A Pagan Place
by Edna O'Brien
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Description
A newly reissued edition of this haunting, poetic coming-of-age novel from "one of the great writers...in the English-speaking world" (The New York Times) "O'Brien's evocative prose shows the chilling hold that history and the dead clamp on the living." -Paul Gray, Time "O'Brien brings together the earthy and the delicately poetic: she has the soul of Molly Bloom and the skills of Virginia Woolf." -Ray Sawhill, Newsweek In A Pagan Place, Edna O'Brien returns to Ireland, the uniquely show more wonderful, terrible, and peculiar place she once called home. After leaving to join a religious community in Belgium, a young woman remembers her childhood on the western coast of Ireland. She reflects on the rituals of rural life, the people she encountered, and the enchanting beauty of the landscape. This is the Ireland of country villages and barley fields, of mischievous girls and druids in the woods. As the impressions of her former home intensify, her mind turns to the shocking event that led to her departure. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Finished this in a flash!
This book is raw. Strange and lovely - memories of a warped innocence, full of love & hurt. The 2nd person narration gets mixed reviews but I felt it only added to the haste & flow of childhood identity. A truly inner exploration of the character, disconcertingly honest. I got the summer sadness feeling of being out in fields of cut grass, playing until exhaustion and arriving home late to still go to bed in the light.
This book is raw. Strange and lovely - memories of a warped innocence, full of love & hurt. The 2nd person narration gets mixed reviews but I felt it only added to the haste & flow of childhood identity. A truly inner exploration of the character, disconcertingly honest. I got the summer sadness feeling of being out in fields of cut grass, playing until exhaustion and arriving home late to still go to bed in the light.
God, O'Brien is good!
Once I get over the fact that this reads unlike a normal a novel with its clear plot and obvious arc, but as an almost poeticly observed stream of consciousness, I settle into the sheer pleasure of it. The first 80-some pp are a child's eye view of life in Ireland in the 60s (50s?). Brings [Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man] to mind in some ways.
The child looks around herself at what others are doing, at the small details of life and landscape, and as she grows this continues. Also as she grows, life gets more complicated. There is much truth, much beauty, and much sorrow in this novel, all given the same weight in the telling. A wonderful book.
Once I get over the fact that this reads unlike a normal a novel with its clear plot and obvious arc, but as an almost poeticly observed stream of consciousness, I settle into the sheer pleasure of it. The first 80-some pp are a child's eye view of life in Ireland in the 60s (50s?). Brings [Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man] to mind in some ways.
The child looks around herself at what others are doing, at the small details of life and landscape, and as she grows this continues. Also as she grows, life gets more complicated. There is much truth, much beauty, and much sorrow in this novel, all given the same weight in the telling. A wonderful book.
Unfortunately, this one was a reading choice that failed to capture my attention...I was attracted by the title and the fact that I've always thought Edna O'Brien's writing would be ideal for me but this was a disaster...
In my opinion, there are many writers who succeeded in bringing the social and political issues in Ireland during the 30s and the 40s through interesting plots, memorable characters, and careful choices. This book only gave me melodramatic situations with a strange focus on sex, crudely done, mundane storylines and there was an utter lack of any kind of characters that would resonate with me. Plus, the absence of direct dialogue didn't really help...
I will give O'Brien another chance by reading ''The Little Red Chairs'' show more but given the subject matter, my expectations are infinitely lower. I don't think she has the chops to do it justice... show less
In my opinion, there are many writers who succeeded in bringing the social and political issues in Ireland during the 30s and the 40s through interesting plots, memorable characters, and careful choices. This book only gave me melodramatic situations with a strange focus on sex, crudely done, mundane storylines and there was an utter lack of any kind of characters that would resonate with me. Plus, the absence of direct dialogue didn't really help...
I will give O'Brien another chance by reading ''The Little Red Chairs'' show more but given the subject matter, my expectations are infinitely lower. I don't think she has the chops to do it justice... show less
An irritating and unlikely novel and I had no empathy with characters.
JM Guelbenzu, Babelia 26.08.2017: https://elpais.com/cultura/2017/08/21/babelia/1503334928_398903.html
Sep 23, 2017Spanish
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Lists
Second-person fiction
63 works; 3 members
Fiction (Non-Fantasy) by Irish Authors Set in Ireland
87 works; 3 members
1970 Club
85 works; 2 members
Author Information
91+ Works 10,482 Members
Writer Edna O'Brien was born in Clare County, Ireland, in 1930 and attended Pharmaceutical College in Dublin. O'Brien, winner of the Kingsley Amis Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Price and the European Literature Prize, has written short stories, novels, plays, television plays and screenplays. She has also written for such magazines as show more Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal and The New Yorker. (Bowker Author Biography) Edna O'Brien's previous works of fiction include "Down by the River", "House of Splendid Isolation", "Time & Tide", & "Lantern Slides", which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her book about James Joyce was published in 1999 & excerpted in "The New Yorker". An honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters, O'Brien grew up in Ireland & now lives in London. (Publisher Provided) show less
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Les païens d'Irlande
- Original title
- A Pagan Place; A pagan place
- Original publication date
- 1970 (1e édition originale américaine, Strauss & Giroux, New York (1e édition originale américaine, Strauss & Giroux, New York); 1973-02-15 (1e édition originale française, Du monde entier, Gallimard) (1e édition originale française, Du monde entier, Gallimard); 1996-03-06 (Nouvelle édition française, Fayard) (Nouvelle édition française, Fayard)
- Epigraph
- I carry a brick on my shoulder in order that the world may know what my house was like.
BERTOLT BRECHT - First words
- Many Parker was a botanist, out in all weathers, lived with his sister that ran the sweetshop, they ate meat Fridays, they were Protestants. Your mother dealt there, found them honest.
- Original language*
- Anglais (Etats-Unis) (Etats-Unis)
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 309
- Popularity
- 103,266
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.58)
- Languages
- 5 — Danish, Dutch, English, French, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 18
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 11
