Irish-American Books

Simply - one of the best poetry books I have ever read. Wonderful, deep, brilliant craftsmanship - stunning imagery. A great new poetic voice.

This book won the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize in 2000. Dawes was born in Ghanda but grew up and was educated in Jamaica and New Brunswick, Canada. This collection speaks to the landscape and the authors experience in South Carolina where he teaches English at the University of South Carolina. It also deals with the poet as an artist and has been hailed as "a powerful testament of the complexity, pain, and enrichment of inheritance." My favorite poem is "Love Oil" which deals with the meaning of home for the poet. This is first class poetry.

In Midland, Kwame Dawes describes journeys (geographical, spiritual and aesthetic) which ultimately leave us in state of grace contained in the title poem.
Dawes moves us easily between London, Jamaica, Africa and South Carolina as only someone of his intelligence, humour and talent could and creates a poetic tapestry as a true inheritor of the burden/glory of the African diaspora. Yet despite the shame of racism/slavery/alienation, Dawes keeps on moving with the music, "the reggae aesthetic" that buoys up even his most gut wrenching poems.
If you doubt me, read "Sun Strokes" and then tell me if this man is not a poet!

If you knew a starting football player, wanted to check a reference to an alumnus, or argued about how the Irish faired against former powers like Haskell, Carnegie Tech, and Great Lakes Academy, this is the book for you. The authors assembled biographies of Notre Dame players and coaches, including past heroes such as Frank Carideo (2 national titles as quarterback and kicker), Frank Tripucka (a football star before his son played basketball), and Marchy Schwartz (the second best running back Rockne ever coached).

Scores, records, and titles from the dawn of Notre Dame football to the recent past follow the personal entries, including individual awards, All-American honors, bowl appearances, and records against opponents. Other interesting notes include lists of leaders in every player performance category and the names of all the Irish who went on to play professional football.

This comprehensive guide to Notre Dame football is authoritative and fascinating and makes a perfect companion to other books or accounts of great games.

I bought this book expecting more, but I am a bit disappointed. It does a good job of individual player bios, but if you want a more comprehensive encyclopedia, pick up the Notre Dame media guide published by the university. That book has over 480 pages all on ND history and has all time records.

This book exceeded my expectations and is a valuable part of my Notre Dame library. The book is comprehensive and written in a lively manner. If you want to know anything about the Irish, this is the place to get it. I have been a fan my whole life and learned many interesting facts.

An astonishing tour of 400 years of laughs from the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. Not just the greats like Wodehouse, Twain, and Garrison Keillor but brilliant (but now forgotten) writers, plus cult favorites like Auberon Waugh, Stella Gibbons and P.J. O'Rourke. Highly recommended.

This book of humorous snippets is at least selected by Frank Muir, which makes a change from John Carey. Frank Muir is an elegant and extremely witty and ingenious virtuoso of the English himself, but I still have to wonder what the possible purpose can be of a farrago of miscellaneous excerpts from different authors. I could have understood collecting a nosegay of the witticisms of some particular writer or of some specific school of writing, but this lengthy tome takes in Smollett, Goldsmith, Poe, Jerome K Jerome, Dylan Thomas, Evelyn Waugh and Beryl Bainbridge, to name but a few. The most astonishing absentee is Oscar Wilde, but some of Bernard Shaw's musical, theatrical and artistic reviews are here. I welcome those thoroughly, as I do the excerpt from a review by Macaulay, but where, I wonder, is A E Housman, whose excoriations of his fellow scholars surpass either of them not only in forcefulness but for sheer hilarity. Otherwise the roll-call of the humorous includes many who are predictable, in no adverse sense. I would certainly have expected to find Dorothy Parker, H L Mencken and Mark Twain, for instance, and so I do. Not all the items chosen are from specific authors - the satirical magazine Private Eye is represented, partly by Auberon Waugh under his own name but also by the spoof diaries and letters of the prime ministerial spouses Mrs Wilson and Mr Thatcher, which are anonymous and may be co-operative efforts. Certain other press series are officially under nicknames, but we all know that Beachcomber in the Daily Express was J B Morton, and that Myles Na Gopaleen of the Irish Times is Brian O Nuallain (aka O'Nolan). The authorship of the Peter Simple column in the Daily Telegraph changed from Colin Welch to Michael Wharton, and not to its advantage in general, but the excerpts here are actually the funniest things that I spotted in the whole book, and I imagine they are the work of the former. His maverick right-wing politics are not my own, but I used to find his stuff irresistible. Other contributors are not household names, possibly not even in their own households, but I would certainly have expected such eminent men of letters as Muir himself and the syndics of the Oxford University Press to have known among them that Humphry Berkeley spelt his first name thus and not `Humphrey'.

