One of my favourite films of last year was In Bruges, a black comedy about two hitmen on the run hiding out, er, in Bruges. It was written by Martin McDonagh the Oscar and Tony winning playwright who was born in London of Irish parents. McDonagh is up for best original screenplay at next week's Academy Awards and if there's any justice in the world he'll win. However in the last few weeks I've begun to hear mutterings on blogs and in a couple of emails that McDonagh is an Englishman who, like the unfortunate Shane McGowan, "exploits" a certain Irish persona for economic gain. This Punch magazine persona is certainly not true today and probably was never true to begin with: the comedic, drunken, loquacious, sentimental, professional or stage Irishman. Of all places the anonymous writer of McDonagh's Wikipedia entry seems to have provided the best summary of the controversy:McDonagh has his critics - especially within Ireland - who view his work with suspicion. His English birth and London childhood have caused many to question his credentials, validity and sincerity regarding Irish life. Many Irish scholars feel that his work is in fact stage Irish. A review by Elizabeth O'Neill for RTÉ said :"A modern day Synge or an English chancer? Martin McDonagh's plays have been courting controversy since The Beauty Queen of Leenane took the world stage by storm in 1996. Audiences have been divided roughly into two camps; those who think he's captured the black humour and zeitgeist of a postmodern rural Ireland, and those who see him as making a mockery of Ireland and the Irish by lampooning that caricature of old, the 'stage-Irish' fool."
Of course no one likes stereotypes but I think McDonagh is being picked on because of his 'Englishness' - always the bogey man for a certain class of critic. I suspect part of the problem is the entirely mistaken notion that the Irish represent some sort of unique genetic group who have maintained their purity throughout the centuries. If you spend a mind numbing ten minutes or so reading the comments on any of the Irish related YouTubes you'll know that this view is deeply held. It's ridiculous of course. Ireland is just as much a genetic mixed bag as every other country in Europe. In fact peer reviewed studies in the last year have proven that the Irish, Welsh, Scots and English are virtually indistinguishable genetically. The gate keepers of Irishness are on very shaky ground when they try to exclude people with planter names (Gerry Adams) or Norman names (the entire Fitzgerald clan) or anyone who's spent the majority of their life living outside the 32 counties (Yeats, Wilde, Joyce, Beckett, Swift, etc.) and both the Northern Irish and Republic of Ireland football teams sensibly apply the grandmother rule: if your granny (or granda) was born in Ireland then you're Irish and that's an end to it. So let's keep London born McDonagh and just to balance things out I'll gladly swap all four of those proud non tax paying Micks in U2 for him.
69 comments:
I don't see a lot of fillums, but the other day I got an email from a mate ordering me to see In Bruges. So I guess I will.
Great post about Irishness. I wasn't aware of any of that stuff. I of course am Irish, although I've spent about 140 years out of the country (returned for 2 weeks in 1979). My brother's done the family history and spent much time in Ireland. He tracked down the house of my great great grandparents in County Kilkenny, and took a picture to prove our Irishness. I'm sure this is of great interest to everyone.
Adrian -
Very interesting post, especially about the genetic argument. I'm probably what you would call a "plastic paddy," an American who traces half his lineage back to Ireland, drinks Guinness whenever he can, and tells everybody he's "Irish." I'll bet everybody born in Ireland loves to hear that. But hey, it's what we do in America. We don't say "I'm American" to each other. We say "I'm Italian...German..Irish.. etc."
In my defense, I don't adopt any delightfully cute sayings or expressions from The Quiet Man. For instance, I don't say "me" when I'm really saying "my."
All I know is that my great-great grandfather left Ireland "under suspicious circumstances." Don't know if he was a Fenian or part of some other group (there were a lot and sometimes I have trouble keeping track of all them to be honest).
But back to McDonagh. I don't care where he's from. He wrote and directed a damned good film. In Bruges should have garnered a few more nominations, like Best Picture and even a supporting actor nod for Ralph Fiennes who nearly stole the film. Not that the Oscars mean much when you come right down to it, but I do hope McDonagh nabs the award. In Bruges is a lot of fun--the wife and I have probably watched it at least ten times now.
