Celtic-themed book club

Coordinated by Wendi Rogers,  email: rogerswe@missouri.edu  

If you would like to receive e-mail updates and reminders, or just let Wendi know you'd like to participate, please send her a note.

All of the books we will read are available through www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com. You can also order them in town (and avoid shipping charges) at the Columbia Mall Barnes & Noble, or possibly at 9th Street Bookstore. If there are any difficulties finding the texts, contact Erin and she will help you locate a book.

MEETING SCHEDULE:

The CMCAA Celtic-themed book club has just started up this summer.  We plan to meet from 6:00-8:00 p.m., the last Monday of every month, at the Cherry Street Artisan (corner of 9th & Cherry)

Next meeting and book: Next meeting for the Celtic-themed CMCAA book club is MONDAY, April 30 2007, 6:00 pm, Cherry Street Artisan at the community table April book:  The Islandman by Thomas O’Crohan Tomas O'Crohan was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1865 and died there in 1937, a great master of his native Irish. He shared to the full the perilous life of a primitive community, yet possessed a shrewd and humorous detachment that enabled him to observe and describe the world. His book is a valuable description of a new vanished way of life; his sole purpose in writing it was in his own words, 'to set down the character of the people about me so that some record of us might live after us, for the like of us will never be again'. The Blasket Islands are three miles off Ireland's Dingle Peninsula. Until their evacuation just after the Second World War, the lives of the 150 or so Blasket Islanders had remained unchanged for centuries. A rich oral tradition of story-telling, poetry, and folktales kept alive the legends and history of the islands, and has made their literature famous throughout the world. The 7 Blasket Island books published by OUP contain memoirs and reminiscences from within this literary tradition, evoking a way of life which has now vanished.  Paperback: 262 pages  Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Reissue edition (March 23, 1978)  Language: English  ISBN-10: 0192812335  ISBN-13: 978-0192812339

PAST BOOKS:

Paddy Clarke Ha-Ha-Ha by Roddy Doyle is our September selection. Below is a summery.

Summary
In this national bestseller and winner of the Booker Prize, Roddy Doyle, author of the "BarrytownTrilogy," takes us to a new level of emotional richness with the story of ten-year-old Padraic Clarke.Witty and poignant--and adored by critics and readers alike--Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha charts the triumphs, indignities, and bewilderment of Paddy as he tries to make sense of his changing world. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Review

Winning the 1993 Booker Prize propelled Doyle's fourth novel from its original spring publication to a December issue date. While retaining the candid pictures of family life, the swift, energetic prose, the ear-perfect vernacular dialogue and the slap-dash humor that distinguished The Van , The Snapper and The Commitments , this narrative has more poignance and resonance . Set in the working-class environment of an Irish town in the late 1960s, the story is related by bright, sensitive 10-year-old Paddy Clarke, who, when we first meet him, is merely concerned with being as tough as his peers. Paddy and his best friend Kevin are part of a neighborhood gang that sets fires in vacant buildings, routinely teases and abuses younger kids and plays in forbidden places. In episodic fashion, Doyle conveys the activities, taboos and ceremonies, the daring glee and often distorted sense of the world of boys verging on adolescence. As Paddy becomes aware that his parents' marriage is disintegrating, Doyle's control of his protagonist's voice remains unerring, and the gradual transition of Paddy's thoughts from the hurly-burly of play and pranks to a growing fear and misery about his father's alcoholic and abusive behavior is masterfully realized. While some topical references may bewilder readers unfamiliar with life in Ireland, other background details--the portrayal of small-town society, of the strict teacher who shows sudden empathy for Paddy--have universal interest. Most notable, however, is the emotional fidelity with which Doyle conveys Paddy's anguished reaction to the breakup of his family. Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Appeared in: Reed Elsevier Inc. (c) Copyright 2006, Cahners Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

There is one copy at the Daniel Boone Regional Library and one copy at Ellis Library on the MU Campus. I am not endorsing 9th Street Book Store by any means but they will give you a 10% discount on the monthly selection is you tell them you are with the Celtic Themed Book Club. I’ll get over there tomorrow with an updated list so if they want to look up your name you’ll get the discount.

 

We also discussed the October book. I would like to recommend The Mabinogion Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton. Please, see the description below. There are three copies of this fictionalized account at the Daniel Boone Public Library. Ellis on MU campus has several academic translations of the Mabinogion but not Walton’s book.

