Flotsam & Jetsam (Irish Literature Series) [Paperback]

Aidan Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Series: Irish Literature Series | Publication Date: March 2002

Considered to be one of the best Irish writers of the twentieth century, Aidan Higgins has earned a reputation throughout Europe as an unusual and astringent prose stylist. This omnibus of selected short fiction is the perfect introduction to the talents of this Irish successor to James Joyce and Samuel Beckett (although Higgins's work is perhaps more reminiscent of his Welsh contemporary Dylan Thomas), and displays Higgins's warmth of language and character. From a melancholy tale of suicide in "North Salt Holdings" to a colorful depiction of J. J. Catchpole's escapades in "Catchpole, " Higgins builds his characters into touching failures who both attract and repulse the reader.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of short fiction by one of Ireland's intransigent modernists follows, roughly, the chronological order in which the works were written. "Asylum," a novella from the early period, is an Anglo-Irish tale of a mad Englishman fallen on hard times. Eddy Brazill is the son of a manager of an estate in Ireland. He's one of the many who eventually make the crossing to England, taking a series of starvation-wage jobs in London until he is saved from utter starvation by an old acquaintance, Ben Boucher, a deaf, alcoholic toff who proposes that Eddy become his personal servant while he dries out at a sanatorium in Stye, an English coastal town. Boucher's type eccentric, sexually tormented and pathetic seems attractive to Higgins. In "Catchpole," the eponymous hero is a very odd married man down on his luck on the south coast of Spain, telling the narrator his life story, which mainly consists of sundry degradations involving a polyglot rough trade. His wedding is emblematic of his career: "The reception was rather grand, the house full of the most proper people.... Later that night the mother-in-law unexpectedly came upon the best man under the groom on the grassy verge of the front drive." Late in his career, his stories become more autobiographical. Such texts as "The Bird I Fancied" and "Sodden Fields" combine opaque personal references and a tumble of images connected by suppressed transitions. In "Sodden Fields," the most successful of these stories, this results in paragraphs that sometimes startle with Brueghel-like images. Determinedly odd and aesthetically uncompromising, Higgins's fiction is not for everyone, but this collection will amply satisfy the discerning few who savor his work.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This book brings together 18 pieces of short fiction, originally published between 1960 and 1989, by award-winning Irish author Higgins. These works, most of them novelistic in their scope and ambition, are characterized by a poignant yet sinister lyricism. From the suicide in "North Salt Holdings" to "Catchpole," which relates the picaresque exploits of its title character, Higgins explores the dense, dark underbelly of desire and memory; each story turns on a set of key images that gather density as the writing builds in layers of metaphor and allusion. Whether the subject is race relations or sexual intrigue in post-World War II Germany, themes of guilt and the disruptive force of desire are apparent. Recommended for collections with especially large or complete holdings in contemporary European or Irish literature. Philip Santo, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 470 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; 1 edition (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564783162
• ISBN-13: 978-1564783165
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,770,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For students of Irish literature, April 12, 2002

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

This review is from: Flotsam & Jetsam (Irish Literature Series) (Paperback)

Flotsam & Jetsam: Selected Fiction And Prose is an anthology of writings by award winning author Aidan Higgins, one of the most respected Irish writers of the century. In the style and tradition of great men such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, Flotsam & Jetsam contains a varied, savory sampling of vibrant, expressive stories with profound ambience and meaning. Flotsam & Jetsam is enthusiastically recommended reading for students of Irish literature in general, and fans of Aidan Higgins stories in particular.