"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
As Toibin suggests in his splendid introduction, many events in Ireland in the 19th century resemble fiction, and therefore "most of the Irish fiction before Joyce was written for an English audience, much of it sought to describe Ireland's history and landscape and people as peculiar and alarmingly dramatic."
Understandably, dislocation is one of the many governing themes in Irish fiction and Toibin agrees with Adorno that exile is integral to writing: "Writers not in exile from Ireland are in exile within Ireland." Joyce lived out the bizarre paradox of fully addressing an Irish audience, from a place of exile and in a way that few could understand. Later, when Toibin argues that writers have an audience in Ireland for the first time, it would seem that only avant-garde writers remain outside the pale. Other features that make Irish writing so distinct, Toibin offers, are the religious consciousness of the people, the attitude towards the land and nationalism, a sense of quiet desolation and a total lack of domestic harmony at the close of most novels!
Toibin is right to note the influence of American writers like Raymond Carver and Grace Paley on Irish writing and that a less penurious existence in the diaspora has fuelled writing by the younger generation, like Colum McCann, who was born in Dublin and now lives in New York.
Although Toibin is scanty on discussing the effect of the Troubles, his selection is strong and includes the often overlooked late Mary Lavin, whose two novels and collections of short stories go oddly unnamed in the biographical notes. Her extraordinary short story, "Happiness", also in the Bolger anthology, is an affecting sample of her robust, swinging prose, her thoroughly contemporary tone and measured emotional detail. It is also good to re-encounter superbly spare writers like Leland Bardwell, whose "The Hairdresser" is a bleak urban tale straining to breakout of a realist mode. Also anthologised is "Music at Annahullion", by Eugene McCabe, a master of deadpan poignancy in Monaghan register. The story is about a woman who buys "a piana": "It's out of tune." "That's aisy fixed." "Woodworm in the back." "You can cure that too." "There's a pedal off." "What odds."
Penguin have produced an authoritative and well-researched volume that anyone who has an interest not only in Irish fiction, but in European literature, will take pleasure in owning. --Cherry Smyth
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Book Description Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR005891452
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Book Description Condition: Very Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 12033168-6
Book Description Condition: Good. This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. No dust jacket. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,1700grams, ISBN:0670854972. Seller Inventory # 9255078
Book Description Condition: Good. This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. No dust jacket. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,1700grams, ISBN:0670854972. Seller Inventory # 9255077
Book Description Condition: Very Good. 1999. Hardcover. Good copy with some shelf wear, minor edge wear to dustwrapper. . . . . Seller Inventory # KKD0007850
Book Description Condition: Very Good. 1999. Hardcover. Good copy with some shelf wear, minor edge wear to dustwrapper. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # KKD0007850
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1085 pages. An anthology of Irish fiction, from Gulliver's Tr avels to the current younger generation of Irish writers. It incl udes sections from novels, with an introduction explaining the co ntext, as well as short stories. Work is chosen on literary merit rather than the light it throws on Irish history or politics. Th e way writers use form and language is the central concern. Seller Inventory # 3124e
Book Description Hardback. 1st UK Edition. Large octavo size [16x24cm approx]. Very Good condition in Very Good Dustjacket. DJ protected in our purpose-made plastic sleeve. DJ spine very lightly sunned. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels. xxxiv, 1086 pages. Arranged chronologically from Jonathan Swift to Emma Donaghue. Seller Inventory # 321945