In general don't expect to roll in too many aisles. This is an anthology of good-quality humorous prose, not a book of gag-lines and one-liners. You may spot here and there, as I did, the occasional piece that is to your particular liking, whether a treasured recollection or even, if we are lucky, something new to us. I was never much of an enthusiast for Punch in general (except when it was edited by Muggeridge) nor of Basil Boothroyd in particular, but I applaud heartily his scathing comments on the programme-notes of a classical concert he attended, and the poke in the eye he administers not so much to Beethoven himself as to his hagiographers who have done so much to distort people's view of music in general. This was a lucky find - I do not pretend to have read the whole massive book nor do I ever propose to do so, nor indeed can I imagine who ever will. I still fail completely to envisage the readership of a work like this, and I would guess its future belongs mainly on the shelves of the more traditionally-minded libraries and in the hands of browsers in second-hand bookshops searching for curiosities.

Alas, Muir probably had no option but to contribute a preface devoted to the doomed enterprise of trying to define and categorise humour. I find such stuff virtually unreadable, but for all I know it may have value to earnest students of Eng Lit and their instructors, if that is any word for them. I hope they paid Muir well for it, because if they were going to set about such a fatuous project as this in the first place they were lucky to have him. It is all good quality, I make no bones about that. I make a whole ossiary of bones about putting out such a ridiculous publication to begin with, but making allowance for personal prejudice and individual temperament I can, and perhaps ought to, award it four stars.

Key words in the title: humorous prose. Sure, by sticking to prose, Muir had to eliminate comic masters like W.S. Gilbert, , Preston Sturges, the Pythons, & Bernard Shaw (actually, some of Shaw's great criticism makes it in). But when it comes to humorous prose, this book is the Grand Tour. For the time period it covers, this book has everything. I guarantee you'll discover a new favorite author within a week of buying this tome (and that's the highest purpose of an anthology - giving the reader a new favorite). Muir's editorial introductions and insertions are both enlightening and entertaining, and the man's genuine love of the form shines through in each passage. My only complaint? The book needs updating. Add a hundred pages, and stick in stuff from Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Carl Hiaasen, Tom Robbins, David Lodge, even Helen Fielding. Aside from that, the book is perfect. May a higher power bless Muir for doing such a great and important service to both the readers of this anthology and the writers whose work fills its pages.

Thus is a useful collection of longer poems for those in search of longer poems which are not generally found in anthologies.

This book of narrative verse is one of the best collections out in the market. The popular poems are included, from "The Pied Piper" to "Horatius," and the reader will be very pleased with this book. All the poems are presented in their entirety, but poems like Horatius have been shortened mercilessly. However, there is one negative point about this book. Most of the poems are serious poems and I think that the authors should include more light-hearted stuff, especially two narrative poems from T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," the inspiration for the hit musical "Cats." These two poems are "Growltiger's Last Stand" and "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles." These are the two poems that can make the book more light-hearted.

This book of narrative verse is one of the best collections out in the market. The popular poems are included, from "The Pied Piper" to "Horatius," and the reader will be very pleased with this book. All the poems are presented in their entirety, but poems like Horatius have been shortened mercilessly. However, there is one negative point about this book. Most of the poems are serious poems and I think that the authors should include more light-hearted stuff, especially two narrative poems from T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," the inspiration for the hit musical "Cats." These two poems are "Growltiger's Last Stand" and "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles." These are the two poems that can make the book more light-hearted.

Poems to Read to the very Young,Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. Was such a wonderful Discovery when I was a child. A friend of my mom's gave us a copy. We read it so much that all the pages fell out and we lost them. I checked it out of the library and truly thought of never returning it, but just paying the fines and the cost of the book. However, I didn't want to deprive other children of the joy and magic. Please encourage the publisher to print more.

