Customer Reviews

Yeats Is Dead! A Mystery by 15 Irish Writers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fifteen Irish writers take their turn (one chapter each) at ratcheting up the silliness while developing a story centered on the discovery of James Joyce's final unpublished work. Organized crime, organized crime fighters, and Irish society in general take on a generous helping of ribbing while each author does his or her best to out do the previous. What is funny is how many of the authors take what was written before and then throw in a bizarre twist. Or just simply kill off a character nurtured and developed by a previous writer. One poor soul about halfway through makes some attempt at stabilizing the story, only to be completely blown out of the water by the next. And yet at the same time, a couple of gags presented near the beginning of the book find their way into every chapter up to the end.

All in all it is a very fun collection of work, and edifying as well in the sense that the reader may find a new author or two to try out after putting this one down. Because of the nature of this type of work, naturally the writing styles and quality vary greatly from one chapter to the next. This fact in itself will disturb the reader that attempts to take the novel too seriously. Although why this feat is even attempted when you are reading about a ginger haired young Irishman who likes to speak in American ghetto slang is beyond me.

This book was written by a couple of Irish writers out to have a little fun. There were some minor but obvious editorial errors which only adds to the true nature of this book - that it wasn't meant to be a literary masterpiece, it was meant to entertain and make people chuckle. I loved it and it can be read in a few hours. . so enjoy!

i read this while living in Dublin, and loved it, the writers have a great time with it and the reader can't help but be brought along for the ride. some knowledge of irish slang is really helpful though. and at times the plot gets a bit... fantastic. too many cooks make for a crazy stew. but as long as you aren't expecting a tightly crafted novel and are only out for a quick read (it works well chapter by chapter, so it's good for travel) and a laugh.

I was recommended this book by amazon.com. I just can't recall why, but I had it put on my wish list when my brother decided to give it to me for a birthday gift last summer. After going through a long horrendous, yet exciting read of another Irishman John Connolly's "Every Dead Thing", I welcomed the change to the light hearted when my fiance thought it would be cool to go ahead with a story as witty as this one. Witty is one thing, but there were some parts that was truly laugh out loud.(...)

Yeats is Dead is a story without being a story itself. Written loosley by 15 Irish authors just out there to have some good old fashioned fun. Theyd o an excellent job with the idea and all, but fall extrememly short when it comes to ending the whole story. Under each author, the characters just seem to be suffering from some sort of schizophrenia with their feeling jumping from one point to another. It's just unbelievable to conceive, unbeliveable to believe, but truly enjoyable to go through it along through the end.

The book is an excellent read at just any setting. The beauty of it being not truly knowing how the tory is going to twist and turn so that you come out with the final chapter. I think Frank McCourt just didn't know what to do with it and hastily ended it. All in all, this is a funny book that deserves all the attention. You just love reading an Irishman's (or woman) tale. When they're drunk and in the tell tale mode they're funny and when they're sober, you still can't take anything they say seriously. And that's exactly how it is with this very one book.

This book is a very entertaining read about murder and mayhem delivered in the fantastic style typical of good Irish writers. Each chapter written by another author, one never knows how many twists it will take...the story line rather like a thrashing slippery fish..you just never know where its going to end up! If you've got a good sense of humour this one will bring more than a smirk!

The first few pages almost turned me off because I thought it was a run-of-the mill mystery. But then, after leafing through the succeeding pages, I got a glimpse of Kafkaesque characters in the two stupid cops, who are arguing, philosophically and pathetically, whether the dead man, Tommy Reynolds, was already dead before one of them shot him. I got hooked. I couldn't stop turning the pages until I got acquianted with a network of psychotics and maniacs. Although each author kills more people in every succeeding chapter, the taste of violence is somehow offset by the authors' wits and creativity that revealed the authors' intention to turn Yeats is Dead into a literary piece rather than an ordinary mystery. In Yeats is dead, 15 Irish authors created their dream world, where every living person is a literati. Consider these: a garbage collector, who reveals his aversion to the language of Mills and Boon; a cop who writes poetry; drunken old bums who can appreciate the value of James Joyce's missing manuscripts; and crime bosses who can enumerate a long list of Irish authors. This is a wild and fun read!

Yeats Is Dead! is the collaboration of 15 Irish writers all contributing a chapter to what must be one of the strangest mysteries ever (if you can call it a mystery). Wherever outcomes would seem predictable, the next writer reverses the tide of the story. Chapter 2 mentions none of the characters that Chapter 1 does, for example, and whenever a character is being built up they seem to be killed off by the next writer. One point where its a ridiculous turnaround is chapter 11-12. Chapter 11 ends:

"Paschal Greer was all out of options. So he did what he should have done many weeks ago. He stepped, forwards, took Grainne O'Kelly in his arms and kissed her. Now there was no more need for words."

And Chapter 12 reverses it totally:

"Well, now. Flip it now. That's just the last straw, thought Sergeant Greer as Inspector O'Kelly punched him bang in the kisser just as he was about to slip the tongue in."

The book is full of mirth and its set-up allows to make what would otherwise be a less good book into a great one. 4 stars.

While not a devotee of mysteries, I was interested in this after reading "Finbar's Hotel" and "Ladies Night at Finbar's Hotel". I anticipated being somewhat disappointed since the initial concept is getting squeezed dry. "Finbar's Hotel" while fun, is by no means great literature, despite the array of authors who participated. "Ladies Night" was a clever sequel. Part of the fun of both is attempting to guess who wrote which chapters, and imagining how the authors collaborated to determine the order that would lay the foundation for the subsequent writers' work.

"Yeats is Dead" is fun and clever. And it is interesting in this variant of the concept to actually know who wrote which chapters. I was pleased that as I began the work it appeared to match the wit and quality of the other works. However, about half way the theme starts to get stretched thin, and it begins to read as if the later authors were striving to impress their peers. This does not flow as well as the earlier works in this "series" and comes across as more of a collection of related but parallel short stories.

While I enjoyed "Angela's Ashes" (but definitely didn't like "'Tis"), I don't regard Frank McCourt as being in the same league as writers like Roddy Doyle as McCourt's works were memoirs whereas the other authors are creative artists. I was pleasantly surprised as I began McCourt's final chapter, but felt the quality diminished as it proceeded and regret that he was chosen to conclude the book.

"Yeats is Dead" is fun and worthwhile primarily due to interest in who is involved in the effort and how they collaborate.

The book got off to a great start and was pretty good up to about half way through. Then it took a nose dive. I was so disappointed with the ending. What happened ????.

This Joseph O'Connor is an Irish novelist, NOT the NLP trainer and author of the same name.