Irish-American Books

When my mother found this for me at a yard sale we had no idea what a treasure it was. I'm so used to sing-songy sentimental poetry that passes as "Christian" that I had very low expectations for this book. I couldn't have been more wrong. The One Year Book of Poetry contains some of the finest poetry in the English Language. Nothing wishy-washy here! In fact, the quality of the poems here is so good that I sometimes wonder why this book is unknown. This is a book for serious poetry lovers. Some of the poems are a bit difficult to understand, but the opposite page of each daily reading has helpful explanations when needed. This book has stretched me mentally and spiritually. The Lenten and Christmas poems are the best way I know to prepare my heart for those two seasons.

Eavan Boland's early work is collected here. This volume, then, can be read as a progression through a life as a woman and a poet. Her poetry speaks to the everyday human concerns. It also grapples with political issues and personal consequences. If you have not read Boland's work, you should. She is a major voice in Irish literature and in contemporary poetry and deserves recogintion among the best. This volume allows you to see how her work has evolved. Once you read this, I urge you too look at In a Time of Violence, her most recent poetry collection. Also, her memoir, Object Lessons, is a must read for every woman poet today and a good read for anyone interested in poiltics, poetry, Ireland, or womanhood. Boland is also a wonderfully generous person and teacher

That Edward McSorley's 1946 novel, "Our Own Kind,"was reprinted by Ayer, is the millenium's best literary news. It isthe moving story of an Irish immigrant family in Providence, Rhode Island, that focuses on the warm, moving relationship of Ned McDermott and his grandson Willie. It was a time when the Irish immigrants were poverty-ridden, Catholic social outcasts, and denied employment. NO IRISH NEED APPLY was the sign posted on every factory, mill, and store. How they survived with grace, humor, and dignity is McSorley's theme. Our Own Kind won raves from critics; the N.Y. Times described it as "Salty, forthright, humourous,...a touching portrait of a fine man...Truly a creative work of fiction. " The Chicago Tribune called it: "One of the finest novels to see print in a long time. Eloquent...warmly human, riotously humorous." The Book of the Month Club News held: "Mr. McSorley, for this book alone, belongs in the seats of the literary great." Two book clubs published editions... Our Own Kind was the first of a planned trilogy. The second book, The Young McDemott, was published in 1949, but the third was never finished. In 1959 he published Kitty, I Hardly I Knew You, a lyrical love story in which a taxi driver rehabilitates a seduced Irish girl who has drifted into alcoholism and whoring. Again, he won high praise, being awarded the Peabody Waite prize of the National Academy of Arts and Letters in 1961. McSorley, should not be neglected. The difficulties of his characters are the live snakes of today. He hated discrimination and exploitation... END

Lester Goran has once again effectively illuminated the world of Pittsburgh, particularly the Oakland section of town and the cronies at the Irish club. This is his longest collection of short stories to date that have focused on this same setting. He masterfully presents the stories of these troubled souls and invites us into their thoughts and the post World War II Pittsburgh they call home. He seems to almost present a "Tortilla Flat"(Steinbeck) type feeling to the book where all the characters lives are closely connected, but in a city such as Pittsburgh the world becomes larger than just a small group of friends in a small town while at the same time presenting a setting where all the characters are somewhat familiar to each other. The book does however maintain the feel of lost souls searching for something somewhat ineffectively and you will laugh at the troubles these characters get into and the stories they tell, but also feel compassion for them. Resist the temptation to read the final short story from which the book receives its name. It provides an excellent conclusion to these tall tales. If you enjoy this book, you will also like She loved me once, Tales from the Irish club, and Bing Crosby's Last Song.

I discovered this book at the public library twenty years ago, and have loved it ever since. All the poems in it are very short, twelve lines or less, yet as you'll find if you read it, how much truth, emotion and beauty can be conveyed in a very few lines! Anyone who loves poetry or literature will love this book.

