May 20, 2009

Book 22: Great Irish Short Stories

Great Irish Short Stories
Edited by Evan Bates

Even since visiting the lovely Emeral Isle last May, I haven't read as much Irish literature as I'd like; Finnegans Wake doesn't even begin to count, belonging instead to a class of delusional self-grandeur that I fear is international. Regardless, I was pleased at the way these stories took me back to places I had seen and give the reader a good general sense of the Irish people and the kinds of stories they might tell. The collection is varied and, though the majority of its stories originate from a twenty-year period, includes pieces from throughout the history of Irish literature and concerning many different subjects. Irish tradition revolves around a lot of mythology, and the collection duly includes "The Only Son of Aoife", Lady Gregory's easily readable simplification of a story from The Táin, and the less-accessible "Death of Fergus", more obtuse in its style but heartily mythological and appropriately weighty nonetheless. The collection also pays due attention to British customs and influence on Irish culture, with Maria Edgeworth's "The Limerick Gloves" centering on events in England regarding an Irishman and showing a hint of the beginnings of the mystery genre, with its central conflict explained entirely in the story's closing pages. "Green Tea" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu similarly owes its structure, that of an obscure narrator presenting his mentor's correspondence, to the prevailing trends of the time, but its focus on spirituality gives it a somewhat distinct Irish air.

Many of the stories delightfully bring the Emerald Isle to vivid life, especially in their unapologetic rendering of local dialects and inherently Irish customs and insights. Willam Carleton's "The Donagh; or, The Horse-Stealers" is a brilliant example of a darkly humorous folk story, belonging distinctly to local Irish culture while maintaining a broader scope. Similarly Irish in concern is George Moore's fabulous "Home Sickness", which re-imagines the immigrant narrative and establishes an interesting perspective on those who came to America seeking fortune and their relationship to the pastoral simplicity of their homeland. The story is subtle and perhaps the collection's best, both conventionally and as a representative of something inherently concerning what it means to be Irish. Far less serious but equally excellent is "Lisheen Races, Second-Hand", which is a romp that tackles a particularly unfortunate day when an Irishman attempts to impress a good old boy from Oxford, who is duly horrified at the crude habits of the islanders and who receives his share of bad luck on the road to the races. James Joyce does make an appearance, in "The Dead", a selection from Dubliners; while it is well-written and interesting throughout it doesn't seem to have a point and describes an isolated incident that has no real bearing on, well, on anything other than describing itself. Such is modernism.

Overall, this particular volume of Great Irish Short Stories provides a good look at the variety of Irish literature while still providing stories that preserve a common Irishness about them. That they do this is various ways is a tribute to the selective powers of the book's editor, Evan Bates, and his keen perspective. A story that can stand proudly on its own, like "The Weaver's Grave" by Seumas O'Kelly, which is a darkly funny tale of two old hats attempting to find a specific and obscure grave location in a decaying cemetary for an undefined aristocracy, finds a greater sense of purpose in a collection such as this, where it becomes representative of a kind of stubbornness and folk mythology commonly attributed to the Irish people, both by outsiders and by themselves. By and large, the stories in this collection each reveal a distinct facet of Irish culture whether by intent or accident. The early stories easily show their English influence, particularly in plot structure, while the later stories gradually become more concerned with a kind of Irishness and national pride, just as the country moves toward partial independence (all but one of the stories was written before 1922). The collection could have been more chronologically inclusive and it's true that many of the stories are merely average, but taken together they provide an interesting tapestry of the island and its literary heritage.

Grade: A-

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