Review of Books
Tom Deignan reviews a selection of recently published books of Irish and
Irish-American interest.
Recommended
 Until
releasing his latest novel, Joseph O’Neill was best known for his “family
history” Blood-Dark Track (about his grandfather who was an IRA soldier) and
his regular, insightful contributions to The Atlantic Monthly magazine. Add
two earlier novels into this mix, and this is certainly a fine résumé. But
it does not quite strike you as the background of the author who may very
well have written the best-reviewed novel of the year. (“It has more life
inside it than ten very good novels,” raved the New York Times Book Review
in a much-coveted cover review.)
That, however, is what O’Neill has done with Netherland, his chronicle of a
married couple in Manhattan struggling to hold their lives together
following the September 11 attacks.
We have already had a flurry of so-called 9/11 novels, many of them
straining to recapture the horror of the moment, and the gravity of its
aftermath. Netherland shows the value of allowing some distance to
accumulate before an artist attempts to tackle a major historical event. The
attacks of 2001 are of profound importance to Netherland, but really the
novel is about a man struggling to cope as his life falls apart around him.
It is also a lovely portrait of Manhattan, which, though it has endured an
apocalyptic moment, still mesmerizes O’Neill’s protagonist, a Dutchman named
Hans. “Sometimes to walk in shaded parts of Manhattan is to be inserted into
a Magritte [painting]: the street is night while the sky is day,” O’Neill
writes in one typical passage. Then his observations move inward. “If I was
indeed embracing an American lot, then I was doing so unprogrammatically,
even unknowingly. Perhaps the relevant truth … is that we all find ourselves
in temporal currents and that unless you’re paying attention you’ll
discover, often too late, that an undertow of weeks or of years has pulled
you deep into trouble.”
Given the largeness of O’Neill’s themes – terror, the disintegration of a
marriage, the struggle against history – his language is generally quite
subdued. I’m not quite sure Netherland is as brilliant as many critics have
noted, but it is still brilliant.
($23.95 / 256 pages / Pantheon)
Buy at Amazon
Fiction
 Best-seller
Marian Keyes is back with a new novel entitled This Charming Man. Fans of
Keyes’ previous best-sellers Anybody Out There? and Last Chance Saloon will
not be disappointed. In fact, the topics and characters might seem very
familiar to Keyes’ many fans. This latest book revolves around four female
friends, as well as a rising star on the Irish political scene. All of
Keyes’ characters (as in most of her previous work) are struggling to
conquer the past, in the form of substance abuse, psychological problems or
both. For all the weight of these topics, however, Keyes’ trademark humor is
also on display. This is a blessing since (again, as with much Keyes work)
This Charming Man checks in at over 550 pages. Marian Keyes is not for
everyone, but her fans will not be disappointed.
($24.95 / 576 pages / Morrow)
Buy at Amazon
 David
Guterson had a smash success about a decade ago with his novel Snow Falling
on Cedars, later made into a movie starring Ethan Hawke. Guterson’s latest
novel, The Other, explores two star-crossed childhood friends: Neil, from an
Irish-American family of carpenters, and John, who becomes so disenchanted
with life that he seeks to vanish from the face of the earth. Neil is a
family man, but takes a risk in the name of helping out his old pal, a
choice which has potentially tragic consequences.
($24.95 / 272 pages / Knopf)
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In the vein of Roddy Doyle’s recent story collection The Deportees,
acclaimed author Gerard Donovan shines a literary light on new Ireland with
his collection of stories, Young Irelanders. Though the title might seem to
refer to Ireland’s 19th-century liberation movement, Donovan is actually
talking, literally, about today’s new Irish, be they immigrants or
struggling adulterers. Donovan’s 13 stories add another intriguing layer to
our understanding of the much-discussed post-Celtic Tiger Ireland of the
21st century.
Buy at Amazon
($24.95 / 224 pages / Overlook)
Non-Fiction
 T.J.
English is best known for his gripping chronicle of the New York Irish gang
the Westies, as well as his authoritative history of Irish organized crime,
Paddy Whacked. English now turns his attention to Cuba with Havana Nocturne:
How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution. English explores
infamous mob figures such as Lucky Luciano, and their operations in the
1950s, when Cuba and its capital were one of the most desirable destinations
for pleasure seekers. That was before a revolutionary named Fidel Castro
whipped up a frenzy and not only changed the course of world history, but
also left the Mafia quite angry.
($27.95 / 416 pages / Morrow)
Buy at Amazon
 Frank
McCourt has written the Foreword to a new collection of essays (edited by
Nell Casey) entitled An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family.
