I keep saying it but historical fiction is not my bag, baby. But, I keep reading historical fiction and some of the time, I like it. Like it not love it. Maybe, it’s the stark reality of what I am reading. Within fiction, I can fool myself into an imagined world whereas with historical fiction, it’s too true for me.
Audrey Magee’s new book form Atlantic Books is called The Undertaking and it is a grim, grim story about a man and a woman who meet, fall in love and have a pretty awful time of it. It’s set in World War 1 and we are introduced quickly to our main characters, Peter Faber, a German soldier and Katharina Spinell, a German woman he has never met. They get married to each other; a marriage of convenience that gives a ‘honeymoon’ leave for Peter and a pension for her should he die on the front. They fall in love but Peter has to return to the war front ten days after they marry.
The rest of the book flits between Peter’s awful time at war and Katharina and what she thinks is her awful time at home during the war. Though, in fairness, she does go through some bad things towards the end of the book, without giving too much away.
I liked this book. Well, it might be hard to say liked as its content was depressing and the ending even more so. But, I appreciated the story and the way it was told so simply even though the themes were massively important.
It drives home the pointlessness and evilness of war on every page, there is little happiness to be found. It would interest people who like their fiction to be raw and gritty. Audrey writes super well. Her dialogue stands out as it is so sparsely put together. She gets the reader to believe so much in a character that I understood Katharina and her view towards Jewish and Russian people even though I disagree with her. I could relate to the historical motivation of them. Because, she writes the book from the German point of view, we can comfortably look back and feel how great we are, how smug. Interesting and what historical fiction aims to do, I am supposing, though I am no expert.
I also liked that the book never gets into the boring details of war, weapons, bombing and history. It reads like a piece of fiction so it is to be recommended for lovers of historical fiction and general fiction, though it is very hard hitting and does not flinch from the reality of what happened.
The Undertaking by Audrey Magee is published by Atlantic Books here.
I’m starting my first classes with the Carlow Youth Services this week. I’m going to be working with a group of youths on a writing project and it excites me immensely!
I hope to be updating regularly about their progress and if you know any young adults that would be interested in writing, reading, performing and tea, send them my way!
The thing about December is Donal Ryan’s second book. Well, actually, it’s his first. But, really,it’s his second! This book was written before The Spinning Heart but published after it. Confused?
Don’t be. Read on.
theomnivore.com
This story is about an Irish man called Johnsie. Some reviews have called him an “eejit” but as a teacher, I can clearly see that our main character, Johnsie has learning needs. He lives with his parents in a very Irish and very traditional village ran by parish pump politics and land obsession. Could be anywhere in Ireland really!
People who have read the book have told me that they felt Johnsie’s parents sheltered him from the world necessarily and that when their passing occurs early in the book, Johnsie is unable to fend for himself. However, I believe that the parents sheltered him because they had to. Johnsie was just not able for the world, sadly enough.
The book is told through a third person device which shifts oddly into the mind set of Johnsie and in and out of other characters. If you’re not paying attention, you might lose the story but if you are paying attention, you will be rewarded. Ryan has created a world and language unique yet absolutely compatible with an Irish one. Johnsie and the characters that inhabit this world are tragically Irish. The story is a tragedy and ends that way, without giving too much away. Ryan has a unique flair for observing the world of Johnsie and for letting the reader in on the secret before Johnsie, if ever, gets it.
The story never reaches a high as in the personal desires of the characters. Johnsie never reaches a peak of anything. He seems to wreck every good thing and person he touches without wanting to. His friend, Mumbly Dave Is a brilliantly written character and I trusted him despite others not doing so in the book. Siobhan, the naughty nurse is a confusing one for me. I never am sure of her motivations, neither is Johnsie though Mumbly Dave alludes enough to them. Maybe, that should have been enough for me to mistrust her.
The Thing About December is a stunning book. It’s entirely different in language to The Spinning Heart but worth a read as Donal seems to be the one to watch. He can do no wrong.