From the Publisher:
Published now in one volume for the first time, here is the classic of medieval Welsh literature re-imagined by one the great masters of 20th century fantasy.

The author of The Mabinogian, the great compendium of medieval Welsh mythology, is unknown to us, but generations have thrilled to the magical adventures contained set at a time when men and gods mingled, and the gods had more than met their match; tales of the wizard-prince Gwydion, of Prince Pwyll and Lord Death, and of the beautiful Rhiannon and the steadfast Branwen. In the masterful hands of Evangeline Walton the twelve "branches" of the ancient text were reworked into four compelling narratives: The Prince of Annwn, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon, and The Island of the Mighty.

In The Prince of Annwn the seeds of future tragedy are planted. Young Prince Pwyll meets Arawn, the God of Death, and survives the encounter with a heavy charge: to take on Arawn's guise and kill for him the one man even Death could not fell. The Children of Llyre chronicles the great family of Bran the Blessed, and their epic struggle for the throne. In The Song of Rhiannon, the struggle continues with Manawyddan and his son Pryderi, the rightful heir to the throne, against the force of an ancient curse. In The Island of the Mighty, the throne of the kingdom of Gwynedd is in peril when Gwydion, the headstrong heir, dares to provoke the legendary wrath of Lord Pryderi.

Evangeline Walton's Mabinogian Tetralogy is one of the remarkable achievements of 20th century fantasy literature, a powerful work of the imagination, ranking with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novels and T. H. White's The Once and Future King. The gods and goddesses, wizards and sorceresses, the mortal men and women of ancient days come brilliantly to life. Evangeline Walton's triumph is to have constructed a vital and living world on the foundations of myth.

About the Author: Evangeline Walton (1907-1996) is one of the acknowledged modern masters of fantasy fiction. In addition to the Mabinogian novels, Walton was the author of the dark fantasy, Witch House, considered one of the classics of the genre. She was named a Grand Master of Fantasy by the World Fantasy Convention in 1989.

ISBN: 1585675040

AUGUST 2005: The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story. By Angela Bourke. (Penguin Books, 2001. 304pp)

Review from Publishers Weekly: A wonderful example of narrative cultural history, this text examines a pivotal moment in Irish history, through folklore and language. In 1895, Bridget Cleary, of Ireland's County Tipperary, caught a bad cold which her husband interpreted as a sign that she'd been taken by a "fairie." "She's not my wife," Michael Cleary said, "she's an old deceiver sent in place of my wife." After trying to treat her with herbs, "first milk" and urine, Michael burned his wife to death. When her body was discovered in a shallow grave, the Royal Irish Constabulary, who saw her death as evidence of Ireland's backwardness (and hence justification of the British colonial presence in the region) rounded up a band of men, including Michael, and tried them for murder. As she pieces together the details of these events, Bourke (senior lecturer in Irish at University College, Dublin) tells the history as a deeply rooted collision of cultures: the accused Irish believed that they'd justifiably snuffed out a fairy changeling; the British authorities called it murder. Fairies, Bourke argues, held an important place in 19th-century Irish culture, but fairy scares were often evidence of larger personal and social conflict. In Bridget Cleary's case, she may have been the victim of unresolved marital trouble (she was barren, opinionated and financially self-supporting). Found guilty of manslaughter and sent to prison, Michael Cleary, upon his release in 1910, emigrated to Canada, but the legend of Bridget Cleary lives on in a Tipperary children's rhyme: "Are you a witch or are you a fairy,/ Or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?" This thoughtful and disturbing book gives the legend a new, more complicated cultural life.

SEPTEMBER 2005:  In Search of Ancient Ireland: The Origins of the Irish from Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English. By Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton. (New Amsterdam Books, 2002. 288pp)

Review by Midwest Book Review: Collaboratively researched and written by Irish history expert Carmel McCaffrey and television writer, producer, and director Leo Eaton, In Search Of Ancient Ireland: The Origins Of The Irish From Neolithic Times To The Coming Of The English offers a truly fascinating and informative look at the origins of the Irish people and culture from the "New Stone Age" down of pre-history to the Norman invasion of 1167 AD, which brought the country under control of the English crown for the first time. Monasteries, ring forts, mountains, sacred caves, and as much as can be excavated or deduced of ancient history is superbly featured with a wealth of fine detail in this fascinating and highly readable resource.