I pretty much piss myself every time Gleeson and Fiennes are on the phone discussing Bruges and whether Farrell is enjoying his time there. Classic.
Last week I was getting my eyes tested and when the doctor wrote down my name he said, in a heavy Indian accent, "Is that Irish?" I said yes and he said, "I went to school in Dublin." Then he paused and said, "But I am not Irish," and I said, neither am I.
He said, "Yes, right, we're all Canadians now." I think he was happy about it.
But if you're going to start making trades....
If you have Irish blood, you have Irish blood, no matter where you were born. Why should it be such a ploy for commercialism to consider yourself Irish over English? Maybe I just don't understand the UK enough, but when I tell people I'm Irish-American, note that the Irish always comes before the American. Same thing for American with Irish blood. And that's no ploy at anything, for sure.
Great example is Vinnie Jones in "Johnny Was." He was an Irishman with an English accent, and I really don't think it's because Vinnie can't speak the Irish lilt. Even though born in England, his name was Johnny Doyle and throughout the film he was called a paddy and a mick. He was still considered Irish, even though he was born in England. Let the naysayers learn a little something from Bullet-tooth Tony and if they oppose, he'll just grap a handful of their twig and berries like he did as a footballer.
By the way, In Bruges was one of my favs of last year as well. "Shortarse!"
John
Impressive Nrn Irn accent there. Fillums. Nice picture too.
You should go back more often though, let me tell that direct 19 hour flight is a real treat.
John
I have no problem with anyone from America calling themselves Irish. Its totally fine by me, and it makes sense in the US context. I just get a bit sniffy when some Southie creep tells me I'm not really Irish cos I'm from Belfast.
Its also fine by me if second genners call themselves something else other than Irish. I think we dodged a bullet with the Gallagher Brothers for example.
John
Why cant you be both? I'm not a spy but I've got a British and a US passport. If I wanted I could get an Irish passport and if we stay here long enough I could have an Australian passport too.
I like the idea of nested identities.
I wonder if I am the only one commenting on this blog who hasn't got a single drop of Irish blood.
Though I suppose I can't be entirely sure.
and both the Northern Irish and Republic of Ireland football teams sensibly apply the grandmother rule: if your granny (or granda) was born in Ireland then you're Irish and that's an end to it.
If I remember correctly, when there was the need grandmothers were invented.
Of course in our national team we've had second or third generation Italian-Argentinians who could barely speak Italian.
Liam
Yes, precisely and Vinnie played for Wales didnt he? (Supposedly because he wasnt good enough to play for England, but I think it was more a personality conflict thing). Ryan Giggs also plays for Wales and both are very English.
I think its totally fine, but try to tell it to the ultra nationalist freaks and you'll be in for a boring two hour reply.
Marco
You may not be Irish but the Irish are all really from the Basque country if you believe Stephen Oppenheimer and I do.
Oh lots of people are both. My wife's family think of themselves as Irish, though by now they may have been in Canada longer than they were ever in Ireland.
I suppose that's what this discussion started out with, people glomming onto ancestral Irishness and how far back can that go?
John
I say whatever floats your boat. I just dont understand why Canadians dont take rugby seriously. They're the exception in the Commonwealth.
It was either rugby or hockey and what with the long winters and all, we went for the ice.
You might be a spy, though. I don't say you are, but you might be. Although I'm not sure for who, exactly.
Of course, any of us might be. I mean, I wouldn't be, because apart from the fact that I deplore the whole idea of them, I would find it too tedious for words. I know that at some point I would just say, 'screw this' and cast off the whole fake role and everything. It seems a terrible way to live.
