Introduction
Ireland, considering its size, has produced a disproportionately large amount of world-renowned writers. Take some time to read some of these Irish-American writers and their works.
In This Issue
- Waiting for Godot : Tragicomedy in 2 Acts - Samuel Beckett - Born Dublin, Ireland
- Gamal : A Novel - Ciarán Collins - Born Cork County, Ireland
- Shannon : A Novel - Frank Delaney - Born Tipperary, Ireland
- Room : A Novel - Emma Donoghue - Born Dublin, Ireland
- Barrytown Trilogy : The Commitments/The Snapper/The Van - Roddy Doyle - Born Dublin, Ireland
- Dubliners - James Joyce - Born Dublin, Ireland
- Ellis Island - Kate Kerrigan - Born Killala, Ireland
- The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe - C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis - Born Belfast, Ireland
- Amongst Women - John McGahern - Born Knockanroe, County Leitrim, Ireland
- Saints and Sinners : Stories - Edna O'Brien - Born Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland
- Third Policeman : A Novel - Flann O'Brien - Born Strabane, Ireland
- Ghost Light - Joseph O'Connor - Born Dublin, Ireland
- Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift - Born Dublin, Ireland
- Empty Family - Colm Tóibín - Born Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland
- Story of Lucy Gault - William Trevor - Born Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland
- Complete Short Stories - Oscar Wilde - Born Dublin, Ireland
Waiting for Godot : Tragicomedy in 2 Acts - Samuel Beckett - Born Dublin, Ireland
As Vladimir and Estragon await the arrival of Godot, they discuss their lives and consider hanging themselves, but choose to wait for Godot instead, in the hope that he can tell them what their purpose is.
In a much-quoted article, the theatre critic Vivian Mercier wrote that Beckett "has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice."
Gamal : A Novel - Ciarán Collins - Born Cork County, Ireland
Evincing a persona of simple innocence that hides his true nature as the Gamal, Charlie evaluates his life in the dark heart of an Irish village, his friendships with two people and a terrible night when an unspeakable event challenged their beliefs about love, denial and daring to be different.
Mr. Collins grew up in the village of Innishannon in Cork and now lives in Kinsale; He is working on his second novel.
Shannon : A Novel - Frank Delaney - Born Tipperary, Ireland
In the summer of 1922, a young American priest named Robert Shannon arrives in Ireland, the land of his ancestors, in search of his soul and demoralized by the corruption he encountered in the Boston Archdiocese, and as a civil war rages, Ireland's myths, traditions, and humor take him deep into the country's complicated heart, challenging and changing him forevermore.
Delaney writes charming, gripping, and lyrically written historical fiction set in his native Ireland. While his stories are grounded in the tumultuous times of 20th-century Ireland suffering from IRA attacks, rampant poverty, and World War II, his wistful and whimsical novels are infused with the life, history, and folklore of ages past.
Room : A Novel - Emma Donoghue - Born Dublin, Ireland
A 5-year-old narrates a riveting story about his life growing up in a single room where his mother aims to protect him from the man who has held her prisoner for seven years since she was a teenager.
An international bestseller, Room, was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prize, and won the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year.
Barrytown Trilogy : The Commitments/The Snapper/The Van - Roddy Doyle - Born Dublin, Ireland
Together in one volume, this book contains Roddy Doyle's trilogy about the Rabbitte family of Barrytown, north Dublin. "The Commitments", "The Snapper" and "The Van", which was shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize.
Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect.
Dubliners - James Joyce - Born Dublin, Ireland
Dubliners was completed in 1905, but a series of British and Irish publishers and printers found it offensive and immoral, and it was suppressed. The book finally came out in London in 1914, just as Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man began to appear in the journal "Egoist" under the auspices of Ezra Pound.
This is one of the greatest story collections in the English language--an unflinching, brilliant, often tragic portrait of early twentieth-century Dublin. The book, which begins and ends with a death, moves from "stories of my childhood" through tales of public life. Its larger purpose, Joyce said, was as a moral history of Ireland.
