On March 29, against the elegant backdrop of books and crystal, sat the elegant Edna O’Brien. Irish America’s editor and co-founder, Patricia Harty, co-hosts Ellen McCourt, Joe & Mary Lou Quinlan and PEN, the international writers’ association, joined together to celebrate O’Brien, one of our greatest living writers, and The Little Red Chairs, her new book. Guests convened … [Read more...] about Edna O’Brien at the Lotos Club
Book Notes
Book Reviews
A sampling of the latest Irish books. ℘℘℘ RECOMMENDED "The reason I wanted to be a Gopher was simple: them gangsters never had to work for a living." This is famed New York gangster Owney Madden, speaking in the crackling voice which runs throughout Michael Walsh's gritty new novel And All the Saints. Madden rose from a tough youth in an Irish ghetto in England to become one … [Read more...] about Book Reviews
Forever Hamill
Pete Hamill, not unlike Cormac, the hero of his novel Forever, lives in the Five Points area of downtown Manhattan where the streets teem with immigrants just as they did back in the founding days of the city when Hamill's hero emigrates from Northern Ireland. (On the day of our interview Hamill had yet to see Gangs of New York which is also set in the Five Points -- see … [Read more...] about Forever Hamill
The Journey to America
This excerpt from Pete Hamill's novel Forever takes place aboard a ship bound for New York. ℘℘℘ Holding a lantern, Mr. Partridge showed Cormac the next deck, and for the first time he saw the deck of the emigrants. They lived in four rows of bunks hammered together from rough plank, with no bedding supplied by the ship, jackets serving as pillows, coats as blankets. All slept … [Read more...] about The Journey to America
Book Reviews
A Sampling of the Latest Irish Books on Offer ℘℘℘ RECOMMENDED Ireland's Painters: 1600-1940 presents a stunning survey of the grand, oftoverlooked tradition of art in Ireland. From the early, stately portraits by Thomas Frye and Susannah Drury's East Prospect of The Giant's Causeway, to Sean O'Sullivan's intimate look inside a cottage with The Old Couple and the grand … [Read more...] about Book Reviews