Liam O'Flaherty (1896–1984)

This short story collection was published in 1926. The stories are almost all "naturalist" (I don't know if that's a real term) in style. Some of the stories depict small town/rural Irish life of the era, and some actually see the world through the eyes of animals: a cow in a fever over the loss of her calf, a young seagull learning to fly, a rabbit being chased by a young boy and his hunting dog. The human-centric stories show us events like a humorous hoax perpetrated by one villager over show more his neighbors over a so-called treasure, group of villagers waiting anxiously on shore, hoping against hope that their friends, sons, husbands will return from the days' fishing expedition despite a fierce, unexpected storm that has suddenly blown their way, snipers on opposite roofs--and opposite sides--during the 1916 Easter Uprising. The two best stories are the collection's first and last. The opening title story shows us the first day of married life of a young farming couple. Clearly in love and exulting on their strength and energy for the day's tasks, the day passes wonderfully. And yet we are clued into the lifetime's worth of repetition and labor awaiting the two. The final story, "Going Into Exile," brings us the moving tale of a loving farming family whose two oldest children are about to depart, probably forever, for America. For the most part beautifully and simply written, in this collection O'Flaherty has provided us a vivid, humorous and affection (if occasionally melancholy) picture of life in rural Ireland during the early 20th century. show less

In 1920s Dublin, among the revolutionaries fighting for the Communist cause, the ultimate sin is to be an informer. Gypo Nolan knows this, but when there’s a £20 reward for information relating to his former friend Frankie and he can’t even afford a bed in the doss house, survival takes precedence over this principle. From this act, others follow: Nolan’s pursuit by the forces in the revolutionary party, his own guilt over informing on his friend, and the living conditions of the show more down-and-out in Dublin.

This was certainly a fast-paced book and full of slap-bang action pieces. The atmosphere of paranoia is well done too, and the squalor of the living conditions is captured somewhat vividly. And the scene in the fish and chip shop made me hungry! However, the descriptions for some of the characters, particularly the women and Nolan himself, felt patronizing (referring to Nolan as an animal or a brute rather than a human being), and Gallagher is a self-absorbed, sociopathic creep who receives way too much air time. So it’s not a book that I plan to reread. show less

This is a very odd novel about the Easter Rising of 1916. It's main character is not one of the Volunteers or Citizen Army men who turned out on Easter Monday, but some bloke from Galway who has lost all his money after a drinking session and gets talked into taking part by a mother he bumps into on O'Connell Street, desperate that he look after her Volunteer son. This son, far from being the heroic warrior of Republican legend, legs it halfway through the Rising and isn't seen or heard from show more again. By this time, however, the Galway chap has developed a weird fixation with his commanding officer.

In 1950, when this book first appeared, the Rising was being mythologised. Brave men, it was said, had sacrificed their lives selflessly for the cause of Irish freedom. They were Ireland's Founding Fathers, secular saints, no less. In this context, the fact that Insurrection's main characters have such a collection of varying, highly personal motivations (not to mention the very un-nationalist behaviour of the average Dubliner here depicted), makes you wonder if there isn't a strong element of 'proto-revisionism' here. If so, this is to be applauded, but it is not entirely successful. The main character makes hardly any sense at all.

The book does have some excellent descriptive passages; its account of the fighting at Boland's Mill is excellent. It is a shame, then, that it concocts a climax for its frankly deranged protagonist by abandoning its historical accuracy and creating an event that didn't actually happen. show less

A page turner. The structure flows seamlessly from the victim to the informer and then back and forth from informer to Republican punisher. The desperate seedy town, the interior thought process of both characters is wonderfully woven. Quite a good read.
“He felt moved by an uncontrollable impulse. All his actions had completed themselves before his mind was aware of them. His mind was struggling along aimlessly in pursuit of his actions, impotently deprecating them and whispering show more warnings. But it was powerless.” 46 show less