Ellis Island - Kate Kerrigan - Born Killala, Ireland
Sweethearts since childhood, Ellie Hogan and her husband, John, are content on their farm in Ireland until John, a soldier for the Irish Republican Army, receives an injury that leaves him unable to work. Forced to take drastic measures in order to survive, Ellie does what so many Irish women in the 1920s have done and sails across a vast ocean to New York City to work as a maid for a wealthy socialite.
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe - C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis - Born Belfast, Ireland
Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia, where they come to the aid of Aslan, the golden lion, in his battle against the White Witch, who has cursed the land with eternal winter.
C.S. Lewis is best known for this series, but he also wrote fantasy, science fiction, and nonfiction for adults. Most of his stories reflect his combined interests in theology (especially his own Christian faith), human nature, ethics, and myth. Much of his fiction is allegorical, reflecting his deep belief in God.
Amongst Women - John McGahern - Born Knockanroe, County Leitrim, Ireland
An aging former guerrilla leader in the Irish War of Independence tries to understand his relationships with the women--especially his young, flirtatious second wife and his three daughters.
McGahern is also considered a master of the Irish tradition of the short story. His work has influenced a younger generation of writers, such as Colm Tóibín.
Saints and Sinners : Stories - Edna O'Brien - Born Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland
This collection of short stories depicts vivid tales of restless, searching people set in Dublin, London and New York.
In "Send My Roots Rain," Miss Gilhooley, a librarian, waits in the lobby of a posh Dublin hotel expecting to meet a celebrated poet while reflecting on the great love who disappointed her. The Irish workers of "The Shovel Kings" have pipe dreams of becoming millionaires in London, but long for their quickly changing homeland-exiles in both places. "Green Georgette" is a searing anatomy of class, through the eyes of a little girl; "Old Wounds" illuminates the importance of family and memory in old age. In language that is always bold and vital, Edna O'Brien pays tribute to the universal forces that rule our lives.
O'Brien is Irish by birth, although she has also lived in London, and her love affair with Ireland informs much of her writing in setting, plot, and characters. She is also known as one of the great writers of the 20th century female experience; relating women's lives with unflinching honesty and truth.
Third Policeman : A Novel - Flann O'Brien - Born Strabane, Ireland
Ghost Light - Joseph O'Connor - Born Dublin, Ireland
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift - Born Dublin, Ireland
Gullible ship's doctor Lemuel Gulliver experiences extraordinary travels, in which he goes through a series of apparently child-like fantasy worlds of tiny people and giants, floating islands and talking horses. Gulliver's Travels is a satrire on the political and moral condition of man by Eighteenth century Irish writer and clergyman, Jonathan Swift.
The causes of Gulliver's misadventures become more malignant as time goes on—he is first shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers, then attacked by his own crew. Gulliver's attitude hardens as the book progresses—and there are subtle shifts throughout the book of Gulliver's perception of humans.
Empty Family - Colm Tóibín - Born Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland
Story of Lucy Gault - William Trevor - Born Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland
A novel set in Ireland in the 1920s charts the progress of a young girl whose entire life seems to be falling apart when the threat of arson drives the family from their country home.
Lucy Gault grows up a Protestant in a Catholic part of Ireland in the 1920s. An only child, she enjoys an intimate relationship with her parents and is devoted to her family's lavish country home, the nearby beach and woods, and the house staff. When Lucy's parents decide to flee the persecution of arsonists and move to England, her life takes an unforeseen turn. Tragedy and heartbreak will haunt the Gault family, and their lives do not proceed as expected. As in his earlier works Trevor's spare prose captures the quirky workings of the heart, and compassion for the human condition mitigates the harsh blows that fate often deals his characters.
Complete Short Stories - Oscar Wilde - Born Dublin, Ireland
Oscar Wilde was already famous as a brilliant wit and raconteur when he first began to publish his short stories in the late 1880s. Admired by George Orwell and W. B. Yeats, the stories include poignant fairy-tales such as "The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant," the extravagant comedy of "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" and "The Canterville Ghost," and the daring narrative experiments of "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.," Wilde's fictional investigation into the identity of the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets.
An introduction by John Sloan argues for Wilde's originality and literary achievement as a short-story writer, emphasizing his literary skill and sophistication.
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