried to stay focused but after 30% of the book my
  17. mind was drifting snow, blinded by Park’s white-out of
  18. never ending references to winter.
  19. Sometimes …less is more.
  20. In short…this book was not in sync with “my personal satnav.”
  21. It was all I could do to ‘hold on to the steering wheel’
  22. and at least finish the book.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This book is just not my cup to tea.
  2. But this does not diminish the book’s merit
  3. …in any way.
  4. I don’t think this will win the
  5. 2019 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the year
  6. …perhaps I’ll be proven wrong.
  7. #Read the book and….form your own opinion!
22
Mar

#Ireland: Short story by Catherine Finn

  • Author: Catherine Finn
  • Title: Home  (short story)
  • Published: 2017 The Dublin Review Nr 69
  • Theme: identity; mental confusion
  • Setting: Registry office; suburban road with bungalows
  • Timeline: 1 day
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly plan
  • #ReadingIrelandMonth19
  • @746books.com

 

Who are the characters in the story?
Jake
Senior  and Junior Officals  registry office
Trio of neighbours at Jake’s supposed house

 

What are the personality traits of each character?

Officials:

Officials sigh and smile condescendingly
They do not respond, raise an eyebrow
and even snort a laugh.
They try to keep blank expressions
when they listen to Jake’s confused story.

Trio:

Man – shakes his head and snarls, forces Jake from the step
Young woman – peers at Jake while gripping the door edge
Old woman – warns Jake…I know your kind…I’m calling the authorities

 

Characterization:     Jake

Before speaking to official Jake
– slicks his hair
– rubs palms on the sides of his trousers
– swallows
– feigns confidence
– concentrates keeping his head high
– …indicates a nervous person

“I have been absent for years, and now just returned”
This sounds like a very odd situation.
Home address that Jake give the official
…..does not exist in info system.

 

Action: What does Jake do?
Jake leaves the registry and tries to find his home.
As Jake approaches the house he is:
Strangely reassured by scuffed boots worn In past years
Soothed by familiar shadows and shapes
Smiled as he reached for doorknob
Inserted his key…it did not fit.
These descriptions give the reader a hint that
…Jake is not mentally fit.
Shadows, shapes and scruffed boot soothe him.
This is not normal.

 

Theme:   What is the main idea of the story?
Identity – when you lose it, through trauma (war)
it’s hard to function in the world.
Jake’s first words are: “I have to report myself returned’.
No one seems to empathize with Jake.
Where is ‘the milk of human kindness’?.
Where is the care and compassion for others?

 

Tone:  Describe how you felt reading this story.
After the war a man attempts to claim his place in the world
I tried to imagine what it feels like to be so lost, confused
unsure and perplexed as Jake does.
Yet he is convinced he is right
….he has a home to go to.

 

Point of View:  third person narrator

 

Conflict:

External:
Jake vs officials at registry office…they won’t help him!
Jake vs trio of old neighbors….they don’t recognize him!

Internal:
Jake vs himself……is it true?
Is he the confused person
….and everyone realises this…but Jake?

 

Conclusion:

  1. I picked up The Dublin Review Nr 69 (Winter 2017)
  2. …while pausing for a cup of coffee.
  3. The title sounded simple “Home” and it was just
  4. 3,5 pages long.  #QuickReadingFix
  5. How surprised I was …as I was drawn into this
  6. simple yet very touching story.
  7. I have no idea who Catherine Finn is…..but
  8. ..chapeau au bas, bravo!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Why should a novel be better than a short story?
  2. Some writers believe short stories are harder to write than novels.
  3. Every word has to count in a short story,
  4. ….while the narrative is allowed to meander in a novel.
  5. We are all pressed for ‘reading time’ ….why not just
  6. relax and enjoy  the  craft of the short story?

 

 

20
Mar

#Ireland Anne Griffin

 

 

Quickscan:

  1. This book will appeal to many lovers of a well-written
  2. sentimental story about a 84 yr old Irishman
  3. sitting in a hotel bar…toasting ‘for the last time’
  4. the 5 most important people in his life.

Motif: Five monologues are linked by the presence of a stolen coin.


Strong point:

  1. The first 2 toasts (Tony, brother and Molly, sister still-born)
  2. were the best.
  3. Was that a tear I pinked away
  4. ..or a speck of dust in my eye?
  5. Whatever it was…I felt very moved by these chapters.


Weak point:

  1. Unfortunately after 50 % of the book….I lost interest.
  2. his story really had no direction, no progression at all
  3. …especially since the reader already knows
  4. …the ending from the get-go.
  5. The last toasts felt like ‘filler’
  6. …for instance the long toast about
  7. …the  first day Maurice met his wife.
  8. As Montaigne once said:
  9. “Those who have A thin body fill it out with padding.
  10. Those who have slim substance….swell it out with words.”

 

Weak point:

  1. I will be curious if this new book will make it on to
  2. longlists for Irish book awards. It wouldn’t surprise if it did.
  3. I just am not a fan on sugar-spin sweet stories.
  4. I like a bit  more  ‘bite’.


Last thoughts:

  1. We don’t become our wisest selves without effort.
  2. It requires us to become skilled…
  3. in managing our emotions,
  4. in forming intimate relationships.
  5. and at times..in letting go.
  6. After learning these life lessons
  7. …Maurice is ready to share them with the reader.
  8. This is a powerful debut novel.
  9. It is good….but not great.
  10. Perfect reading for the beach or in waiting-rooms.
18
Mar

#Ireland John McGahern

 

Author:

  1. The Observer hailed John McGahern  as
  2. “the greatest living Irish novelist” before his death in 2006.
  3. The Guardian described him as
  4. “arguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett”.
  5. I never heard of John McGahern! (1934-2006)
  6. McGahern had a very challenging life, moving schools repeatedly
  7. – often for no good reason
  8. – losing his mother to cancer when he was 10 yrs old (1944)
  9. — growing up with an absentee father
  10. — enduring physical, emotional, psychological abuse
  11. at the hands of his policeman father.

