Modern Irish-American Fiction - (Irish Studies) by Daniel Casey & Robert Rhodes (Paperback)

About the Book

Reflected in these writings from twenty-one Irish Americans are the themes common to all immigrant literature, but from the authors' own ethnic point of view. Editors Casey and Rhodes have organized these pieces chronologically, beginning at the turn of the century. Thus, the selections illustrate the progression of Irish-American literature

Book Synopsis

Reflected in these writings from twenty-one Irish Americans are the themes common to all immigrant literature, but from the authors' own ethnic point of view. The struggle for success forms the underlying structure in the stories by O'Hara, Curran, and McCarthy; and the changing values the New World imposes on the individual are seen in Edwin O'Connor's Grand Day for Mr. Garvey.

Irish wit and black humor pepper all the stories, as represented by Dunn's bartender-philosopher, Dooley, and Donleavy's Fairy Tale of New York. Catholicism is omnipresent and is often characterized by the priest, as in Fitzgerald's Benediction, Power's Bill, and Flaherty's Fogarty. Themes that have an immense effect on the characters' relationships are their difficulties in communicating with one another, which Gill captures succinctly in The Cemetery, and the repositioning of gender roles, so evident in Cullinan's Life After Death and in Costello's Murphy's Xmas.

Finally, there are the intense, often contradictory, feelings the characters have toward their "homeland: " Hamill's Gift illustrates the desire to rid Ireland of British rule; Gordon's "neighborhood" shows the immigrants' embarrassment over their origins.

Editors Casey and Rhodes have organized these pieces chronologically, beginning at the turn of the century. Thus, the selections illustrate the progression of Irish-American literature and also fulfill the word of William Kennedy, who said of his own writing: "those who came before helped to show me how to turn experience into literature."

From the Back Cover

Although Andrew Greeley's 1971 article, 'The Last Of the American Irish Fade Away, ' ends on the sanguine note that perhaps it really is not so, most of what he writes is to substantiate the claim of the title.

Review Quotes

A very useful collection of representative pieces from 21 writers from the turn of the century, with a major introduction and notes on each writer.-- "Books Ireland"

Casey and Rhodes have assembled a collection of short stories and excerpts from novels refreshing in its wit and novelty. . . . Pleasurable reading.-- "Irish University Review"

Demonstrates that 20th-century Irish-American literature sustains a rich, nuanced voice, which like American Black and Jewish fiction, blends harmoniously into a long-standing tradition. . . . The editors have chosen works that best indicate the enduring characteristics of Irish-American literary practice.-- "The Irish Literary Supplement"