We read this book at least a million times to our toddlers andyet they always wanted to hear it again. Great poetry that is a joyto hear (even for the adults doing the reading)! The illustrationsare equally marvelous.

My daughter fell in love with this book starting at the age of two. (She is now 3-1/2.) The poems have been selected from a wide variety of authors, and the quality is high. The subjects are ones that children can easily relate to, and the vocabulary and rhythm are engaging. My only criticism is that I would like to see more children of color in the illustrations.

I bought this book from a rave recommendation of an online friend who was an Australia soldier.

The autobiography recounts the latter part of service in WWII of an infantryman from England. It took a few pages to get into the mood, the beginning set the stage as he goes to Italy and deals with life as a soldier.

The action soons begins, and the stark, clear descriptions of the adrenaline and terror and endless waiting of warfare are fascinating. Artillery shells arrive without warning, illness strikes, soldiers go AWOL and return, life is unfair.

But the rifleman is a young man, out for adventure, and with a keen eye and ear, prone to understatement as well as introspection. We are there with him, and for most of the book might envy his adventure, until the ending.

A unique read, which I recommend.

As the title hints, this is a memoir by the English version of a grunt during the 1944 Italian campaign.

This is fairly low-key as war memoirs go, written by a "gentleman" who chose to remain a regular soldier because he was, among the Cockney soldiers, "accepted for what he was rather than for what he was supposed to be."

Two aspects of this book made an impression: First, the everyday manner in which people die, making a profound impression on the others - not the death of one individual, but the gradual way in which this takes a toll on the participants. Secondly, the number of soldiers who desert or refuse to go into battle, and how this is dealt with by the officers, who, rather than having them automatically court martialled, will give them a rest and let the pressure from the other soldiers get them back into service.

You get the impression of a book written entirely honestly, by someone who was a little too young to understand what was going on, and who aged fast.

John Keegan has suggested that as long as interest in the Second World War continues people will read and re-read this book. I believe he is correct. Personal narratives of war are increasingly popular, but for the historian or the buff who wishes to dig back a little, the results can be disappointing. The inevitable tendency to reflect the prevailing mood of the time, or at least not butcher too many sacred cows, means that many of the post-WW2 accounts are to be taken (in my opinion) with more than the usual grain of salt. Bowlby exhibits an unusual degree of candour for the time. This work also comes from the pen of a men accustomed to expressing himself clearly, and it shows. A 'must' for scholar and buff alike. Clive Gower-Collins

My ole man went to Notre Dame... so I've been steeped in the rich legacy of Fightin' Irish Football. This book is by far one of the better books on Notre Dame football in its heyday under Knute Rockne who forged that legacy. The team that brought us the forward pass left a rich history worth examing. This book captures the essence of Rockne, his leadership style, his character and his ambition to excel.

The most enjoyable sports book I've read since, well, "Stirring Football Stories", this book gives the reader not only such favorite moments in the history of the game as the winning forward pass (Dorais to Rockne, against Army), the Gipper, the Four Horsemen, and back-to-back undefeated seasons, but insights into the life and times of Notre Dame's legendary coach. Rockne championed & embodied the immigrant struggle for a place in the sun - the "fighting Irish" being a moniker bestowed on a polyglot group of newcomers to the American dream. On the gridiron it was possible to prove yourself - and show your talents - on an equal footing with older, more established schools and traditions. This conscious inclusion of the larger story gives this book an important place on the shelf, alongside Rockne's own unfinished autobiography, "We Remember Rockne", "Knute Rockne, All American", and other memoirs and studies.

While acknowleging the legends surrounding one of the greatest coaches in any sport anywhere, but not attempting to pass them off as fact, Ray Robinson does not stoke the inspirational fires of the mythological demigod Knute Rockne. Still and all, we see Rockne as he developed from a boy growing up in Chicago to the young man at Notre Dame eventually becoming the coach who, in turn, became larger than life.

Mostly, the reader is invited to visit a time when Knute Rockne was arguably the brightest star among the numerous sports heroes of the '20's. While Irish, Catholics and especially Irish-Catholics were almost universally reviled and the power of the Klan was at its height, the immigrant from Voss, Norway lead Notre Dame to the forefront of college football's national stage.

There are occasional glimpses of Rockne off the football field and I, personally, would have liked to have gotten to know more about Rockne the man. However, this is, first and foremost, a story about Knute's lifelong relationship with football.