I am going to make a big overgeneralization here, but I think ethnic identity kind of changes in America as you move west. I say this only on the basis of my experience of being basically a Californian, and going back to see my dad's Illinois family from time to time. I think of them as a big Irish-Catholic clan, but in fact the interesting thing is that although that is what my dad and his siblings grew up as, most of them them married outside of their ethnic identity--married Polish-Americans and Lithuanian-Americans and Croatian-Americans and German-Americans, even though their spouses families still are buried in separate--but equal--parts of the same cemetary. My dad actually took it a step further and married a Protestant of Quaker descent, and, as I may have mentioned here before, didn't even bring her home to meet his mother till I was about seven years old, because he was so terrified to tell her that she wasn't Catholic. Luckily, my mom made a good impression, though I think my grandmother had some sorrow that she and my sisters and I were all basically going to hell after this mortal life was over.
I remember going back there and while we were out to dinner, hearing my aunt and uncle's worries over the fact that my cousin was dating black men, and that my other cousin had married one. It was a racist worry, I guess, but it wasn't that they found the men morally objectionable, it was that they didn't know how such a couple and their children would get along in a racist culture. We just kind of sat there in stunned silence, because, though California has it's own share of racism, it just wouldn't have occured to us that this was any reason not to date who you liked, or really, for that matter, do what you liked. Family, in short exerted a powerful fascination back there, which we were intrigued by, but didn't really feel.
Anyway, to bring this back to the topic, I certainly have some Irish blood in me, but I don't think it would ever occur to me to identify as Irish-American, partly because that's certainly not the whole story. It can be interesting to realize that there are some remnants of cultural traits. But I think I identify as Californian more than anything else. Not because it's glamorous, but because it does represent a certain distinct if hard to define point of view.
Ye gods, do people think Shane McGowan is exploiting a certain Irish persona for economic gain? That would be method acting to an extreme, I'd say.
================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Rugby on ice, now that's a good idea...
Rugby on ice, with each team doing a haka before the game.
================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Did you ever see A Chump at Oxford. Stanley gets bonked on the head and he finds out that he's a genius with an English accent. Same deal with Shane McGowan, when the cameras arent rolling the teeth go in and he's playing chess down at the Reform Club.
Marco, John, Peter
Thank you once again for giving me an opportunity to show this ridiculous spectacle:
the ice haka
Seana
I have noticed that about California, its an excellent place to reinvent yourself or rediscover yourself as you will.
I dont think Australia's quite like that yet, but its definitely getting there. Melbourne has a 40 percent foreign born population, which is huge when you think about it.
So everyone was in on this Shane McGowan scam, from the guys in the Pogues who "kicked him out" because of his "drinking" to Sinnead O'Connor, who "turned him in" to the "cops" to force him off "heroin"?
Genius!
You know Sinead has a full head of hair and sings with the Vatican choir? Tell ya they're scamming us left and right.
You know, I detect a certain affinity between you and Flann O'Brian. I don't think he had much use for professional Irishmen either.
Adrian - Great topic. I had no idea McDonagh was considered English by critics. I assumed he was raised over here, because I read The Beauty Queen of Leenane not so long ago, and assumed it was written by a boy raised in the Irish sticks. My grandmother lives in Omeath, and I thought the situation in the play was very believable. Didn't think it was particularly Oirish for the sake of it either. I'd like to see it on stage some time. And In Bruges knocked my socks off. I might watch it again tonight. I don't care where he was raised, I'll go with your grandfather rule as a way of claiming Irishness, but even if McDonagh was third generation Eton alumni, I still couldn't fault his writing.
Marco - Tony Casgarino wrote a decent enough book on that very same granny-inventing thing you alluded to. You probably knew that, but I'm vying for another back pat.
gb
I didn't know the specifics. That's an interesting case, because he was indeed eligible through adoption after all.
His surname betrays an Italian origin ,so maybe he could have been eligible for us too.
Consider yourself back-patted.
having just left the college world I can say with certainty that its considered "cool" to identify yourself as Irish-American. I'm guessing the drinking appeals to most of my fellow students. That said, it was a bit funny to me to see a bunch of Italian-American kids in their green "Fuck Me I'm Irish" t-shirts on St. Paddy's day raving about watching "The Boondock Saints" for the 4,000th time.