I don’t know how I haven’t caught this till now! A poetic, beautiful, moving and artistic advertisement from Apple speaking about the merits of poetry, life and creation.
I love the excerpt they have used from Dead’s Poet Society, the film but original credit to the the Walt Whitman poem “O me O life”. It makes me quiver just listening to these lines. There is so much potential in us that is more than the ins and outs of a life just being lived in. The last lines “What will your verse be?” is an invitation to all.
A great article on the advertisement is here http://business.time.com/2014/01/13/apples-latest-ad-is-probably-going-to-give-you-chills/
and the Poetry Foundation who originally drew my attention back again to the poem and the film. Robin Williams was hired to redo this speech from the film and it fits so well. Here is a link to an audio of the poem and a discussion on the Poetry Foundation’s website. If you haven’t checked it out, you really have to though I’m assuming you have! They give a beautiful analysis of poems, poets and appropriate themes.
The Slap was Christos Tsiolkas first big novel. I think everyone read it. Even Simon, poetry lover read it. And we liked it, didn’t we? Despite hating all and each one of the characters in it!
Barracuda is Christos Tsiolkas second offering after The Slap and it’s his fifth. It’s a chunky book which I finished rather quickly for a book of its size. In fact, I devoured it despite having no interest in swimming, which is the main activity within in.
Daniel Kelly is the main character, he is pretty, pretty brilliant at swimming and he wins a scholarship at a very posh, boarding school to be trained by an Olympic coach. Sounds good but it isn’t. Daniel is not like the rest of the boys, he is from a very working-class family and he is hugely confused and ashamed of his own sexuality and class. We know at the start of the novel that he has spent time in prison for doing something awful. We also know that he has never reached the heights of competitive swimming as he should have. I don’t think that will affect the story.
This is where the novel is more than a simple narrative. Daniel is a confused fallen man. He finds a redemption in reading when he spends time in prison and the novel is littered with reference to old classics. Daniel is aggressive in his exercise, persual of identity and his sexual encounters with other men.
His story is told in a unique way. Each chapter flits between Daniel in Glasgow and Daniel in Australia, going back and forth in time and taking on different character’s viewpoints along the way. This sounds like it would confuse the reader but it never did once. I loved the ending, a sad ending but apt and stems from a highly tense but wonderfully dramatic scene where father and son face off and Daniel learns some final truths.
This story starts off with an urge to beat everyone and everything around the protagonist. To prove himself, Daniel feels he needs to rid himself of everything that is him, his family, his upbringing, his class and his identity. What he does learn in the end is that loving himself and accepting himself are the best prizes. Hard won though. I highly recommend this even if you didn’t take to “The Slap”.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Joyce’s seminal short story collection Dubliners, the James Joyce Centre is delighted to announce the details of a series of special free talks to take place throughout 2014. To reserve your place please contact the Centre by telephone 01 8788547 or email:info@jamesjoyce.ie. All lectures start at 6.30pm.
Monday, January 6
Professor Declan Kiberd (University of Notre Dame)
Dubliners: The First Hundred Years
Monday, February 3
The James Joyce Birthday Lecture
Frank Callanan, S.C. (Independent Scholar)
Dubliners and Joyce’s Nationalism
Monday, March 3
Dr Eilis ni Dhuibhne (Novelist and Short Story Writer)
Dubliners: A writer’s perspective
Monday, April 7
Dr Gerry Smyth (Liverpool John Moores University)
Betrayal and the Everyday in Dubliners
Monday, September 1
Caroline Elbay (Champlain College Dublin)
Whores, Mothers and Others: Women in Dubliners
Monday, October 6
Professor Anne Fogarty (UCD)
“Damn it, can’t we Irish play fair”?: Parnellism and the myth of Parnell in ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’
Monday, November 3
Dr Katherine O’Callaghan (TCD)
Faintly illuminating the cadence of the air: the role of song in Joyce’s ‘The Dead’
Monday, December 1
Terence Killeen (JJC Research Scholar)
Imaginary Dubliners
All lectures start promptly at 6.30pm
Admission free – limited seating – booking essential
35 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1.
