Nine powerful, merciless, and perceptive stories of Ireland and the Irish journey beyond the sentimental myths to explore the grimmer realities of Irish life, in a collection that includes ""The Meateaters"" and ""The Butcher's Daughter."" A first collection.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this first story collection, Collins, Irish-born and distantly related to the Irish revolutionary who is his namesake, charts out new territory for the discussion of age-old problems. His perspective on life in Ireland is that of disaffected youth who are tired of political strife, the romanticization of bankrupt ways and the abdication of the fathers, who have left the children no legacy but violence and an oppressive church. In "First Love," kids left in a car in a pub parking lot are horrified as their fathers' dogs tear at the dead rabbits that have been bagged earlier in the day, the fathers oblivious over their pints. In "The Butcher's Daughter" a pregnant young woman sits in a pub with a doll in a pram as the place fills with soldiers, the workings of a violent cataclysm ticking away in the doll's belly. And in "The Whore Mother," Collins crafts a tale that is both quintessentially Irish (a brewery worker drowns in a vat of Guinness) and wickedly subversive (his impoverished widow, who in the absence of decent death benefits has taken up prostitution, is meted out the most terrible kind of justice). Collins's gift is his ability to find intricate metaphors to describe lives so grim that only anger lights the way.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this collection of eight stories of modern Ireland, the author draws on his country's rich legacy to reveal the cultural myths, romantic illusions, and sentimentalism that handicap his characters, who are caught up in Ireland's ongoing social turmoil. These are stories of economic survival, gaming and drinking, coming of age, the struggle in the North, and family life. The young IRA gunman in "The Meat Eaters," who anticipates a hero's welcome in New York, is as naive as the young girl in "First Love" who thinks babies grow in cabbage patches. In "The Butcher's Daughter," a young widow, with bomb in baby buggy, treats us to a grim, hilarious interior monolog. The final story, "Sickness," employs a Joycean stream-of-consciousness technique in portraying an old fisherman tormented by grotesque dreams of vengeful lobster-monsters. These are all first-rate stories--strong, richly detailed, biting yet compassionate--by an author who knows how to create suspense. Collins (fiction writing, Univ. of Chicago) is the grandson of Irish patriot Michael Collins. Highly recommended for literary collections in academic and public libraries.
- Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Potent Stuff,
By
This review is from: The Man Who Dreamt of Lobsters: Stories (Hardcover)
Michael Collins' stories are not for the faint of heart, nor for the simple of mind. They are emotionally complex without being stylistically opaque. He finds good compromises between writerly and readerly concerns, between brutality and deftness, between sensitivity and senselessness. A wonderful collection from a fine writer whose work should receive the attention here in the U.S. that it has abroad.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Let Amazon find this one for you.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Man Who Dreamt of Lobsters: Stories (Hardcover)
This book is worth finding. Not a name you're going to hear thrown around a coffee house, but definately worth discovering and sharing. Collins short stories are rich, dynamic and interesting. One is handed a photograph of words in which the people of Ireland, and their culture, are placed in facinating situations. Not may know of this work, so be one of the few who do.
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