From Publishers Weekly
The credible, plainspeaking characters in Delaney's sure-footed first collection of nine storiesApriests, drunks, conspiracy theorists, criminalsAhave taken wrong turns in the past that lend their present lives a sad irony. In "Travels with Mr. Slush," an ex-felon who drives a truck that sells crushed, flavored ice through urban neighborhoods suddenly finds himself the victim of crime when youths steal his car battery on the hottest day of the summer, melting his entire load. Yet the tale closes with a surprising, cautious optimism. In "O Beauty! O Truth!" a boy who ridicules his strict teachers foreshadows his shooting death years later by police officers as he leaves a crime scene. Characters usually find crucial life decisions made for them by forces beyond their control. The 17-year-old narrator of "A Visit to My Uncle" travels to New York to ask his rich, estranged relative for money for medical school; he is nonplused when his uncle (a lawyer) offers to pay his way, but only under manipulative conditions. The standout title story tells of a tormented former priest who suddenly emigrates in middle age from Ireland to America. His new life includes a new vocation as hod carrier and a new name, an act born of panicked necessity after he disposes of the dead body of a possible traitor, a constable in the RIC, in a lake. In the less dramatic pieces, Delaney wisely lets a poignant situation tell its own story. In "The Anchor and Me," a mild-tempered husband is unable to say whether he feels jealous or proud of his anchorwoman spouse's driven, successful life and career; the antihero of "Notes Toward My Absolution" robs convenience stores with an unloaded gun. Delaney's measured pace imparts a grace to his tales, which at their best are reminiscent of Cheever or Updike's grittiest efforts. Few words are wasted in this quietly triumphant collection. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A debut collection of nine stories by journalist Delaney, most of them depicting life amid the Irish-Catholic enclaves of Boston. Theres a melancholy strain in Delaneys work that has an unmistakably Celtic lilt but never sinks into the mawkishness that disfigures so much Irish-American writing. Most of the characters here are either young men standing on the edge of adult life or older men remembering what it was to be young. The title story is a sons reminiscence, ... la Frank OConnor, of his father and the strange turn of events that brought him from Ireland to the US in 1920, including a rather surprising revelation about what exactly his father had left behind. Hero is more of a neighborhood tale, re-creating the atmosphere of a working-class enclave of Boston during the 1970s, when returning Vietnam vets, homosexuality, and interracial dating began to roil the placid routines of everyday life. O Beauty! O Truth! takes place on similar ground, and relates the process by which a nice Irish boy from Holy Redeemer High gets himself mixed up with the mob in a big way. There are smaller domestic dramas as well: in A Visit to My Uncle, a young man who needs money for college convinces his father to let him visit New York to make an appeal to his fathers wealthy but long-estranged brotherwith unexpected results. What I Have Noticed is simpler still, being little more than a middle-aged mans reminiscences of how his life has passed so far, and the role that his own family has played in his life: Quiet and unostentatious, its the most moving piece here. Fine and real: Delaneys field of vision is very narrow but very rich, and his sensitivity to the power of unspoken emotions animates his work in a refreshingly old-fashioned way. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
