A look at books - Irish fiction and non-fiction literature to get your teeth in to

The Reckoning

By Jane Casey

Jane Casey’s life looks like an audition for the role of first-rate crime writer. Born and raised in Dublin, she graduated from Oxford University and Trinity College Dublin, and then worked in London for a time as a book editor until the urge to write her own works eventually became too strong.

Marrying a criminal barrister in London who specializes in prosecution, her husband’s day to day life is filled with police officers, criminals, reluctant witnesses, judges and juries – basically the entire stock and trade of a crime writers life.

So if The Reckoning, her second thrilling tour of London’s back streets, is filled with the kind of illuminating details that ground it in reality you’ll know why.

When London detective Maeve Kerrigan sets out to find the killer of a series of sex offenders, she starts with the theory that it’s the work of a mobster who’s hoping to track down a missing girl. But the facts keep pointing in other directions and the lid keeps coming off more and more long buried grudges, with explosive results. 

Casey is a particularly acute reader of human behavior, and there is more than a hint of the psychological depth of the classic crime drama Prime Suspect at work in this tense and twisted tale.

Minotaur, $24.95.

Malarky

By Anakana Schofield

Well, this is a particularly lively tale by an Irish Canadian with a superb understanding of the cadences of Irish speech. In Malarky we meet an Irish widow named Philomena who refuses to be sunk by whatever indignities life tries to serve her. 

Recently bereaved, she has caught her son in the fields with another man. Then a half mad local informs her of all the real or imagines infidelities of her late husband. It’s enough to oppress the spirits of the brightest, but Philomena is made of stronger stuff. 

Schofield’s richest gift is for spirited dialogue which crackles with humor and energy in this blackly funny, half mad tale. Portraits of working class Irish female eccentrics are pretty thin on the ground, and for that reason alone this divertingly brilliant book is entirely worth your time. 

This is the most distinctive novel of its kind I’ve read in a decade. 

Biblioasis, $16.95.

A Fierce Local: Memoirs of My Love Affair With Ireland

By Harvey Gould

Harvey Gould is not your typical Irish moniker, but nonetheless he’s a “fierce local” in his adopted homeland, which he clearly loves unreservedly. So how did a nice Jewish boy from Chicago become a (literally) full-blooded Irishman?

It may have been thanks to the blood transfusion that saved his life during his 13th trip to Ireland. Suffering from a chronic blood disorder, he visited a local doctor when he started feeling poorly. 

She drew some vials and sent them – and him – to the hospital immediately. Three hours later he was having the blood transfusion that saved his life.

Gould, who was a former trial lawyer in California, enjoys the symbolism. All his American blood was replaced by Irish blood, which is taking matters to a bit of an extreme. 

Marrying Karen Duffy, an Irish American girl from Washington Heights, was the transformative event in Gould’s life. Both had been married before to people within their own faith traditions, both subsequently divorced and took a long time to decide they belonged together, but eventually they did.

Because of that union Gould eventually discovered the other great love of his life, Ireland. Visit after visit brought him closer to the elusive character of the Irish themselves, and this memoir is a vivid and clearly heartfelt celebration of the land and its people.

iUniverse.com, $22.95.

On the Run

Colm O’Gaora

When Colm O’Gaora’s mother was young there were still people living in her locality that had an excellent memory of the Year of the French. O’Gara’s father was a sailor as a young man and remembered hearing of Lincoln’s death whilst stopping at Cape Verde. 

O’Gaora himself was fated to live in interesting times, writing one of the most vivid accounts of the Irish War of Independence in the Irish language. This remarkable new book is a translation into English of his classic telling. 

O’Gaora was an important figure in the development of republicanism and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in the west of Ireland. In the early 1920s that meant living your life on the run from British forces. This turbulent era of Irish history leaps to life in a memoir that is deservedly reprinted year after year.

Dufour, $26.95.

A look at books- Irish food and fiction

Painted With Words
By Lara Marlowe

Lara Marlowe is best known as a distinguished foreign correspondent for The Irish Times, but she is equally well known in Ireland for her writings on French art.  Painted With Words is her luminous new collection of essays on some of the world’s greatest painters.

“Painting is not done to decorate apartments,” wrote Pablo Picasso. “It is an instrument of war against brutality and darkness.”

It’s perhaps inevitable that Marlowe, who has spent decades contemplating brutal regimes who spread brutality and darkness herself, should turn to art for solace, and perhaps to remind herself (and us) of what is greatest in human nature.

Sometimes an image can be a talisman that you carry with you, and the memory of it can sustain you in even the darkest times. All the while we’ve know her as a world class foreign correspondent, it appears that Marlowe has also been a philosopher of art and the human condition.

In Painted With Words, her introduction to the achievements of some of the worlds greatest painters is one of the most insightful and heartening books I’ve read on the subject of art and artists in over a decade.
Dufour, $44.95.

Fifty Years Have Flown: The History of Cork Airport
By Donal O’Drisceoil and Dairmuid O’Drisceoil

CORK Airport celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, and in this lively and beautifully illustrated new book the writers have produced an affectionate and often very funny portrait of the airport down the years.

It began, like so many Irish tales, with a scramble. In 1961 the airport was still a building site two weeks before it was scheduled to open.

First there was the Irish rain, then the Irish cement strike (don’t ask) and dust was everywhere, clouding the windows of the aircraft and the arrivals hall. But after one almighty final push the construction workers and staff somehow pulled it off and history was made.

It wasn’t all bright. There was the dreadful 1968 Tuskar Rock tragedy (an air crash resulting in Aer Lingus’ greatest loss of life). There was also the 1985 Air India disaster.

But the airport was also a glamorous outpost for celebrity sightings, returning sports teams and tony social events. This book is the most handsomely illustrated and evocative memoir of 50 years of aviation in Cork.
Dufour, $45.95.

Farmhouses Cheeses of Ireland
By Glynn Anderson and John McLaughlin

THERE are 40 shades of green, but countless hundreds of varieties of Irish farmhouse cheese. If all you’ve ever tasted is mild cheddar, this book might be your guidepost to a richer, tastier world.

The Irish produce world-class dairy. For proof of this watch Irish butter fly off the shelves in supermarkets in New York City. There’s an inimitable creamy richness to Irish products that is the result of fertile land, an ideal climate and centuries of farming traditions.

It’s no wonder our excellence is acknowledged internationally. As well as introducing you to many of the most delicious cheeses you will ever taste, this vividly illustrated book will teach you recipes to experience their cheeses in their best possible lights.

For gourmets and for anyone interesting in expanding their knowledge of world-class Irish cheeses, this book is the go to guide.
Collins Press, $44.95.

Every Goose Thinks His Wife Is a Duck
The Irish Case For Laughing, Crying and Drinking Through Life
By Robert Sullivan

“LIFE is a long preparation for something that never happens,” said W.B. Yeats once, marvelously.

A talent for seeing and saying profound things in a way that can startle and make you smile at the same time is an Irish gift. Charm, it turns out, has always been a valued commodity, as has style.

“I never wake without finding life a more insignificant thing than it was the day before,” wrote Jonathan Swift.
The Irish awareness of the ultimate absurdity of things, even the most serious questions of life and death, may stem from centuries of peering into the abyss of colonialism and its horrifying consequences. There’s nothing like ruinous suffering to drive a man or woman to think.

What makes Sullivan’s book stand out from other run of the mill collections of the best of Irish quotations is that he has curated it with no distinction between poet, pop star or politician. All are eminently capable of offering insights and this lively volume is certain to entertain.
CreateSpace, $15.99.