Phone: 01 878 8547
Email: info@jamesjoyce.ie
I’ve given(sorry, Simon, my husband has) my blog another slight makeover. Holly Shorthall is a Fashion Illustrator and is also the daughter of brilliant new writer, Susan Stairs of The Story of Before. The talent in that household.
Holly has designed a new avatar for me and I am digging the sexy red pencil skirt and polka dot blouse! Book in hand, of course. You might not recognise me without that! She even got my balayage hair in!
Her fans include Imelda May, Saoirse Ronan and she is also going to be drawing for stylist, Courtney Smith each month for her XPOSÉ magazine column
Check out Holly’s page on facebook here and like to share and support her work.
Here is something really cool and hip for you Apple and James Joyce fans! It’s an iPad app for the short story, The Dead, Joyce’s most famous short story from his collection, Dubliners. The Dead, the final story of the collection will be 100 years old this year and now we have an app to celebrate it.
The Dead is a story where not much happens, as all good short stories and it demonstrates Joyce’s genius in inventing what he dubbed “the epiphany”. An epiphany in a short story can be a small shift, change in the characters or events that almost provides the reader and the narrator with a freeze frame.
It’s about two sisters, Kate and Julia Morkan who are holding a big Christmas party, back in the day. It’s January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany and the official last night of Christmas. They have many guests but we focus in on Gabriel and Greta Conroy. Greta hears a song at the party called The Lass of Aughrim and she starts to think back to her past and a certain young man who sang that song to her one wintry night. It ends with Gabriel, her husband making an awful discovery or having an epiphany on the Feast of the Epiphany(see what he did there) about his marriage and his life. Big questions and big issues.
UCD thought up the idea and Athena Media and Vermillion Design constructed the app. I worked with Lisa from Athena Design when I was involved with An Opera for Carlow project a few years back so I’m very excited to hear of this connection, they are innovative and lovely people to work with.
The app gives us the audio and the text, music and photos from the time and a couple of podcast commentaries. It is available to download completely free from iTunes and you really have no excuse.
Even though I love reading and real books, I also love my kindle, ipad and samsung note! I’ve been blogging for a few years now and have built up some connections with other lit bloggers, readers and writers. If you want to know who you must follow on twitter, befriend on facebook or subscribe to their blog, then you might want to read my list!
What makes a good lit blogger?
These 5 bloggers from Two Hour Blogger will give you a great introduction to the world of literature, reading and writing in Ireland and sometimes, abroad. Connect with them and you will connect with others. A good blog needs to be able to form a dialogue with their readers and update frequently and relevantly on its content. I’m only including my favourites under those criteria. No wafflers and no 3 updates a year for me, I’m afraid!
1.Nuala Ni Chonchuir has the original and the most well-known Irish literary blog. She has a dedicated following and her posts are always well and cleanly written with useful information about anything that is happening in the literary or her world.
She also has an author blog/website here. I love finding out about other writers and Nuala shares personal information but never in a “TMI” kind of way. She could tell you about her many travels abroad, she always seems to be going somewhere exotic! She could tell you about an author that she loves that you have never heard of. But, she is always current and helpful. You must subscribe to her blog at womenrulewriter.com
Image to the left is from www.nualanichonchuir.com
2. My next brilliant blog to follow is of the very, very, very busy Paul Mc Veigh. He blogs about everything connected with the short story, interviews, journals and competitions. He has a constant stream of competitions for any aspiring writer to enter so don’t say that there are not enough chances out there! I really don’t know how this man sleeps if he does. He is at every event and is now getting his own writing published! Sometimes, he could update ten times in a minute! Well, that is what it seems like to me!
