Irish-American Books

Wonderful, evocative account of old Peking before the mass destruction by the current regime. This book reads like the wonderful Blue Guides of Europe (before Blue Guide recently changed the format and gutted so much of the information). The extent of description is amazing - the Lama Temple's rituals, for example, involving canabalism in pantomine: the monks worked themselves into a frenzy and then tore to shreds a man-like figure made of dough and filled with red liquid jam - mess everywhere!. The authors also recommended that tourists of the day go armed in the temple because of the determined attentions (ahem!) of the monks.

I used this book as a guide in the 90's while living in Hong Kong and visiting Peking - it still had great value despite all the losses (the coverage of the Forbidden City is incredible) I found many interesting out-of-the-way spots I would have missed if I'd relied on my strangely (sadly) poor Blue Guide China. In Search of Peking is one of those books (like Austin Coates' Myself a Mandarin for Hong Kong) that will really make you glad you lived (or visited) in China, despite all the modern concrete.

The New York Herald commenced publication in May 1835 and ran almost continuously for the next 90 years. As a newspaper at the heart of the most vibrant metropolitan area in the U.S., its news features were of wide-ranging interest. Its announcements of marriages and deaths were equally so, for news about vital events in people's lives was a highly valued commodity in the age before advanced communications.

Since 1986, genealogist and Irish immigration expert James P. Maher has been transcribing for publication the tens of thousands of marriage and death notices cited in the New York Herald. Most of the notices refer to persons who married or died in New York; however, researchers will find numerous references to marriages and deaths from other states, as well as a significant number of references to national and international personalities. Each of the four volumes is divided into two sections--one for marriages and one for deaths--furnishing the names of brides and grooms (or the late deceased) and the date of issue of the newspaper.

This fourth and final volume in Mr. Maher's series brings the total number of notices abstracted to 52,850 marriages and 232,325 deaths. This volume also possesses a number of new or interesting features. Appended to the back of the data from the Herald are about a thousand death notices from the Fenian Irish newspaper, the Phoenix, for the period June 4, 1859, to August 10, 1861. In many cases, the death notices indicate, besides the decedent's name and date of death, his/her age and state of death, city and county of birth, and sometimes the names of his/her survivors. Among the Herald's death notices from states other than New York, 6,300 notices reference New Jersey, where many New Yorkers relocated during this period.

Peter Williamson was snatched from an Aberdeen, Scotland quayside in 1740 and transported to the burgeoning American colonies to be sold into slavery. This is a true-life adventure of abduction, war and courtroom drama and an inspiring tale of courage, fortitude and one man's determination to survive against seemingly unsurmountable odds.

A titillating line exists between innocence and experience, and Jean Nordhaus knows how to hover there--stepping first across the line, and then back--reclaiming what was lost, then venturing out again. INNOCENCE is remarkable for its exquisite and sensual descriptions of everyday occurrences. For instance, even a bruise when it departs is missed for "the riot of color" and tenderness in it.
And in one of my very favorite poems, "A Dandelion for My Mother," the poet says,
I'd pluck this trembling globe to show
how beautiful a thing can be
a breath will tear away.
---which is just how I felt when I came to the last page of INNOCENCE: that it was beautiful and I wanted somehow to hold onto it.

"Interpreting the Free Exercise of Religion" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy."

Into The Early Hours clearly documents Aislinn Hunter as a gifted master poet whose verse is unique, engaging, and memorable. Recollection: The slim-wristed dead are with you again,/in their ruffled blouses and long white skirts --/two young girls, feet slung out of the hammock/on Chatham street, sleeping and as still as fish/too long out of water, mouths open/under a bright canopy of sun. It's late summer/and every afternoon has been like this one//but for your hand on the banister of the back porch,/as incongruous as an airplane in an apple grove./That you can touch her shoulder and wake her,/along with her sister and the small brown terrier/curled up in the shade. That the oak tree's leaves/feather your neck as you stand beside them.//She wakes up slowly and enters the house/as it if still existed, and the two of them/climb kitchen chairs and pick through the pantry/for snacks. Spread jam on bread then dip their fingers/in the jar. How young they are now,/and how forgotten. Her memories at work in you,/smell of the countryside when you wake.

In "Intrigue: Espionage and Culture," Allen Hepburn explores the connotative range of recurrent narrative motifs in twentieth-century spy fiction. After developing a "theory of intrigue," he focuses his investigations on John Le Carré's "A Perfect Spy," Graham Greene's "Third Man," and John Banville's "The Untouchable," among other novels of espionage. Hepburn's analysis of Banville's Victor Maskell, whose character is based in part on art historian and Soviet spy Anthony Blunt, is particularly insightful. One would like to see Professor Hepburn extend his inquiry to the many representations of actual spies such as Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, et al. It would be interesting to see how many of his identified stereotypes recur in espionage accounts that purport to be factual. Such an analysis would serve to enlighten the historian who is trying to distinguish fact from fiction while exploring the so-called "wilderness of mirrors."

Although the book is scholarly, Hepburn's straightforward prose makes fascinating reading for anyone addicted to the topic of espionage.

This collection of essays, short stories, and excerpts is the next best thing to being on the Emerald Isle. As a non-Irish, non-Catholic American, who made her first journey abroad to that very isle, I formed a connection from the very start. The best of the best written about this magical place are contained in this book. The stories are enjoyable in themselves, but having seen a few of the locals made them even more so.

Ms. Powers chose famous Irish writers, such as Oscar Wilde and James Joyce, for the anthology, as well as writers from different backgrounds, such as Virginia Woolf and Paul Theroux to add to the mix.

I particularly enjoyed the section by Frank McCourt, an excerpt from his endearing memoir, Angela's Ashes. Powers also provided an excerpt from James Joyce's "Dubliners". Having studied Joyce, I was pleased to see that the story selected is lesser known. "A Little Cloud" is one of the best stories, yet is oftentimes overlooked.

The perspectives given were both from the insider's and outsider's. Reading about native Irish describing their home and then reading tourists describe the land makes for interesting comparisons. All the selections were thought provoking in themselves, and no two stories were alike, yet related so much to each other.

Reading selections such as Wallace Stevens' "The Irish Cliffs of Moher" was incredible. I've seen these cliffs firsthand, and the power of them is captured tremendously. I could envision myself there, and wished that I could travel with Stevens back to O'Brien's Tower! Whether Irish or not, having traveled there, or only dreamed of it, one will have an experience never to be forgotton when reading these selections. Excellent work, Ms. Powers!

Met E.A. once in the mountains of colorado in the early 1970s. could see even then that he had a first class mind and that he understood the historical processes taking place in the Third World as well as anyone. His understanding of the war in Vietnam, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the great historic tragedy that would become independent Algeria combined with profound knowledge of India and Pakistan were already evident. This book is a collection of his writings. They give a birds eye view of the historical processes taking place in the Third World in the last half of the 20th century. This book is a gold mine of profound insights - provides a fine compass for what is happening in the Third World by one of its most perceptive observers and participants. I've started to use it as a text in some classes I teach. Hopefully his life and work will become better known in the period a head and can help guide us - all of us - to a better future.

Rob Prince.

If you are of Irish descent (and are proud of it) and live in America, you should own and proudly dislay a copy of this book. It is a beautiful pictoral presentation of how the Irish immigrated, integrated, and adjusted to life in this country.

By a quirk of fate I can be found in the two page picture of the Murphy family reunion of 1988 on pages 188 and 189.

W.A. Murphy -- 10/07/00