Irish Novelists I Should Read

I think Tim's about right except that I admire the book slightly more than he does. I might not call it fun but I think the writing is intense and distinctive, even if sometimes it's doing something fairly obvious (interior monologue of a fractured self, say).

(- but then I think if you try to describe precisely what it's doing, it's not that obvious, as eg what voice are we really listening to? Not what she says to herself in the moment, not like what Joyce affects to be doing in much of Ulysses, but a more stylized narration of life that doesn't exactly belong anywhere discursively.)

I don't know Quin and don't know BSJ hugely - the other thing is that the lilt, rhythm etc can feel very close to Joyce, including FW, and some other Irish writers. It took me a while to see the Beckett affinity that I think Adam Mars-Jones originally posited.

Haven't read the second book, have heard it is worse.

It seems there are also people with far finer tastes than mine who will rep for it moderately.

I did indeed mean Mike McCormack upthread - somehow I confused him with a journeyman rugby player.

I've been meaning to check out mcbride since I saw her talk/read here a few years ago (part of a IS MODERNISM DEAD panel iirc) - seemed interesting, and she did a pretty good job reading a passage from finnegans wake too

many xps to blechh: both - I was saying that I'd read it and recommending it to darragh/thread

what edna o'brien should I read

Country Girls trilogy is key, and any short story collection. Bonus points if you can get a hold of any of the gratuitously nippley 1970s Penguin paperbacks.