Customer Reviews

The Feast: A Dramatic Retelling of Ireland's Epic Tale (Ulster Cycle)

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4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a remarkable translation that gives the reader insight into the cultural background of modern day Ireland. Eickhoff is a gifted individual who has an uncanny insight into the life of pre-Christian Ireland.

A notably raunchy, sometimes downright grotesque, translation of the Old Irish text. I wearied of the constant mentions of women's bodies -- there's only so many times an author can use terms like "bouncing buddies" (sic) without getting stupid, and Eickhoff uses them repetitively. Granted, the original text is not G-rated, but in the course of fictionalizing the author has exaggerated the nastier elements as much as humanly possible--the women as objects is bad enough, the fart jokes are *really* uninteresting.

Eickhoff's introduction shows that he does have scholarly credentials, and when he's not being a 12-year-old boy, he does have a good sense of comedic timing. But too much is too much.

It is amazing that someone with such knowledge of a dead language can so poorly understand the culture that birthed it. The author's translations are generally very close to other translations (if one extracts his literary additions) but he has a tendancy to misinterpret sometimes obvious modivations, allusions, and sometimes statements, making many of the characters inconsistant with themselves, their positions, and their culture. He also has a tendancy to force his stereotype of barbarians on a people known for their obsession with personal hygiene and dislike for fart jokes (according to the Elizabethans). Thus every finger mentioned in the book is dirty and the characters have more problems with intestinal distress than pigs in a bean field. Then there's the women. Each time one walks by, someone leers at her a) heavy or b) cone-shaped breasts. The very presence of a member of the opposite sex makes every character pant and weak in the knees; like a Penthouse letter written by a 13 year-old. Though this is supposed to be a humorous tale, the author takes the buffonery to an extreme that, I think, would be offensive and insulting to those who originally created it. The author tries to keep the tale in its sensual original form, making it R-rated, but his writing style belongs in a poorly penned children's book. Most translations, no matter how bad, deserve a look see, but with this author's tendancy to add literary filler (not necessarily a bad thing) with distorted optics, it's difficult to tell what he wrote and what was originally there. Or at least it would be if he had a better feeling for ancient Irish culture and better writing skills.
His other translations are better.

A notably raunchy, sometimes downright grotesque, translation of the Old Irish text. I wearied of the constant mentions of women's bodies -- there's only so many times an author can use terms like "bouncing buddies" (sic) without getting stupid, and Eickhoff uses them repetitively. Granted, the original text is not G-rated, but in the course of fictionalizing the author has exaggerated the nastier elements as much as humanly possible--the women as objects is bad enough, the fart jokes are *really* uninteresting.
Eickhoff's introduction shows that he does have scholarly credentials, and when he's not being a 12-year-old boy, he does have a good sense of comedic timing. But too much is too much.