All posts from Sabina Clarke
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Irish on The Inside: Book Review/Commentary
The late author Tom Hayden – a civil rights activist, Vietnam War protester and one of the infamous Chicago Seven – left behind a treasure trove with his historical account of what it means to be Irish in America. It is also a joyful personal awakening, a riveting memoir – and epiphany of sorts. I have not read anything comparable by any other contemporary Irish American that captures the Irish American experience so well. Tom Hayden, who […] Read More
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The Irrepressible Edna O’Brien
Forward: Edna O’Brien, my favorite Irish woman writer, often referred to as the “Queen of Irish writers,” died Saturday on my birthday. I’ve always felt a kinship with her and particularly loved her short stories. It seems unfair that she never won the Nobel Prize in Literature or the prestigious $40,000 Booker Prize that is often seen as a precursor to the Nobel. She was honored with the title “Saoi,” meaning “wise one,” the highest honor […] Read More
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William Trevor: Master of “the Glimpse”
Within hours of his death at 88 in 2016, tributes from Irish writers poured in to the Irish Times describing how much William Trevor’s work meant to them. Described by many as the “greatest living English language writer,” Trevor’s books are considered very English, yet he considered himself an “Irish writer” belonging to the “Irish tradition.” His stated goal was to take Irish provincialism and make it universal. The picture that emerges is that of a […] Read More
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“Foster” … a Quiet Tour de Force
“Foster,” a novella by Irish writer Claire Keegan, set in rural Ireland, was the inspiration for the award-winning movie “The Quiet Girl”—in Irish, “An Cailín Ciúin,” a 2022 Irish coming of age drama written and directed by Colm Bairead in his feature film debut. Keegan’s novella is narrated through the eyes of a 9-year-old girl. She is one of many siblings in a household with few amenities and another baby on the way, with an overwhelmed mother and a somewhat disinterested father. […] Read More
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Book Review and Commentary: The Letters of Scott Fitzgerald
The Letters of Scott Fitzgerald, Edited by Andrew Turnbull, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963 Reading the letters of F Scott Fitzgerald is like eavesdropping on a private conversation as the unseen listener, where nothing is censored except a reference here and there to an individual that might offend. Fitzgerald’s letters offer a highly intimate unguarded glimpse into his personal life and relationships and reveal his deep bond with his only child his daughter “Scottie,” whom he sometimes addresses […] Read More
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“Prophet Song” … a Wakeup Call for All Who Listen
This book, winner of one of the literary world’s most prestigious awards—the 2023 Booker Prize for the “best piece of English language fiction published in the United Kingdom and Ireland in a given year” —is my first introduction to the Irish writer Paul Lynch. For some readers, Lynch’s depiction of a society unravelling under a totalitarian government in the Republic of Ireland—is a figment of a wild imagination; for others tuned in to our changing […] Read More