Customer Reviews

The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction

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Look here scribblers. There be lessons in this book if you'd pay attention. RULE ONE: If you are a writer who wants to strengthen your dialogue bits, you can't beat the Irish. Go ahead and steal their techniques. If you write romance, you need good dialogue. If you write science fiction, magic realism, systems style or what have you, you need good dialogue. Story was meant to be expressed through dialogue. That's where it starts and that's where the good writers end up. If you want to reveal character, if you want people to visualize your characters, you need sex (Seeing if you were paying attention) You need good dialogue! These 20th Century Irish writers show that being able to verbally express an idea is the foundation of good storytelling. Take this wonderful collection of voices as your low-cost Rules of Writing then apply your own horror, mystery, lawyer plot. RULE TWO: Skip Bolger's introduction. It's heavy-handed, defensive and utterly inexplicable.

I first read this book in 1998 and was struck by the depth of the stories. I continue to enjoy them and am thankful to own the book. If you enjoy short stories, buy it.