- Hardcover: 241 pages
- Publisher: Gallery Books (February 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1852351799
- ISBN-13: 978-1852351793
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Best known for his poetry, the Belfast-born Mahon here collects 57 short essays that have appeared over the past 20 years in various publications, primarily the Irish Times. Despite the format, though, he is still clearly a poet. In "A Tribute to Beckett on his Eightieth Birthday" Mahon recalls meeting the great Irish playwright and seeing his fingers, "gnarled arthritic trees." In "Joyce's Wild Goose" he repeats what the novelist's father said when hearing the name of the young woman his son had run away with: "Barnacle? She'll never leave him." He also reminisces about drinking in Dublin with the young Eavan Boland while still at Trinity; looks at Oscar Wilde's Fenianism; observes that "there are different kinds of alcoholic writer" in an essay on Malcolm Lowry; and observes that "Great stretches of [J.P.] Donleavy are thoroughly tiresome and inconsequential." His portrait of Portrush--the "Ulster Riviera" in County Antrim--is delightful in a sad way; his joyful recollection of the Trinity College Garden Party is a delight, as is his vision of Dublin in the '60s: "wonderfully seedy and raffish." Mahon, considered by many the greatest poet in Ireland after Seamus Heaney, proves himself a fine essayist who is sure to have something for everyone in this collection.
Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Less than the Sum of Its Parts,
By
This review is from: Journalism: Selected Prose (Paperback)
A raggle-taggle collection of reviews and essays with no real unifying theme or drive - except a relative interest in matters Irish - this book has nevertheless done that most rare and testing of things in a collection of book reviews - it has persuaded me to buy not one but two of the books under review. Mahon's several pieces on McNeice make that out of fashion figure of interest to the non-Irish and non afficionado. There is a fun profile of Anthony Burgess and much memorabilia of literary youth at Trinity etc. There is everywhere an urbane sense of what the literary life is and how such and such a writer may have come to such or such a bad end or occasional lapse. Solid book reviews which are rewarding to dip into and a civilised, gentle tone throughout. How many essay collections can you say that of?
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Less than the Sum of Its Parts,
By Atar Hadari - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Journalism: Selected Prose (Paperback)
A raggle-taggle collection of reviews and essays with no real unifying theme or drive - except a relative interest in matters Irish - this book has nevertheless done that most rare and testing of things in a collection of book reviews - it has persuaded me to buy not one but two of the books under review. Mahon's several pieces on McNeice make that out of fashion figure of interest to the non-Irish and non afficionado. There is a fun profile of Anthony Burgess and much memorabilia of literary youth at Trinity etc. There is everywhere an urbane sense of what the literary life is and how such and such a writer may have come to such or such a bad end or occasional lapse. Solid book reviews which are rewarding to dip into and a civilised, gentle tone throughout. How many essay collections can you say that of?
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Authors
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Irish
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Essays
- Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Criticism & Theory
- Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > United States
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Criticism
- Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > History & Criticism
- Books > Reference > Writing > Journalism
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