I look at it this way, if your parents aren't from anywhere but the US and your grandparents were born and raised here as well then your as American as apple pie and slavery. No use in pretending otherwise.
speaking personally, I was borm in Dublin and my parents moved over in 66 when I was 3....growing up in Luton, attending Catholic schools and churches regularly in a town with about 30000 Irish I always felt Irish, until I went back there on holidays, where I never felt I fitted in.......as the cousin from England.
over 40 years later, I'm still Irish at heart though I've not been back for over 20 years,
am I a plastic paddy or the real McCoy?
hat-tip to Ger.....Cascarino's book was one of the best sports books I've ever read
Colman
I forgot that the beginning of this was all about whether someone was Irish or English. Speaking strictly for my own part of the world, I would say that both identities would have a certain cachet. We love accents, because we feel we don't have any.
Provincial, I know.
Just getting the hang of this. Apologies for the deletion.
Well, another of your fans joins the fold.
Adrian: I've loved all of your books. The wit and intelligence in your books has enabled me to laugh in the face of the grey skies of southern England.
My partner lives in the north of Scotland, 500 miles away from me, and you may be glad to know that Audible has distributed parts of your books all over the UK as I've listened to your books while driving to be with her.
If you want proof, long sections of your books can be found at the M5/M6 interchange where I've sat for ages in traffic jams.
Your blog I see as a regular injection of that wit and intelligence I need. Fifty Grand will be a booster, I'm sure.
Is that enough sickly-sweet praise? I can do more...
Back to the topic: I'm a catholic of Irish descent, brought up in a tight catholic-Irish community in Essex. I never believed in Jesus, Mary or Joseph for a second and, to be entirely honest, I blamed all that shite on the backwardness of the Paddy mentality. My nan - from Waterford - seemed to work over-time to confirm all of this.
The result is that Ireland and religion can never be separated in my mind and, for that reason, I run from the idea of an Irish identity as fast as I would if someone were to try to stuff some Rosary beads in my hand.
I also run from the idea of an Essex identity, but that's another story.
Alan
Peter
Well Flann OBrian is a genius and I'm not. But apart from that we both have Ulster accents and like bicycling.
Ger
Excellent linkage if I may say so. Maybe this is the place to mention that I'm in favour of an all Ireland football team? I've been to Windsor Park many many times and I love the classic 80's team but they've no hope of getting to the World Cup now unlike the all Ireland rugby team which plays at the highest level.
Dylan
I know of which you speak. Encountered many Irish Americans in my time in New York, Boston and even Denver. I dont mind em at all. Everyone's got to come from somewhere, but I draw the line when they start talking about the brave boys in the Ra and how Adams etc are selling out the "true cause". Its beyond tedious.
But at least we Micks have a parade, I've always wanted exactly you do if you're a German American or Scots American?
Colman
I think you can be both English and Irish quite happily, right? When England are playing for the Ashes, fair enough, English and then when David Cameron becomes PM, Irish. Make sense?
Seana
The RP English accent has A LOT of cachet in America. You can get away with a hell of a lot. Christoper Hitchens for example. Yes he's intelligent but because of that accent everyone thinks he's a genius. I know a lot of guys who think Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Kate Beckinsale and some actresses whose name doesnt begin with K are incredibly sexy, all because of that cut glass accent. I'm partial to Scottish myself but thats another story.
”Well Flann OBrian is a genius and I'm not. But apart from that we both have Ulster accents and like bicycling.”
An interesting guy he must have been, poking such fun at the Celtic renaissance, yet writing in Irish himself as well as in English.
The big news here, though, is that a colleague has just returned from a trip to Ireland that included two days in Carrickfergus. He stayed at the Premiere (sp?) Inn and tried to get a discount at a place called Springsteen’s on the ground that he’s from New Jersey.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Drabux
Ahh I used to know the M6 very well back in my Coventry days. It was pretty terrible if I remember rightly. It got so complicated in Brum I used to get panic attacks... I hated the M4 too especially those last 10 miles into London...ah I could go on all day about my least favourite motorway junctions.
And thanks for the hup ya, I appreciate it.
