Study of the short story by Frank O’Connor republished
There are a couple of books for the smallies this week, plus a study of the short story from one of our greats, there’s a new thriller from one of our contemporary great thriller writers, a book on discovering and retaining your personal worth and a memoir from a prominent figure in the music scene in Ireland.
Children’s Books
The Nightmare Club: The Wolfling’s Bite, Annie Graves/Oisín McGann, Little Island, €7.19
This is one of two scary books for the 6+ readers set to give them nightmares (and a few laughs, too, so maybe not so scary). Jessie loved her wolfling toy, but her brother had heard rumours about wolfling toys. Like how they could move without being switched on. Like they could turn nasty. Like they could bite…
My Brother’s a Zombie!, Annie Graves/Deirdre Sullivan, Little Island €7.19
In the second of these scary books (not) for the 6+ readers, poor little Jack loses his brother to supernatural forces and the brother changes from a nice kid into a creature of the undead. And maybe it would be super-scary if it were not so funny. But still, read it at your peril…
Adult Books
Confidence, Roxie Nafousi, Yellow Kite, €18.99
Roxie Nafousi is a three times bestselling author, although she hasn’t come up on my personal radar. But she’s a big hit with young adults, apparently, and advises them on self-development, manifesting, and having confidence in themselves. And although I’m always a little cautious about Insta queens (and kings), I figure that anyone who helps teenagers and young adults to be less fearful and more strident in a world gone nuts is worth listening to, and worth reading. In this book, Nafousi lays out eight simple steps to discover and retain your sense of self and self-worth. It’s a clearly marked roadmap indicating movement from self-doubt to self-belief. So whether it be yourself or someone you know, maybe a book like this is what’s needed to keep the confidence engine running, or to kick-start it into action.
Music and Mayhem, Keith Donald, Lilliput, €18.95
Ever wondered what the life of an alcoholic musician must be like? Well, it’s far from glamorous and it’s filled with accidents and incidents and, as the title says, mayhem. Keith Donald, co-founder of Moving Hearts and sax and clarinet player for just about everybody, has been sober since 1991. He kept diaries and journals throughout his chaotic life and he captures, in this incredible memoir, what his life was like before and after recovery. His childhood was a traumatic one. He was abused in school and never told his family. He suffered from PTSD as a result and only got some relief from that in recent years, after seeing Ivor Browne for a spell. He was to carry the schoolroom trauma around for most of his life and music was one of the ways – and the only constructive way – he used to escape the anxiety that has crippled him for his whole life.
This is a sometimes disturbing but wholly absorbing book about the highs and lows of being a jobbing musician in Ireland, as well as a scorching chronicle of addiction but at its heart is Donald’s transcendence of recovery. A great read.
The Lonely Voice, Frank O’Connor, Lilliput, €20.30
Lilliput Press has republished this study of the short story by O’Connor and it’s worth it for Kevin Barry’s introduction alone. So many people think they can write fiction (and so many can’t!) and I am constantly surprised at how many people spend their hard-earned cash on self-publishing their substandard stuff, never having it dawn on them that if they’d put some time – and money – into learning the craft, they might not have had to self-publish at all. Some decades before Stephen King’s On Writing became a kind of gospel for aspiring writers, Frank O’Connor’s book was published 1963. Drawn from a series of talks he gave about the short story form, the book became a kind of yardstick internationally, an impressive and detailed deconstruction of what a short story is and is not, and it’s wonderful to have this book in the bookshops again. It’s not only a book for aspiring or emerging writers, it’s really for anyone who enjoys the short story form, bearing in mind that the form itself is so very different from the novel and more akin to the play; no time to faff about, every word must earn its keep. O’Connor’s great scholarship is on every page, referencing (and not always favourably) names like Gogol, Joyce, Turgenev, Chekhov, Mary Lavin, Katherine Mansfield, Hemingway, Maupassant and others. This is a little treasure of a book.
(Image of Frank O'Connor at top of page is a still from a YouTube video by University College Cork; view the video here.)
There Came A-Tapping, Andrea Carter, Constable, €15.99
Allie Garvey had her problems in her youth, but meeting filmmaker Rory dispelled the darkness for her and she has come to rely on him for everything. So when Rory disappears while making a film in the west of Ireland, Allie, back in Dublin, is crushed. But that isn’t the only unexpected occurrence for Allie. She and Rory had purchased a fixer-upper in the Slieve Bloom mountains, hoping to renovate it and finally settle there. A couple arrive at Allie’s and Rory’s Dublin apartment as the new tenants, an agreement only Rory was involved in. Allie is forced to move down the country and stay in Raven Cottage, a house the locals insist is haunted. Garda Suzanne Phelan, who was involved in the search for Rory after he went missing, is not convinced that everything is as it seems, especially when Rory’s car is recovered off the coast of Mayo with a body in the driver’s seat that isn’t him. Carter weaves so many twists and turns in this psychological thriller, it’s one that will keep you reading into the wee small hours.
Footnotes
The West Wicklow Chamber Music Festival runs from May 8 to May 18. Programme and tickets are available from westwicklowfestival.com.
Wellfest is Europe’s largest health and wellness festival, running this weekend in Dublin in the grounds of IMMA at Kilmainham’s Royal Hospital. Details from wellfest.ie.