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5.0 out of 5 stars
WHAT AN APT title for a book!, October 8, 2006
This review is from: A Firefly in the Night (Paperback)
Did you know that fireflies are some of the most transitory of creatures? The Encyclopedia Britannica writes that "fireflies have been around since the beginning of time, but their average lifespan rarely exceeds 1.3 earth weeks." Author Irelan seems to have acknowledged this scientific fact about the short-lived insect, but has gone clearly against the stream in his most masterful of family memoirs, Firefly in the Night.
In a most un-transitory of efforts, Patrick Irelan has ensured that the illustrious saga of his Davis County Iowa Irelans will last into perpetuity. Every step Irelan takes in his memoir has gone against what one might typically consider "short-term." A firefly this certainly is not! What's more, the paper-based copy you're holding in your hands, ladies and gentlemen, is merely the beginning!
(Rights are presently being negotiated for the e-book and syndication rights, and there have even been murmurings from Tom Hanks' production company that a Forrest Gump-like feature film is presently under discussion. Forrest Gump, I said to myself?! How could it be?! Any Hollywood actor worth his proverbial salt should be more than happy to portray the adult Irelan! Rumour has it Irelan himself is gearing up to play the role, but you didn't hear it here first! To not have this film properly casted would be a right shame.)
Flipping through this book's pages truly speaks for itself. Slice-of-life portraits of the author, from his very earliest days when he was but a wee lad watching the speeding locomotives pass him by at just-mach speeds, to the wistful reminiscences of a boy trying to help birthing cows--complete with tractor, rope, and the, um.."hands-on" assistance of his Iowa neighbours--all mixes together to create a goulash-y life mightily-lived.
These are the lives which comprise the quilt of our mosaic-like nation. The struggles, the heartaches, the heartbreaks, the successes, and the recollections of a life deeply enjoyed.
My most favourite sections were the bits about Patrick's night schedule. Irelan tells us that he's the most noctural of night owls--or, sovy, as we say in Czech--and this might well-explain his written genius, spun like golden flaxen. In the solitude of the witching hour, when Patrick faces down the sometimes-ally, sometimes-nemesis of the pixellated computer screen, he dishes up some of his very best material. When it's you--and you alone--who must face down your demons, you get locked away into your thoughts.
Can you come up with the goods, or can't you?
Author Irelan's proven time and time again that he not only slays his demons...rather, he ANNIHILATES them! Nightly, he commits the equivalent of literary "serial dispatching," but more than gore, this is insecticide! More than insensitivity, this is a delicate organization of thoughts...a prosaic tango.
It's a wonderful read, made all the more enjoyable because these sagas of growiing pains and tales of (sometimes) matrimonial woe are served up with the care and sensitivity of a man who has experienced much.
Although I did sense a touch of melancholy in Patrick's "voice"--indeed because the world has become a vastly more mendacious place--his work is pervaded by a notion of "end-of-the-line"-ness which just shouldn't be the case.
Patrick's career has surely meandered along so many different tributaries, but such variety shouldn't be fatiguing for him. Rather, I, for one, vouch that he should cherish the "31 flavors" of his storied sixtysomething existence, shaping his experiences into something resembling a magnum opus. While Firefly is positively excellent, to be sure, Mr. Irelan has penned a book which is still perhaps a single step away from where the story truly lies. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the book we've all been waiting for...
Though it's merely conjecture at this stage, I know Irelan penned this merely as an intro. While the familiar markings of "Part One" or such aren't anywhere to be seen near this book's cover, this here Reviewer knows it's all something of a shill in a lead up to much more colossal things. There's a better book coming out soon, and it's only a matter of when.
Firefly was indeed the classiest of literary decoys. In a majestic authorial "end around," Patrick Irelan has criss-crossed the Rubicon and back, only to end up at the same point. So I ask: what magnificence is coming next?
Five stars, folks. Read it for yourself. You'll see exactly what I mean.
-- ADM in Prague
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