“There are two great themes in this book: suffering and heroism. You’ll be
shocked by the honesty in these narratives, the mixed feelings we have when
our parents – or family members in general –suddenly become so much of a
burden that we have to change our lives,” writes McCourt Among the 19
authors who contributed to this at times touching, at times disturbing
volume are New York Times writer Sam Lipsyte, Jerome Groopman and Andrew
Solomon.
($24.95 / 277 pages / Morrow)
Buy at Amazon
 Meanwhile,
Frank McCourt’s brother Malachy has also kept himself busy. His latest book
is called Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland. In it, McCourt puts his own
spin on thousands of years of Irish history, from Fionn mac Cumaill to
Bertie Ahern and Bono. Not only is this an informative read, but you have to
be impressed by the author of a history book who admits in the very first
pages that “I came to America at the age of 20 with no certificates to prove
that I had ever been to school, far less learned anything there.” It is in
this roguish spirit that McCourt actually does manage to teach readers many
things about Ireland’s past.
($15.95 / 413 pages / Running Press)
Buy at Amazon
 Speaking
of the Irish past, a provocative new book suggests that the horrific
institution of slavery in America was not confined to African-Americans. In
White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America,
authors Don Jordan and Michael Walsh outline how the North American colonies
were also populated by British, Scottish and, yes, Irish slaves, as well as
indentured servants.
($18.85 / 320 pages / NYU Press)
Buy at Amazon
The Irish past also hovers over Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom
Hayden Reader. The longtime radical has collected many of his writings just
in time for a presidential election. This volume touches on many of Hayden’s
noted causes, including the Vietnam War and injustice in Central America. We
also get a retrospective of events at which Hayden often had a front row
seat: the infamous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, his marriage to
the similarly outspoken Jane Fonda (they eventually divorced), as well as
Hayden’s years in the California State Senate. Hayden also remains
passionate about his Irish roots. In the introductory essay, entitled “The
Famine of Feeling,” Hayden explores the impact of his Irish-American
background, as well as his travels to Northern Ireland. He later recalls
icons such as Bobby Kennedy, calling the slain leader “a raw Celtic spirit.”
($21.95 / 591 pages / City Lights)
Buy at Amazon
 Boston’s
towering Irish titans, from James Michael Curley to Ted Kennedy, have
received plenty of attention. In Hidden History of the Boston Irish: Little
Known Stories from Ireland’s Next Parish Over by Peter F. Stevens, lesser
known Boston Irish men and women are given some of the attention they, too,
deserve. These include Civil War nurse Sister Mary Anthony O’Connell, who
earned the nickname the “Irish Florence Nightingale.”
($19.99 / 160 pages / History Press)
Buy at Amazon
Mystery
 History
and murder mingle in Blood Alley, a new murder mystery by Tom Coffey.
Patrick Grimes is a self-described lapsed Irish Catholic who works at the
lowest rungs of the old New York Examiner newspaper. When a wealthy
socialite ends up dead, and an apparently innocent man is charged with the
heinous crime, Grimes becomes part of the story he is merely supposed to be
reporting. Coffey brings the underside of Manhattan life alive in Blood
Alley, as Grimes not only goes about solving the crime but also posing
timeless, philosophical questions.
($24.95 / 280 pages / Toby Press)
Buy at Amazon
 Going
back just a bit further in time, Cora Harrison’s latest “mystery of Medieval
Ireland” is called A Secret and Unlawful Killing. As in her previous work,
My Lady Judge, Harrison recreates Ireland in the early 1500s, when female
Brehon Judges played a central role in Irish life as well as the criminal
justice system. Mara (Harrison’s main character) must untangle the disparate
ties that have led to one murder as well as an apparent suicide.
($24.95 / 336 pages / St. Martins-Minotaur)
Buy at Amazon
Religion and Spirituality
 In
Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation, J. Philip Newell argues that
in order to live healthy spiritual lives, we should reexamine our
understanding of Jesus as well as Christian doctrine. Newell attempts to
combine certain Christian beliefs with aspects affiliated with the Celts to
come up with what he sees as a guide for those unsatisfied by existing
religious ideas. This book may be a bit too New Age-y for some readers, and
a bit harsh on Christian doctrine for others. Still, Newell creatively finds
ways to reexamine and renew religious living.
($19.95 / 160 pages / Jossey-Bass)
Buy at Amazon
 A
somewhat more traditional, but no less reverent take on the powerful role of
spirituality in daily life is To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of
Blessings by John O’Donohue, which offers touching prayers for the most
wonderful as well as most painful events we all must eventually confront.
($25. 95 / 222 pages / Doubleday)
Buy at Amazon
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