OCTOBER 2005:  The Last of the Name. By Charles McGlinchey. (J. S. Sanders & Co., 1999. 128pp)

Review from Library Journal: When Charles McGlinchey (1861-1954) was in his eighties, local school teacher Patrick Kavanaugh decided to record the stories McGlinchey told him during their biweekly visits. McGlinchey, a weaver living in a small parish in County Donegal, Ireland, had never married and had outlived all his family (thus the book's title). Fascinated by the parish's local history and lore, Kavanaugh recorded McGlinchey's autobiography in his own repetitive colloquial speech, mixing English and Irish with occasional bog Latin. Thirty years later, the manuscript found its way to [playwright] Brian Friel, who gave the oral history its present form. Originally published in Belfast in 1986, this book reads like a collaboration between Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie). Evoking herbal remedies while ignoring the world wars, [it is an] evocation of a simpler time.

February 2006

Chet Raymo, Climbing Brandon: Science and Faith on Ireland's Holy Mountain (Walker & Company, 2004)

From Booklist :
Mount Brandon is one of Ireland's highest and holiest mountains. Located in the far southwest, on the famous Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry, Brandon raises its gray head into seaside clouds. A pilgrim's path winding up the mountainside is traveled year-round by those searching for inspiration from nature and nature's creator. In late summer, near the Celtic feast of Lughnasa, the annual "pattern" of the area includes a ritual ascent of the mountain. In carefully wrought, short essays, philosopher and scientist Raymo uses his own decades-long knowledge of the mountain as a springboard for meditations on the juncture of science and spirituality. Raymo, longtime science columnist of the Boston Globe, shows how science, far from being in conflict with spirit, can inspire and illuminate the mystical mind. Not only for those interested in Ireland, this fine, short book should appeal to readers interested in earth spirituality as well. Patricia Monaghan

March 2006
In March, we'll be heading to Scotland by reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.  This historical adventure novel, published in 1886, is set amid the Jacobite troubles of Scotland.  Kidnapped is among Stevenson's best known works, along with Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  A Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of the novel was recently featured on PBS.  I hope you enjoy it!

Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped.  Editions are available at any bookstore.  I recommend the Penguin Classics edition, as it contains the original serial illustrations as well as background information.

April 2006
The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx

In May 2006,  Breakfast on Pluto: A Novel, by Irish author Patrick McCabe

From Publishers Weekly
McCabe is a master ventriloquist. In The Butcher Boy he projects the voice of a brash, fast-talking, murderous boy in order to tell a story of divisive tension in a small Irish town. In The Dead School the liberalization of modern Dublin came to readers in the voice of a doddering headmaster. Here, in this Booker Prize finalist, McCabe walks far out on a limb: in the voice of Patrick "Pussy" Braden, a male transvestite fathered by a priest and brought up by foster parents, he tells of life in a violent Irish border town in the early 1970s and an exiled existence in London. (Imagine Ru Paul discoursing on "the Troubles" over a top-40 soundtrack.) Of course, they are more Pussy's troubles than his countrymen's, but Pussy is perhaps the most unabashed narrator in Irish writing since Beckett's Malone. He's nothing if not full of style: "And who was it within my darkened cellbox upon whom mine eyes did gladly fall as there I sat sky-high a-twiddle, ringed around by stars and planets?" Pussy's tale, brief but never boring, is structured as the story told to his doctor in 56 tiny chapters with theatrical asides. Stigmatized as the bastard son of the town priest whose "starched vestments... were partly responsible for his son's attraction to the airy apparel of the opposite sex," Pussy flees to England, where his transvestitism looks suspiciously like a disguise (his old IRA connections are of no help in this regard) as he moves bout Picadilly Circus, picking up men, falling in love and fantasizing various bombing schemes to avenge his own sufferings and that of his down-and-out friends: Charlie, who falls prey to drink, and Irwin, killed by the IRA for informing. Comically self-absorbed, Pussy is nonetheless charming company, and McCabe manages adroitly to paint a tender portrait of lives destined to be lost to history, apolitical folk welcome neither in Catholic Ireland nor in the U.K. while the sectarian war rages on. A recently penned preface reveals the author's hope that this time is over and that a new tolerance of difference will take hold. (Dec.) FYI: The title comes from a 1969 chart-making song in the U.K.

July 2006  The Sea
From the award-winning author of The Untouchable ("Contemporary fiction gets no better than this."--Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review), an elegiac, deeply moving, and eminently accessible novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory.

August 2006
Ginger Man by James Patrick Donleavy.

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