He also is Deputy Editor of Word Factory and has written for theatre. He is going to be reading at the upcoming 13th International Short Story Conference in Austria. I think he needs to take a couple of days rest but thanks, Paul! He is a male version of Miriam O Callaghan! You can find him at his blog here and on twitter at @paul_mc_veigh. Image to the left is taken from shortstoryconference.org
3. The wonderful world of Dave Lordan, writer, poet and rouser can be found on his blog here. Dave is a poet and a writer but I think he gets his most enjoyment from teaching and helping other people find their voice and begin to write. He too is a busy man like Paul Mc Veigh. Dave runs loads of writing courses and he is infectious as a facilitator of learning. His blog is updated frequently and with relevant and quirky information and photos.
4. Everyone knows writing.ie but their twitter feed is most excellent too. Information is shared out for all, the blog was shortlisted for “Best Arts and Culture” blog. It also has some nice guest posts and blogs. It is the first place you should go if you like the idea of writing!
5. The Irish Lit Time basically gives you all the latest news on Irish literature and up-to-date coverage of Irish literary news and events in a magazine format via articles available online. Image taken from www.gerardbeirne.com. You can also follow IrishLitTimes on twitter and facebook or http://www.scoop.it/t/irish-literature.
It’s been amazing how busy my year has been. From hanging and learning at writing festivals and workshops to attending launches and lots and lots of reading and reviews in between.
I attended the Irish Blog Awards in style!
I’m going to start right back at the start of 2013. Yes, you’ve guess it. I’m starting my rozz.ie review of 2013 in… January
My Christmas present from my husband was a holiday to the city of Bath from. I was looking forward to lots of reading! We stayed in a gorgeous country house hotel up in the hills above the city. During the day, we saw the Jane Austen Museum, the Roman Baths and spent too much money in Mrs B’s Reading Emporium-the most fabulous of fabulous bookshops. I got a great recommendation there for a three-part novella/short story collection by Italian author, Pietro Grossi. I devoured it and reviewed “Fists” on the blog. Back at home, The National Emerging Writers’ Programme released a set of DVDs in conjunction with writing.ie. February
A Rozzie became ill and Simon attended the Dalkey Book Festival by himself. He treated me to the anthology of very cool and diverse anthology “Best European Fiction 2012” and I promptly gave it a thumbs up and a glowing review on the blog. You have to be nice. March
There was an obsession on my blog with the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize 2013. I downloaded the 5 short stories and loved, loved, loved Mark Hadden’s “The Gun”. I predicted it would win but Junot Diaz’s “Miss Lora” scooped the prize. I liked it but didn’t love it. Not to worry, Mark, there’s always next year. April
My favourite Lit Crush, Kevin Barry won the IMPAC Prize of €100,000. April was also a month for winning with the Hennessey Literary award for Best Emerging Fiction went to a short story, “Shelley” by John O’ Donnell. That story certainty stayed with me.
Dave Lordan at the launch of his First Book of Frags.
I also got out and about and attended Dave Lordan’s launch of his new book entitled “First Book of Frags” I really enjoyed the frags, a unique mix of full-sugar calorie, Dave-style and proud. His launch was open and fun, ending in an Open Mic where I read a short piece. May
We saw the beginnings of the festivals that cover Ireland for the summer months with the Dublin Writers’ Festival and I applied for a masterclass with Colum Mc Cann. He handled the packed class of students well and was a chilled out performer.
2013 really was Kevin Barry’s year(Every year is?) and in May, he edited the “Town and Country” short story anthology. I was torn with trying to get to my nephew’s communion in Mayo and going to the launch in Dublin. In the end, after a public vote, I got to both. In heels. June
It was a month of reviews for rozz.ie and I reviewed “The story of before” by Susan Stairs, “Bloodlines” by Joyce Russell and “Telemetale”, anthology put together by the Irish Writers’ Centre to commemorate Bloomsday.