This book is designed for college football fans, especially fans of Notre Dame. Notre Dame detractors may also get something out of the book, if for no other reason than it makes it a little easier to understand why Notre Dame football is what it is today.

This is one of the best books I have hever read, besides the author's other book "Paint the Wind". She is a fantastic writer, the stories are so great you are sorry when the book ends. I'm surporised Cathy CAsh Spellman is not more popular, because her books are wonderful!

So Many Partings is a big family saga,stretching over three generations of an Irish family who went from rags to riches in New York.Tom Dalton was born in Ireland, the illegitimate child of the younger son of an aristocratic family and the daughter of a local tenant farmer.Upon the death of his father, Tom and his mother Mary are evicted from their cottage. The local priest advises Mary to emigrate to America to start life afresh,leaving Tom at a local monastery where he could recieve a good education.Reluctantly Mary does so and many years pass before they meet again.Mary marries a Boston merchant but keeps Toms existence a secret as her new husband would not have married her if he knew of her past.When Tom grows to manhood he too travels to the U.S. and begins a career with Diamond Jim Mulvaney,a very successful business man and local politician. Tom falls deeply in love with Diamond Jim's daughter and so begins the new dynasty of Tom's children and grandchildren--and what a big involved tale it is--a story of villians and heros,love and hate and all the things that go to make up a big, satisfying read.

Keep a box of kleenex with you when you read this book, Cathy Cash Spellman is a wonderful writter and she brings you right into the lives of her people in the book, you become a part of their lives, you feel what they feel and live what they live. I have read this book 4 times and I will continue to read this book over and over again. I think there should be a sequel to this book??

A witty ,adorable and most entertaining green book that questioned even me old, irish speaking , Grandpa! Margaret Kelleher is the soley author that brought out in merely 166 pages an outstanding questionare ,all wraped in a beautiful cover that awakens the sensations of every irish person!It is a wondrous opportunity for every Emerald lover to widen his/her horizons, within a journey through the green Irish dreamy lands! All that and more in a glamorous, carefully choosen diction.

This work, by Margaret kelleher, is a collection of 500 questions, a bit of a test for those who feel they know Ireland and the Irish. Now be warned, this is not a list of simple little questions that anyone can answer, even those without an ounce of Irish blood in them (yes folks, there are a few of us out there, believe it or not). These are very, very difficult questions. The book is broken down into different categories. In America, Beliefs, legends, superstitions, history, art, Dublin, Ireland today, words, food and quotes. I promise you that these will challange you and I promise you that, after looking up the answers which the author has (thank goodness) provided, you will come away with a lot of wonderful knowledge, stuff you simple did not know, but which is fascinating. Some examples are:

In Irish legend and history, how many provinces were there?

When are the earliest settlers reputed to have arrived in Ireland?

How may Irishmen have won the Nobel Prize in literature?

Who is reputed to have first used the word "Blarney?"

This is just a small sample, and truthfully, I picked some of the easier questions as examples here. This is a small book, but a book with a wealth of information. Even if you are not Irish, the trivia you will be able to pick up here is well worth having this one setting on your reading table. As a personal note, my wife, who is Irish/Native American, is an "expert" in both areas. I love to use this little work just to aggrivate her, which pretty well proves that I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer as I dearly pay for each of these little jabs I throw at her.

Recommend this one highly. You will love it!

A witty ,adorable and most entertaining green book that questioned even me old, irish speaking , Grandpa! Margaret Kelleher is the soley author that brought out in merely 166 pages an outstanding questionare ,all wraped in a beautiful cover that awakens the sensations of every irish person!It is a wondrous opportunity for every Emerald lover to widen his/her horizons, within a journey through the green Irish dreamy lands! All that and more in a glamorous, carefully choosen diction.

Choppy, some of the stories are excellent, others just so so. Overall, I'd recommend the book as a good reader of short stories and of course, Ms. Gordon.

Reviewed by Shawn Remfrey

This engrossing collection of tales is a must have for everyone's bookshelf. Each short story is exquisitely written and well-crafted with Mary Gordon's personal style. Whether the reader is wanting a quick entertaining story, or in-depth literature to study, Mary Gordon delivers.