I dont have a problem with Essex. I kind of like mockney to be honest and its spead out of Essex to cover a huge area now - Kate Nash and Lily Allen mockney is very pleasing to my ears. Jamie Oliver is ok too, but that Guy Ritchie is a bit hard to take.
Do people still talk about Essex girls they way they talk about Jersey Girls or has that died a death?
Peter
The Quality Inn perhaps?
Springsteens - hilarious. Thats where 16 year old boys take their girlfriends for a first date. they do good breakfasts though. Still he should have gone to my sister's pub only a couple of hundred yards away from there.
Carrick in February - what a crazy idea for a vacation. Takes all sorts I suppose.
Adrian,
A question: why do so many of your blogs appear to be posted at precisely 12.01am? Is it because you adore routine?
Forsythe would be suspicious.
Alan
Alan
Well observed. My problem is that I want to go to bed early so that I wont be so bloody tired all day long, so I'll write a blog post and set the post option for 12:01 am which is the first available slot for the next day thinking that I'll go to bed at 11 pm or something and sleep. It hasnt worked once, though. I'm usually still up at 1 or even 2 am, so I could just have posted at any old time.
Marco - If I remember right it was Italy that squashed our world cup dreams the year Casgarino was on top form. Was that Italia 90?
Colman - I don't read many sports books, but the bro-in-law thrust that one on me, and I did enjoy it.
Adrian - All Ireland team... yeah, I think both sides would benefit from an amalgamation and a bit of natural selection. But I'm far from an authority on the topic. Always been more of a boxing fan, and I've little enough time for that these days.
gb
Ah, Mr. McKinty, first let me say I have been really, really, enjoying yer lit children pertaining to young Michael and his lovely foot and poor taste in women and his seeming inability to embrace the all de 'tings we all know are best for the human heart and its yearnings for love and salvation. So much more entertaining to bathe in blood and alienation and witness the writhing of a pitiable poor creature who scares the livin bejesus outa us!
As to the big-time playwright turned movie-man, he's goin that Chicago boy one extra around the track, would not you say? I mean, to be straightforward, that I could watch three times and still enjoy In Bruges, while Redbelt melted down at the climactic fight finale, limper than a post-coital prick.
Anyone who thinks that The Beauty Queen is less than sincere doesn't know much about Ireland, that's sure.
Thank you for your books...I'm going to keep right on reading them until I run out, and just let you try to keep up. Perhaps I'll send you a complimentary copy of mine (still in production), to be entitled "An Emerald Cursed." It starts out in Pere LaChaise in Paris and moves to an old house on Clew Bay in 1969, where 'tings get wierd. It's a fictionalized memoir, touched with grace, lies, hitchhiking and wishful thinking.
I pray to God, with no sense of shame, that it measures arguably to the achievements of yourself and the playwright in question.
PKL
Ger
Dont get me started on the state of boxing. Its a disgrace. Remember when there used to be 1 heavy weight champ or maybe two. Now there's about six WBC, WBA, IBF, etc. Its ridiculous.
Pat
Good to have you on board too. You'll have to go steerage though mate, cos you're a scurvy mick, is that ok? Dont worry a bit of fiddle music and you'll be dancing those blues away.
PLC eh? Jim or Oscar?
A...
Marco - If I remember right it was Italy that squashed our world cup dreams the year Casgarino was on top form. Was that Italia 90?
Yes.
Northern Ireland however did eliminate us in the qualification for the 1958 World Cup, only time we didn't make it to the final stage, and one of the great national tragedies along with the 0-1 to North Korea in 1966.
Boxing, Kung-fu...you really are one for combat sports.
1990 Toto fuckin' Scillacci what a tosser,
re Irish rugby, sound start at the weekend, but I still think they'll come up short this season.....probably not as badly as the dire world cup showing
Pat -
Ah I see the Redbelt ending didn't work for you, huh? I'll admit it was out of this world far-fetched, but it worked for me. I've wondered a few times whether that final scene,
SPOILER
where the Professor offers the redbelt to Chiwetel, didn't actually happen and was meant to be symbolic.
