Modern Irish-American Fiction: A Reader (Irish Studies) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815602340 ISBN 13: 9780815602347

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 1989

Synopsis

Reflected in these writings from 21 Irish-Americans are the themes common to all immigrant literature, but from the authors' own ethnic point of view. The struggle for success forms the underlying structure in the stories by O'Hara, Curran and McCarthy; and the changing values the New World imposes on the indivudual are seen in Edwin O'Connor's "Grand Day for M. Garvey." Irish wit and black humor pepper all the stories as represented by Dunne's bartender-philosopher, "Dooley," and Donleavy's "Fairy Tale of New Yor." Catholicism is omnipresent and is often characterized by the priest, as in Fitzgerald's "Benediction," "Power's "Bill," and Flaherty's "Fogarty." Themes that have an immense effect on the characters' relationships are their difficulties in communicating with one another which Gill captures succinctly in "The Cemetery," and the repositioning of gender roles, so evident in Cullinan's "Life After Death" and in Costello's "Murphy's Xmas." Finally there are the intense, often contradictory feelings the characters have toward their homeland: Hamill's "Gift," illustrates the desire to rid Ireland of British rule, Gordon's "neighborhood," shows the immigrants' embarrassment over their origins. Editors Casey and Rhodes have organized these pieces chronologically, beginning at the turn of the century. Thus, the selections illustrate the progression if Irish-American literature and also fulfill the words of William Kennedy, who said of his own writing: "those who came before helped to show me how to turn experience into literature."

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Although Andrew Greeley's 1971 article, 'The Last Of the American Irish Fade Away, ' ends on the sanguine note that perhaps it really is not so, most of what he writes is to substantiate the claim of the title.

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0815602340
• ISBN 13: 9780815602347
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Casey Daniel, Rhodes Robert