A Dublin memoir - 'Sharp, jazzy, hilarious and often painful... You'll rejoice in this wild song of a book' Frank McCourt
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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
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have just turned the last page on the best piece of litererature that i've read in a long long time.Peter Sheridan took me in totally with his masterpiece depicting life in 1960s dublin.
I feel as though i've lived for a while in Seville place,and got to know the family and their off the wall lodgers,i've shared their sorrows and their joys,and nearly burst with laughing at the humour of it all.
I hadn't heard of Sheridan before stumbling across this marvelous book quite accidently.now i'm glad i have and i'll certainly read more of his work.
This very entertaining account of a young mans journey through boyhood,and all the trials and tribulations associated with it, is a must for any discerning reader,escape for a while to 44,Seville place and experience it with him.
I feel as though i've lived for a while in Seville place,and got to know the family and their off the wall lodgers,i've shared their sorrows and their joys,and nearly burst with laughing at the humour of it all.
I hadn't heard of Sheridan before stumbling across this marvelous book quite accidently.now i'm glad i have and i'll certainly read more of his work.
This very entertaining account of a young mans journey through boyhood,and all the trials and tribulations associated with it, is a must for any discerning reader,escape for a while to 44,Seville place and experience it with him.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Sheridan's '44' is a book in which I recognised so many aspects of typical Dublin family life, including my own, that it actually cannot help but evoke an emotional response in any reader who allows themselves to freedom to do so. The depiction of the emotional strong mother, the linch-pin of the traditional Irish family and the cornerstone of what is essentially a very matriarchial society, was one I recognised and applauded. Sheridan's account of how the relationship between his father developed and matured as he grew into manhood was again so close to the bone, it touched marrow. His honesty and frankness as well as his natural ability to recall and verbalise daily Dublin life makes this an essential addition to any 'Irish-literature', 'non-fiction', 'personal development' or any other category of book collection you care to mention. Whether you're from D4 or Donnycarney, Dublin or Detroit, '44' will make you smile, laugh, nod and, dare an Irish man say it, cry. If the purpose of literature is to engage the reader, then Sheridan has found a formula so attractive, he'll be turning suitors away in droves. Take my advice, but it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I'm interested in Ireland and its history and that was one of the main reasons why I bought this book. Now, I definetely don't regret it. I learnt a lot about the family and social climate in Dublin in the middle of this century, but mainly I enjoy how Peter Sheridan tells his story and portraits the everyday situations. Many of them would sounds familiar to you regardless if you live in Dublin or in Slovakia. Last but not least you'll have a laugh throughout the reading, too.
Format:Paperback
This book draws you into Peter Sheridan's warm and loving family and takes you on their journey through the 60's. Serious themes around relationships with parents and friends are explored without becoming a log of depressing incidents the character of the Dubliners and their ability to find enjoyment without much cash doesn't allow it.
By Anne-Marie
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Anyone who has lived in DUblin will relate to this book. Enjoyed reading it though sometims there was a bit too much detail.
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