Marco-
I'm pretty certain you aren't the only one lacking Irish blood around here. I've got nothing but Dane in my background but since that was 4 generations ago and I hold true to my previously mentioned code I would never claim to be a Danish-American.
The wife on the other hand is an Argentine who tries to be an Italian so what can ya do.
Dylan
You're married? Seems yesterday you were putting ads on craigslist from your mother's basement ;)
Marco-
lol! how do you think I got married? The response was overwhelming.
Dylan
Be careful what you say. Marco remembers all!
I like the Danes. They're a lot like the Irish, but slightly better looking.
Colman
I have high hopes for this season. They beat France, thats the first time in what 10 years or something?
"I like the Danes. They're a lot like the Irish, but slightly better looking."
The Danes liked Ireland so much that they founded Dublin.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
and Waterford, Wexford, Limerick etc. etc.
I hope when they make that Brian Boru movie it shows the Danes living in cities, reading books, using money etc and the Irish living in mud soaked hovels in the countryside filled with genocidal rage.
Somehow though I think they'll do the Braveheart treatment.
And the Normans found Kilkenny and other cities, I think. The Irish founded not one city, according to Sean O'Faolain, though he tends to write more about yearning for pastoral glory than about homicidal rages.
I'd like to see a movie based on the Icelandic sagas, complete with scenes of amateur lawyers hanging around and suing each other.
Peter
I like those right wing Irish nuts complaining about Poles, Gypsies etc. ruining Irishness. 1000 years ago Ireland was a merry hodgepodge of Danes, Northumbrians, Scots, Icelanders, Manx, Anglo Saxons, Bretons and who knows what else.
Saw this last year in a small theater and thought it was hilarious. Bought it on dvd when it came out and the bonus feature of all the swear words in 5 minutes is pretty funny too..."I do want the guy dead, I want him fucking crucified but it don't change the fact that he stitched you up like a blind little gay boy, does it? "
I remember sitting down in his office with my Yorkshire born, Oxford educated Celticly interested professor at some point, where he felt painfully obliged to inform me that my last name, Graham, indicated that I was not so much Irish as derived from a clan of Scottish sheep stealers.
I'm not sure how they ended up Catholic, then, but I suppose that it comes under the raping and pillaging department.
Bogus first name, dubious last name--yeah, it pretty much fits the profile.
Theo
Hows Mr Hux BTW? Yeah its great on DVD, all the extras and the making of - good little package that.
Seana
The Grahams were famous for (this is not a lie) spelling their name backwards and assuming other identities.
Ever read Kidnapped by RLS? If not stop what you're doing right now and read it. Very nice insights into the whole highland - lowland Prod-Catholic Engliah-Gaelic thing. Never been bettered.
Is Kidnapped the greatest YA novel of all time? Without a doubt, yes.
I told Leah ages ago that you would love in Bruges but she said that you were not a Colin Farrell fan!
I am loving fifty grand, am about 50 pages in and finding it extremely engrossing. The only other one I have read is Dead I may well be, and I really enjoyed the literary qualities of that one, some really breath taking prose that was highly allusive and evocative. Fifty grand, in my humble opinion, is way sharper and more pacy...and although I miss the meditations of the other book, I am so enjoying the roller coaster of this one, it it is just so spare and consequently a little more existential and precise... sorry, enought talk! Clare
Clare
No I like CF. He's been great in a lot of things. Did you see Minority Report? - he stole the show in that one if you ask me. I liked the one in the phone booth and I liked Miami Vice. And In Bruges was a standout, should have gotten a BAFTA at least.
My only beef with CF was that back in 2005 when it looked like there could be a movie version of DIWMB, the project went to CF and although he (or possibly his agents) said they liked the book they didn't like the script/budget/director etc. so the project died and has no chance of ever coming back. So he did kind of kill any Hollywood career I might have had and now DIWMB is out of print in the US so thats, er, dead too.
Glad you're liking Fitty G though.
Is Colin too old to play MF now, do you think? Because something tells me he is going to have reason to regret that decision.