Oxford has published a number of literary reference books, each with their strengths, weaknesses and biases. There are "Companions" to American literature and English literature, the gossipy and Brit-biased "Reader's Guide to Twentieth Century Writers," and now this prose atlas to the century's notable writers in English. It is, in a literary way, an embarrassment of riches.

Describing this extensive overview of everything worth noting about 20th century literature in English can be compared to the blind men describing an elephant. So much to cover, so many varieties of prose, and so little space to describe it all.

The giants are here, and if greatness is measured by the space allotted to them, then D.H.Lawrence leads, with two full pages dedicated to his achievements, followed by James Joyce, T.S. Eliot and Joseph Conrad (11/2 pages), Henry James (11/4 pages), and Graham Greene, William Faulkner and W.B. Yeats with one page.

At the other end of the fiction scale, where bestsellers reign, can be more problematic, with some authors worthy of inclusion (John Grisham, Scott Turow, Stephen King, a lonely line next to Barbara Cartland's name that refers the reader to the "romantic fiction" section) and others not (Michael Crichton, John Jakes, Danielle Steel). Genre writers tend to stand a better chance of inclusion, such as Georgette Heyer (romance), Jack Vance, Ursula K. LeGuin and Michael Moorcock (fantasy), J.G. Ballard, James Tiptree and Robert Heinlein (science-fiction), and Sara Paretsky, Tony Hillerman and John Mortimer (mystery).

Editor Jenny Stringer also went out of her way to include notable persons outside of literature -- The Beatles, Harvey Fierstein, Hunter Thompson, Tony Kushner and Theodore Veblen are in here -- as well as institutions, magazines and literary movements. Identifying these movements can sometimes be an exercise in deciphering obscure meanings. The entry on Modernism, for example, defines clearly its practitioners. Their works, however, "indicate the breach with the conventions of rational exposition and stylistic decorum in the immediate post-war period." Nowhere is there a phrase as clear as (and this is taken from an upcoming Oxford reference on James Joyce): "[Literary modernism] interrogates the legitimacy of traditional social institutions such as the family, the church and the state, rejecting their authority to prescribe and enforce moral standards of behavior."

Apart from that caveat, this Oxford Companion is a worthwhile aid through 20th century literature. Which one that is right for you depends entirely on where your taste in literature lies. It is only safe to say that there isn't a better guide anywhere.

This book is a must for teachers of English literature or those who love to know all the details. Pat Rogers has included information from Beowulf to the 20th century. I use this book to supplement textbook information for my students. This book is an excellent resource for historical, biographical and literary information. This is the one book I must have on my bookshelf.

Daniel Tobin,published poet and Professor of English,offers exceptional insight into the work of Heaney.This book offers both an excellent overview and a fresh perspective on the deepest meaning of Heaneys poetry from 1965 to the present.Tobin advances Heaney scholarship to a new level,and makes it meaningful to student and scholar alike.

YOUNG LONIGAN, the short novel that introduces the STUDS LONIGAN trilogy, is the brilliant evocation of the tough youth of a tough kid in pre-WWI Chicago. The prose is tour-de-force stream-of-consciousness. It seeps into the mind of a smart, flawed, hilarious kid (imagine Max Fisher without the scholarship, or Stephen Dedalus without the educated abracadabra) and it takes you right into the depths of your own conflicted youth. If you're a reader, you'll devour this book (and its successors); if you're a writer, you'll emulate it.

While neither overtly vicious nor devoid of hope as his fellow "In Yer Face" dramatists, Penhall nonetheless gains access to our heart and proceeds to twist it in dimensions it was never intended to hold. When he lets go, our view of what constitutes love and union are warped beyond recognition. And I suspect Penhall considers the resulting disorientation not only beneficial, but ultimately necessary given our proclivity to establish relationships (aimed at understanding) but still based on desires we hardly are equipped to manage. Some Voices is especially powerful.