Brendan Behan: A Life (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Irish writer Brendan Behan (1923-64) was adored unconditionally by his beloved Granny, endowed with a great love of the written word by his father, and inspired to embrace republicanism and the IRA by his mother. During his internment for the attempted shooting of two policemen, he began the writing that would bring him world renown. Once out of prison, he found literary recognition in Paris with his short stories while continuing to work as a Dublin house painter; he also launched on the legendary drinking that led to his diabetes and death. His prison drama, The Quare Fellow, was produced in Dublin in 1954, and in 1955 he married Beatrice ffrench-Salkeld, who suffered intense emotional and physical abuse at his hands. O'Sullivan, a broadcaster and the literary editor of the Irish political magazine Magill, accessed archives heretofore untouched to offer the best biography of Behan since Ulrick O'Connor's Bendan (LJ 8/71). He considers Behan in all his contradictions: both shy and spirited, he was a show-off and a vicious drunk who nevertheless possessed a remarkable ear for the language of the ordinary man. O'Sullivan also addresses Behan's rumored bisexuality. What results is a disturbing and enlightening biography.ARobert Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Writer, playwright, braggart, wit, liar, drunkard, quarreler, shit--Brendan Behan was a mass of contradictions. Simultaneously creative and destructive, funny and offensive, charming as heck and hell to get along with, he made friends easily and enemies almost as quickly. He packed so much into his short life--smuggling bombs for the IRA in his teens, international recognition as a writer in his early 30s, death at 41--that a biographer is hard-put to contain him in a mere book. Still, O'Sullivan pressed on, valiantly collecting every scrap of information he could about Behan, including lost letters from prison, hitherto inaccessible files in Britain, forgotten articles, and personal interviews, and reporting everything of interest and then some. At times the mass of facts and memories threatens to overwhelm, and O'Sullivan, a graceful, forceful writer, labors like the devil to find order in the chaos of Behan's life. Find an order he does, though, transforming the heap of letters, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and transcriptions Behan left behind into a life story as compelling as the one Behan actually lived. Jack Helbig --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 354 pages
• Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Publishers (June 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568331878
• ISBN-13: 978-1568331874
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,075,568 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chronicles a talented writer's near-legendary life, April 28, 2001

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Brendan Behan: A Life chronicles a talented writer's near-legendary life and illustrates why Behan became one of Ireland's most celebrated artists. Compiled from a wide variety of sources which included prison documents, interviews with family and friends, editors and contemporaries, biographer Michael O'Sullivan was able to present a lucid and vivid introduction to the complex personal world of a genuine literary genius. Brendan Behan: A Life is a "must" for those who appreciate the contributions, influence and work of this unusual and gifted literary figure of modern Irish literature.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perceptive, Honest and Well Written., August 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Brendan Behan: A Life (Hardcover)

The particular achievement of this fine book, is to extractBrendan Behan from the mire of mythology in which he has been sofirmly placed since his death in 1964 at the age of 41. No easy task for any author given Behan's own willful contribution to the process. It deals fairly and honestly with Behan's homosexual leanings and does so in a non judgemental way using the evidence available rather than mere speculation. It is perceptive and the writing is as, Jack Helbig describes it in Booklist, 'graceful and forceful'. Behan was long over due such a biography.

3.0 out of 5 stars Brendan Behan: A Life by Michael O'Sullivan, April 14, 2009

By	Michael J. DeMott "Michael J. De Mott" (Silver Spring, Maryland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Brendan Behan: A Life (Hardcover)

Brendan Behan: A Life was, for me, a sad and disturbing book. Brendan Behan was a writer rich in talent but a terrible alcoholic who refused help and abused those who loved and cared about him the most. While I knew Behan was a heavy drinker, his homosexuality, pornography and pimping were news to me. O'Sullivan has researched his subject well and gives readers a lot to ponder when they consider Behan's public persona and the real man. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Brendan Behan, but be prepared to learn more about him than you want to know.