Clare, ever since I heard about the recent fires in Australia, I've been wondering if that house (with library) out in the bush that you were so kind as to offer Adrian and his family is still in tact. I assume it must be if you have the enthusiasm here to be commenting on things such as In Bruges. I ask, because as you may remember, we all for some reason started in about fire worries regarding that cabin back then.
I think it's high time that I reveal that my real name is Aneas MaHarg. Yes, I descend from that infamous black sheep side of the Graham clan that got in so much trouble AFTER they changed their identities that they had to resort to that time honored clan tradition of reversing their names AGAIN, so I masquerade here, and everywhere as Seana Graham. What a laugh.
Seriously, though, or sort of, the Grahams thought spelling their names backwards would conceal their identity? I'm thinking that they might have profitted from a little trip up to Larne to consort with the McFetridges, as at least their descendent has proved pretty savvy in covering up identities, judging by Dirty Sweet. Or maybe just more savvy than the Grahams, which probably isn't all that hard.
Were they covering up shame or crime, though?
Adrian, I can imagine you were a pretty persuasive bookseller during your time at it. I did read Kidnapping as a kid, but seeing as I was, well, a kid, a lot of the history stuff sailed right over my head. I can remember it being there, but that's about all. So I'm adding it to my ever growing reading pile.
I will say to Clare and anyone else who liked the lyric parts of DIWMB, there is lyricism in 50G too. Less, I think, but it's effective.
Oh, I meant to add, so you think Kidnapped--sorry, there was some sort of weird Freudian slip in the last post-- is even better than Twilight???
No--I jest.
Seana
Dont know if Clare will check in again (we're not all skiving off in Saint Kilda Public Library like me) so just to reassure you, the cabin is still intact. I believe that area (NW of Melbourne) is largely unscathed unlike much of eastern and north eastern Victoria.
Seana I'm glad you didnt tell Clare that Mercado from 50 G is really a ghost that only 1 little boy can see...
oops thats torn it.
Yeah and maybe you're right, maybe CF is too old now to play MF. Still bites though and my god he would have been amazing.
Wait a minute--I thought there were two ghosts. Oh, right, the girl ghost actually turned out to be a whirling dervish, didn't she? Or at least that's what I gathered from the Rumi-esque poetry portion of the book. Talk about your lyrical... Oh, shoot. It's just so damn easy to give it all away.
I'm glad that the fire didn't reach Clare's family's area.
Re Mr. Farrell, judging from In Bruges, I think it could still be worked out. He would indeed be a perfect Michael Forsythe. Colin? Come on. We know you're skiving off right about now too. Though probably not in a library.
I'm not a great reader of YA fiction, but I've seen Colman liked the Lighthouse Land.
Since I arrived fourth in the competition for three copies of the final Lighthouse book a few months ago (as They Might Be Giants would say, the nicest of the damned) I'd be interested to know a bit more about them.
What was the inspiration, what Adrian tried to do, his models for the story,etc.
Maybe a future post?
Marco
No real mystery there to be honest. I like the conventions of genre fiction but I knew that the idea of a boy dealing with grief and getting a chance to turn his life around and then rejecting that chance for other reasons was more appropriate in a YA format than in a crime novel. I also had what I thought was a pretty good idea for a third book with the same characters and then when I had written 1 and 3, I came up with an idea for 2. Thats about it really.
Also it gave me a chance to write in 3rd person and have a bit more fun jumping around into other peoples heads.
Mister Mc:
PLC setting has nothing to do with either deceased. After all there are a couple of thousand other reasons to visit Pere LeChaise, including that the dear thing with me that morning in Paree finds graveyards sexy. So, as men we must oblige.
Also, although I act the stage Mick, I'm actually a Silicon Valley
exec whose ancestry is only about 1/2 Stab City, the other half being German/Dutch, out of Spier.
My surname will be found on no Irish names map. But one hundred years to the day before I was born, on May 23, 1850, young Michael Broderick brought his 6 brothers and sisters with him off the Brig Acadian at Boston harbor, planting my lineage on American soil. Like you give a shite.
PKL
Post a Comment