J. G. Farrell: The Making of a Writer - Hardcover

Lavinia Greacen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859184898 ISBN 13: 9781859184899

Publisher: Cork University Press, 2012

Synopsis

This new, expanded edition of the widely praised biography of the Booker Prize-winning author JG Farrell is timely. His literary achievement is still in the ascendent, as proved by the posthumous award in 2010 of the Lost Booker for Troubles , decided by international e-vote. That made him a double Booker winner, and the publicity given to his renowned Empire Trilogy novels has left the general reading public wanting to know more. Lavinia Greacen has uncovered fresh material and additional photographs since the publication of the first edition, shedding further light on Farrell s short life and tragic death, as well as the development of his writing career. The result is a fascinating and compelling story about the man described by the latest Estudios Irlandeses as one of the English language s most accomplished and enigmatic figures . The life of the novelist J.G. Farrell (1935 1979) is almost stranger than fiction. He was a schoolboy sporting hero struck down by polio, a dedicated writer living on a shoestring who was awarded the Booker Prize in 1973, and, with his literary reputation secure and a newly-converted house on the scenic west Cork coastline, he was drowned at the age of 44 while fishing from rocks nearby. This expanded biography, interweaving letters and interviews from sources previously unknown, tells the moving story of his peripatetic life. It ranges from his childhood in Ireland to public school and university in England; from his base in London, where most of his novels took shape, to extended stays in France and the United States, and to periods spent in Mexico, India, Vietnam and Singapore. Readers will discover that Farrell s celebrated Empire Trilogy, which includes Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip, reflects his own travels and personal experiences, as well as his unique wit and imagination. This biography reveals the very private man behind the celebrated literary novelist. After reading it , wrote Gerald Dawe, Senior Lecturer in English at Trinity College, Dublin, I felt not only that I knew J.G. Farrell, but that I, too, mourned his loss as if he were a friend.

About this title

Review:

J.G.Farrell's novels approached troubled colonial histories with creative genius and profound empathy; recognition of his stature has grown in the years since his untimely death. In my opinion he stands as one of the very best novelists writing in English in the later twentieth century --Prof. Roy Foster

Time has burnished Farrell's reputation and he is recognised as a central figure in British literature of the twentieth century's second half. Nothing has surpassed the imaginative reach of his exploration of our colonial past --Ian McEwan

I've always regarded JG Farrell as a true master.... He wrote with such generosity and insight about individuals caught in the large tides of history, and he managed to combine perfectly his almost C19th-style storytelling gifts with a subtly modern sensibility --Kazuo Ishiguro

About the Author:

Lavinia Greacen lives in County Dublin and is the author of JG Farrell in His Own Words (Cork University Press, 2009)

About this edition

• Publisher: Cork University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1859184898
• ISBN 13: 9781859184899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 440