June was also jam-packed with events. The Carlow Writers’ Cooperative published and launched their own anthology, “What Champagne Was Like” and I had two shorts featured within. The very lovely Jamie O’ Connell launched it for us. We raised over €1,100 and were pretty proud.
Jamie O Connell launches our group anthology, What Champagne Was Like. An excuse was had to get hair made big by Rozzie.
I also checked out the brilliant Festival of Writing and Ideas in Borris House. We had Ben Okri, PJ Harvey, Anne Enright and Donal Ryan to name a few. Hugo Jellett, the organiser has created the top literary festival with a unique setting. A must for any reader or writer. Honestly. It finished off a pretty brilliant Carlow Arts Festival. We are lucky. You should be jealous of Carlow. July
This month is always the month of the West Cork Literary Festival and we headed off to Bantry again. I sat a week-long workshops with John McKenna and it involved lots of movement and chat and homework! The week flew. My highlight of the festival events was Deborah Levy, reading from her cute book “Things we don’t want to know” and “Black Vodka”, both of which I loved and reviewed on rozz.ie
Off to Bantry in July to read, chat and write!
August
A historian friend( you know who you are) dragged us to the surprisingly cool History Festival in Ireland in Duckett’s Grove, Carlow. We saw “The Great Hunger”, Patrick Kavanagh’s one-man play. It was excellent and we followed it up with an event with Nicky Byrne. He of former Westlife. Turtle Banbury, the host interviewed him well and Nicky told us everything he had found out about his family history in the archives.
I also volunteered for the Kilkenny Arts Festival and sat in on Ron Rash, Kevin Barry(whoop!), Paula Meehan and a evocative and moving performance of the river voice in Finnegan’s Wake in “Riverrun”
I also somehow got the chance to review David Constantine’s new short story collection, “Tea at the Midlands”. Loved. September
This month was the result of a summer holiday of reading with lots of reviews. I reviewed “Siege 13”, “Testament of Mary” and “The Herbalist”. Carlow Libraries gave us the annual Penfest Literary Festival and I caught up with Nuala Ni Chonchuir and she shared her wisdom on the short story. Kevin Barry arrived in Carlow and he read and chatted about his writing life. He revealed he was heading out of Ireland for a while but he will return. Phew! October
It was all about the literary magazine. Bohemyth announced its new editor, Michael Naughten-Shanks. Wordlegs magazine announced they wouldn’t be around forever and Dave Lordan et announced a new magazine, Colony. Coming soon!
I reviewed the very cool “Psychotic Episodes” by Alan Mc Gonagle and Simon reviewed the novel “Mount Merrion” purely because he loves Justin Quinn.
November
rozz.ie was longlisted for “Best Arts and Culture” blog and I attended the awards ceremony in style, dressed up as a flapper girl.
New Planet Cabaret anthology was launched by editor, Dave Lordan. Him again! We attended the launch which was recorded live on RTE radio 1 Arena show. December
It was festive with an entertaining night in Cafe Formenti, Carlow Town. John Mc Kenna and Angela Keogh hosted the event and we were treated to mince pies, turkey and cranberry balls and sweet potato and cinnamon fritters alongside readings and music. It inspired me to host my own Open Mic. Readers were asked to read, rant, sing for 5 minutes on the theme of Yuletide. Loosely. Madeline from the Tearooms gave us her new popup tea rooms as a venue and it was wonderfully festive and sweet!
The last month of 2013 was finished off with a review of Ron Rash’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and much anticipated “Young Skins” by modest man, Colin Barrett. Hyped up but fully deserved. I was sad when I finished it. Colin had one of his stories nominated for the Bord Gáis Short Story of the Year award but he lost out.
The last few days of my 2013 are being spent reading Carve Magazine and looking forward to writing some new reviews to come in the shape of “The thing about December” by Donal Ryan and “Baracuda” by Christos Tsiolkas.
Life is good and rozz.ie is a busy, little blog! I’ve hoped you enjoyed the year with me and it’s given you some inspiration to get reading, it really is the new black. Happy New Year!
