This week: stunning images from the decades that followed the foundation of the state
There’s lots of variety this week, fiction, sport and history ranging from the 1600s up to the early and mid-20th century, some histories imagined and others very real.
The Golden Gate, Amy Chua, Corvus, €23.99
Amy Chua’s debut novel is set in 1940s San Francisco, where a presidential candidate is found dead with his pants down in a hotel room. There are three female suspects, all blonde and all white (and indeed all related). The Mexican housekeeper, who saw one of them leaving the hotel room, can’t tell one blonde white woman from another. Enter hardboiled homicide detective Al Sullivan, of mixed race but content to pass himself off as white. This is as much a mid-century history of California and particularly of racial tensions, as it is a murder mystery, with a cold case thrown into the mix, and all strands are artfully woven together in a twisty and even educational whodunnit.
The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff, Hutchinson Heinemann €17.99
A young girl, born in a 17th century orphanage and raised in servitude to an English family, finds herself on the run from plague, famine and myriad other evils, in the forests of the largely unexplored New World. She knows she’s being followed and can’t afford to slow down. Her destination is Canada, the ‘settlements of the Frenchman’, but she has a torturous and dangerous road ahead. Borrowing from the stuff of old fairy tales about girls being lost in the woods, this is no Little Red Riding Hood but rather a frenzied fable of tooth and claw and of human survival. A gritty and imaginative adventure.
A Whisper from Oblivion, Declan O’Rourke, Gill €24.99
Declan O’Rourke’s second novel in his Famine Trilogy, following his first, The Pawnbroker’s Reward, is set in Macroom and follows the Ua Buachalla family through the ravages of 1847 when the famine is at its height. As Pádraig and Cáit struggle on the land in a new year of inclement weather, Paulellen Creed struggles to keep her shop open in the town, her husband, the pawnbroker, no longer there. The powers that be are at least consistent in their apathy to the widespread suffering as the community dwindles. Affecting and authentic, this novel is as thoroughly researched as its predecessor and possesses considerable emotional heft, as O’Rourke plucks the famine out of the history books and lays it bare right in front of us, to witness the enormous human cost. Elegantly written, fraught and moving.
This is the Life, Ciarán Murphy, Penguin Sandycove, €14.99
Following his passion for Gaelic football from early childhood up to the present day, Ciarán Murphy’s book is nothing if not heartfelt. Focusing firstly on local club football and how many small clubs lose their players to city clubs, Murphy examines the social influence of the GAA at close quarters, drawing from his own experience and that of others, including the loyal fans. At the core of his book is a celebration, of community and the power that the GAA has locally and nationally to bring people together, and to bring out the best in its players. Probably strictly for GAA fans, but if you know one (and we all know more than one!) it would make a perfect Christmas gift.
Two Summers, Glenn Patterson, New Island, €15.95
Acclaimed author Patterson offers two stories for the price of one in this pair of novellas focused on two young Belfast teenagers, Mark and Gem. In 1980s Belfast, Mark starts a summer job sweeping the streets of Belfast before he returns to school for his A levels. His colleagues, including a former UVF terrorist, dismiss him as the ‘posh boy’ who doesn’t fit into their clique. Mark feels outside the pulse of things as he struggles to find meaning and purpose in a city devastated by sectarian violence.
In 1977, Gem is packed off to New York for his summer job. It’s the summer of Elvis being found dead in his bathroom, the summer of disco and punk rock.
While Mark comes of age in a small and divided city back home, Gem experiences the cultural melting pot in the melting heat of the Big Apple. Patterson is, and has always been, a charming writer, unafraid to poke gentle fun at prejudice while acknowledging its deadly potential and these quirky, affecting novellas are the author at his peak.
A Nation is Born: Ireland in Colour 1923-1938, Michael B Barry and John O’Byrne, Gill €21.99
In his introduction, Michael Barry states that while there’s obviously been a lot of focus lately on the years from 1916 to the foundation of the state, ‘…there is much less awareness of the decades that immediately followed. These were hugely important in the formation of present-day Ireland’.
With that in mind, the authors have published a follow-on, if you like, to their previous book, The Irish Civil War in Colour. The result is a stunning collection of images, from Sean Keating painting the progress of construction at Ardnacrusha to a jaw-dropping picture of thousands and thousands attending Benediction on O’Connell Bridge, and from the wealthy American Kennedy clan arriving in Cobh in 1938 to that of a group of early Air Corps men attempting to push (yes, push!) a wheezing aircraft into the sky.
There’s a perfect balance here of famous names from our history books mingled with nameless labourers working on the land, in the towns and on the railways. Tragedy, Blueshirt fascism, the arts, the widespread poverty, the clout of the church, not a stone has been left unturned. Another gorgeous Christmas gift, and if you can afford it, buy a copy for yourself too.
Footnotes
I only mention this because tickets are already on sale and will sell fast, but if you plan to ring in the new year in style, New Year Festival Dublin has some excellent gigs planned for three venues in the city, Collins Barracks, Meeting House Square and Dublin Castle. See nyfdublin.com for details.
While all the traditional Christmas pantos open in the capital within the next week or so, there are plenty of events in local arts centres, town halls and theatres for the smallies. Google what’s on nearby and you could save yourself a long trip.