Conclusion:

  1. Memoir is an autobiographical account of
  2. the childhood of Irish writer John McGahern.
  3. It recalls his formative years in Leitrim, Ireland
  4. …,the death of his beloved mother Susan and
  5. …his relationship with his dark and enigmatic father.

 

  1. McGahern’s father visited the family
  2. from the  Garda barracks only once a month.
  3. All 7 children were afraid of him.
  4. His father was very mercurial.
  5. He would go from ignoring a child…to beating him.
  6. McGahern while writing this book kept farther from himself
  7. …and closer to what happened.
  8. This was at times difficult to read
  9. …how a parent could be so cruel.

 

  1. The turning point in McGahern’s life was the death of his mother.
  2. “She was gone to where I could not follow.“
  3. Early childhood (3-15 yr)  is described for the first 60% of the book.
  4. Once McGahern reaches the age of 19….and could stand up
  5. to his father physically…the book  took on a combustive tone.
  6. The father’s  domination of the family was now being challenged.
  7. Best quote: page  273
  8. Father speaking to McGahern: “What is your aim?”
  9. McGahern: “To write well, to write truly and well about
  10. …fellows like yourself.”

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This book has a rhythm that connects the images in the prose.
  2. It is well written with intelligence and feeling.
  3. There are sections of the book filled with emotional intensity.
  4. The writer takes you into his private world.
  5. The Irish rural country lanes
  6. …gave McGahern a sense of peace
  7. So the memoir begins with a 3 year old boy
  8. …walking with his beloved mother.
  9. So the memoir ends the man reflecting
  10. on those rare moments of childhood security.
  11. “…I know she has been with me all my life.”
  12. I was surprised how much I liked this book!
  13. John McGahern is an Irish novelist that deserves
  14. …to be on more reading lists.
  15. #VeryTouching

 

17
Mar

#Ireland Happy St Patrick’s Day!

 

  • Today …everybody is Irish!
  • So get out your green sweater
  • make your coffee and whipped cream
  • and  add “a little bit of heaven”
  • ..Irish Whiskey!
  • It warms the cockles of one’s heart!
  • Erin Go Bragh!

 

 

LISTEN  to my favorite Irish Song…..

“A Little Bit of Heaven”

It gives me a skin shiver….goosebumps!

 

 

 

14
Mar

#Poetry Seamus Heaney

 

Field Work (1979)

  1. Field Work is the fifth poetry collection. 
  2. It is a record of Heaney’s four years (1972-1976)
  3. living in rural County Wicklow, Ireland
  4. after leaving the violence in Northern Ireland.
  5. Heaney lived in  Belfast  and was a professor at Queen’s University.
  6. The years  in Ireland were years of retreat
  7. …a quiet time for thinking and renewal.
  1. Field Work is less political.
  2. 50% elegies…a choice to remain on the everyday level.
  3. 50% domestic life…love poems for his wife  and friends.
  4. Style: sketch the living before death and
  5. …do justice to the moment of extinction
  6. Heaney calls it the ‘music of what happens’.
  7. The title Field Work implies  his investigation
  8. …into a culture not one’s own in County Wicklow Ireland.

 

My Notes:

  1. Oysters: 
  2. starts with images of  shared eating and friendship to anger over being  the colonized (Romans). Strange…I really did not ‘get’ this poem.
  3. A Drink of Water:
  4. sonnet that describes an elderly women who used to collect water from the well each morning, but now she has passed away.
  5. The Strand at Lough Beg:
  6. for Colum McCarthy (cousin shot in a sectarian ambush)
  7. A Postcard from North Antrium:
  8. friend S. Armstrong shot by “a pointblank teatime bulllet”

 

  1. Casualty:
  2. for  L. O’ Neill  – friend, went out for his usual nightly
  3. drink in a pub  bar and was blown up by a bomb set by his own people.
  4. Note: in Casualty – revenant meaning someone has come back from the dead to haunt them
  5. The Badgers:  badger is a Heaney animal alter-ego.
  6. The Singer’s House:
  7. is full of imagery…even if one does not know where Carrickfergus is. Heaney uses images to carry his poem to levels where straightforward propaganda could never reach. Much of what goes on in this poem can best be understood as a contrast between life in the North (industry, mining) and life in the South of Ireland,
  8. The Guttural Muse: refers to the noise of young people leaving a discotheque
  9. In Memoriam Sean O’ Riada: Irish composer traditional music
  10. Elegy:
  11. for Robert Lowell (poet) death-moment is represented by “…the wind off the Atlantic”.

 

  1. Glanmore Sonnets:
  2. Ten poems in the ‘marriage group’ .
  3. An Afterwards:
  4. the poet imagines himself in the ninth circle of hell,
  5. as his widow comes from the upper life to indict him and
  6. all poets saying…“I have closed my widowed ears…”
  7. High Summer: what an image! ….maggots in a paper bag as fish bait (jick)
  8. The Otter: image of his wife (otter) love poem…when they first met
  9. The Skunk: image of his wife (skunk ) love poem..describes married life
  10. The Harvest Bow: looks back to his father using a harvest bow
  11. In Memoriam Francis Ledwidge:
  12. Irish WW I poet/soldier; aka “poet of the blackbirds”
  13. Ugolino:
  14. version of the Ugolino episode in Cantos 32 and 33 of Dante’s “Inferno.”
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