Each story deals with the human condition; thoughts, emotions, actions and where each of those leads us. The most popular theme throughout the book is disillusionment. There are also tales of hopelessness, depression, alcoholism. My favorite two stories involve an elderly woman forced to see her favorite place through the eyes of her daughter in law, and a woman forced to look at her husband through her own eyes. These stories give each person a chance to examine his or her own life.

Mary Gordon's characters are alive and become dear. Vivid imagery helps lose oneself in a world that could easily belong to anyone else, too. In a space of five to ten pages, an entire story unfolds, leaving a sense of completion. Through one snippet of a character's life, the reader has a sense of that person's past, future and all that makes them up.

At first I was skeptical about Mary Gordon's talent, having never read anything written by her before. I quickly learned that you truly can't judge a book by it's cover. I was captivated from story to story. Each character, literally, made me identify and sympathize with them. This collection kept me in emotional turmoil until the end. I fully intend to search for every Mary Gordon book I am able to find and spread the word about this gem.

Mary Gordon comes from an interesting heritage mix of Jewish and Irish Catholic. Most of her stories reflect her upbringing. She currently teaches composition and creative writing at a community college. Mary Gordon's most recent published book is Circling My Mother: A Memoir. This nonfiction book tells the story of her mother as Mary was growing up. In 1996 Mary Gordon wrote a similar book in her father's memory, The Shadow Man.

Armchair Interviews says: Wonderful to know about a first-rate book of short stories.

Reading this hefty book of short stories that explores the traits and lives of everyday people is enough to wallop a reader in the gut. The tales are all too real. The characters are never seen through a kind pink haze; without softening, they show us --- in unflinching prose --- jealousy, possessiveness, despair, loss and more. And yet we cannot look away; Mary Gordon is describing us.

One theme running through the collection is the notion that the past is never truly gone. The first story, "City Life," brings us Beatrice, whose marriage to Peter is founded on the lie that her parents are dead and her upbringing was normal. In fact, Beatrice has no idea if her alcoholic parents in their filthy hopeless home are still alive. Her life with Peter and her children is disrupted when they move from their restored farmhouse in the country into a New York City apartment. Beatrice meets her past there, and she can no longer deny its power over her life.

The underbelly of love is another premise in many tales, such as "Separation," in which a mother struggles with society's expectation that her young child should bond with others besides herself. The author poses a question: How powerful is the force of maternal possessiveness? In this chilling piece, we see the extreme, which is strong enough to warp lives.

The world constantly changes, as does our place in it. In "Death in Naples," a family jaunt to Naples leaves an elderly widow searching for both her own autonomy and landmarks of her past happy travels with her late husband. Her quest leaves her lost in a world in which she feels misplaced.

Catholicism is the underpinning of many of these stories. In "The Deacon," a nun, Joan Fitzgerald, encounters a trying spiritual challenge in the form of an inept teacher in the parish school in which Joan is principal. The teacher, Gerard, is the one person Joan feels she cannot stomach. Yet fate (or Gerard would say "God's will") pushes them together in a solitary meal during which Joan must make a difficult spiritual choice.

In "Bishop's House," Lavinia seeks solace at the home of elderly friends. Another guest, also recovering from an ended romance, tries the patience of everyone in the house. Lavinia discovers, in a double twist of revelation, that no one is as they appear.

Revenge is served in "Cleaning Up" --- but instead of being punishment for wrongdoing, it strives to chastise an unbearable act of charity. The multilayered story acknowledges the deeply hidden rationale of a seemingly irrational action.

In "Walt," the main character is stuck in a spider web where she considers the ultimate and unforgivable cruelty: her own, toward someone who loves her. The impulse to squelch him survives decades. She can't stop yet she can't live with her actions.

THE STORIES OF MARY GORDON is not a light read, jabbing sharp, unrelenting elbows into the reader and whispering, "Do you recognize yourself?" The following passage in this collection's "Storytelling" struck a chord with me. A new acquaintance is speaking to the main character, who is a writer:

"Are all your books depressing?" asked Jean-Claude.

"I think I write about life as it is."

The tales Mary Gordon writes are about unadorned lives. While they are sometimes bleak, they are also thought-provoking, engrossing and unforgettable, making THE STORIES OF MARY GORDON a challenging and rewarding read.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon