This is the story of Peter Sheridan and his life in Dublin. It gives a portrait of an Irish family as they chart their way through the 1960s, following the author's journey from boy to man.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Amazon Review
Irish writers have been on something of a roll recently. Roddy Doyle, Joseph O'Connor and Frank McCourt have all become international bestsellers and any new talent is on the wrong- -or right, depending how you look at it--end of instant hype. So where does that leave Peter Sheridan? His plays have been performed all over the world and he won the Rooney Prize for Literature in 1977 and yet he remains a comparative unknown. All this may change with the publication of his latest book. The genre is straightforward and familiar enough. 44: A Dublin Memoir is a rites-of-passage book. It starts at the beginning of the 1960s with young Peter, aged 8, scrabbling around the roof trying to fix the television aerial to it. And just as the television allows a glimpse into a world beyond the backstreets of Dublin, so we see Peter wise up from wide-eyed boy to knowing 18-year-old.
There's plenty of good material here. There's his Ma and Da, his umpteen brothers and sisters, their lodgers, births, deaths--all against a backdrop of an Ireland that is losing its innocence. But to an extent that's all by the by. Sure, it's important to catch both the humour and pathos, but where Sheridan really triumphs is in his ability to capture both the mind and voice of adolescence. So many books of this type credit the teenager with too much insight and reflectiveness. But adolescence isn't like that. I know that teenagers imagine they are fantastically deep, but the simple truth is that they aren't. Growing up is too fast, too overwhelming to really understand at the time. It only makes sense in retrospect. And this is how Sheridan tells it. He conveys the ambivalence of growing up brilliantly. By any objective token, his father is an abusive, arrogant, selfish man. But Sheridan does not ram this down our throats. Instead, he lets the facts speak for themselves while musing on the love and affection he holds for him. This childish dichotomy--the ability to accept the unacceptable and to believe the unbelievable--runs through the book. We see it in his schooling and in his dealings with other members of his family and friends. This consistency of tone creates a powerful picture of the confusion of growing up. And made me profoundly grateful that I don't have to go through it again. --John Crace --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Snow is falling all over Dublin. It is half an hour to the start of the New Year. On the rooftop of 44 Seville Place, a 10-year-old boy clings to a television aerial. His father urges him to turn the aerial towards England. The boy reaches up and in that moment, pictures from a foreign place beam into their home and change their lives forever. Thus begins this astonishing portrait of a Dublin family as they chart their way through the turbulent waters of the l960s. We exult in their triumphs and cry at their disasters, but at no time is laughter far from the surface. As Peter Sheridan follows his journey from boy to man, he reveals the confused adolescent in us all and shows us an individual and a society on the cusp of profound change. 'A brilliantly realised, almost novelistic, portrait of an urban working-class Irish childhood ... remarkably honest, involving, compassionate' Scotsman 'A beautiful, touching, bittersweet account of inner-family life...A lively, turbulent and huge tale painted in vivid colour on a very simple canvas. I'm glad to have read it and so will you be.' Malachy McCourt, Observer
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By M. J. Saxton
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
A great novelistic autobiography. The detail of living in 60s Dublin is lovingly evoked in this book. Peter Sheridan tell his own tale with such warmth the nostalgia is palpable.
The development of relationship with his Da is the most telling: as Sheridan passed through his teenage years he misunderstands and becomes antagonised by his father's idiosyncrasies, but with maturity he comes to realise the bond between them.
That crowded house, filled with children and lodgers, becomes ever more familiar as the story progresses. This is the kind of mix of people that always provides domestic drama that doesn't have the tang of soap opera about it.
The tale of Frankie is the most touching. He was the child who took over Da's message running and general helping duties when Peter grew out of them, but his favour didn't last long. It's sad to read about his illness and death, but also the guilt that Sheridan felt when he thought he hadn't paid his little brother enough attention.
It is a real uncovering of the workings of a real family, its successes and failures along with the foibles that create humour and linger in the memory.
The book isn't startling or revealing, it is ordinary in a way, but completely involving. A comfortable, worthwhile read.
The development of relationship with his Da is the most telling: as Sheridan passed through his teenage years he misunderstands and becomes antagonised by his father's idiosyncrasies, but with maturity he comes to realise the bond between them.
That crowded house, filled with children and lodgers, becomes ever more familiar as the story progresses. This is the kind of mix of people that always provides domestic drama that doesn't have the tang of soap opera about it.
The tale of Frankie is the most touching. He was the child who took over Da's message running and general helping duties when Peter grew out of them, but his favour didn't last long. It's sad to read about his illness and death, but also the guilt that Sheridan felt when he thought he hadn't paid his little brother enough attention.
It is a real uncovering of the workings of a real family, its successes and failures along with the foibles that create humour and linger in the memory.
The book isn't startling or revealing, it is ordinary in a way, but completely involving. A comfortable, worthwhile read.
Format:Hardcover
One of the best book I ve read this year so far. Compulsory to have it on the bookshelves of everyhouse. I love it!!!
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
