Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman
by Nuala O'Faolain
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Are You Somebody is a moving and fascinating portrait of both Ireland and one of its most popular and respected commentators. This gem of honesty and insight had its first life as the introduction to a collection of Nuala O'Faolain's Irish Times columns that became a number-one bestseller in Ireland. It now stands alone. Ireland has fallen in love with this memoir of an Irish woman of letters, and now this country will too.Tags
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When I started reading this book, I had very high expectations as if it was going to tell me something very important about myself in, what I expected, would be a somewhat evangelical and disciplining tone that I expect from books that want to tell me something about myself. But soon I found out that the author's world in Ireland and mine in India are very different. There were names of places I didn't know existed, books I'd never heard of, and the fondness with which the author mentions them seemed very far off for me. And so I began to read this book a bit differently, so as to let the word flow by me, without attaching too much meaning to them or trying to find something in them.
I think that is when I began to be at ease, with all show more the unfamiliarity of scene, with savouring the few references in the book that I did know a bit about. And also with the familiarity of the scene, of the absent father and the stricken mother, and the many many maladies of love that we put ourselves through.
"The possibility of marrying this Welshman and being "good" for the rest of my life was a secret ideal"
"Just when you thought it was safe to hate him, he'd make some loving and sensitive gesture" (about her father)
Many times I caught myself being grateful that we don't have drinking in our family, at least not yet, and I suppose this is why we as a people have so much fascination with painful narratives, because in the end they sort of make you feel better about your own condition. The author catches herself doing it after a meeting once, and of course she went through the same feelings of "we don't have it that bad do we?" And if you end up convincing yourself of it, maybe you needed to.
Sometimes I even felt jealous, at the amount of life contained in the book, guiltily ignoring all the pain that came with it. I wondered if I could avoid all the pots if I could live a bit, in real life, with real people, instead of having to crank out these letters because I have nowhere else to be. I wondered if it would be worth it. I still am wondering. To live or not to live, to pity ourselves or not to pity ourselves, those are the questions. show less
I think that is when I began to be at ease, with all show more the unfamiliarity of scene, with savouring the few references in the book that I did know a bit about. And also with the familiarity of the scene, of the absent father and the stricken mother, and the many many maladies of love that we put ourselves through.
"The possibility of marrying this Welshman and being "good" for the rest of my life was a secret ideal"
"Just when you thought it was safe to hate him, he'd make some loving and sensitive gesture" (about her father)
Many times I caught myself being grateful that we don't have drinking in our family, at least not yet, and I suppose this is why we as a people have so much fascination with painful narratives, because in the end they sort of make you feel better about your own condition. The author catches herself doing it after a meeting once, and of course she went through the same feelings of "we don't have it that bad do we?" And if you end up convincing yourself of it, maybe you needed to.
Sometimes I even felt jealous, at the amount of life contained in the book, guiltily ignoring all the pain that came with it. I wondered if I could avoid all the pots if I could live a bit, in real life, with real people, instead of having to crank out these letters because I have nowhere else to be. I wondered if it would be worth it. I still am wondering. To live or not to live, to pity ourselves or not to pity ourselves, those are the questions. show less
Are You Somebody is a moving and fascinating portrait of both Ireland and one of its most popular and respected commentators. This gem of honesty and insight had its first life as the introduction to a collection of Nuala O'Faolain's Irish Times columns that became a number-one bestseller in Ireland.
I can't quite put my finger on what I found missing in this memoir. I think it may have been intended for an audience of which I am not a part--mainly women, of a certain age, with a background similar to the author's. I caught the longing for love, and the profound sadness of O'Faolain's young life, raised in a "small" Irish family of 9 children, with a mother doomed by her circumstances and a father for whom his wife and children were barely acquaintances. I've heard this truly desperate tale before. Somehow O'Faolain's telling of it failed to move me...UNTIL she began describing, in the afterword, the reactions of her readers to the book, and the affect those reactions had on her. The author came alive for me then, in a way she had show more not in the memoir itself. Clearly at the time of its publication, this book resonated with a lot of Irish women. For that reason, I will grant its importance. But I don't particularly recommend it. show less
The author narrates the audio version of this memoir in her lovely Irish voice, which enhances the lyrical nature of her writing. Via tales of childhood and adulthood, family, friends, and lovers the reader is drawn along on the author's search for identity and meaning. I walk away believing that meaning comes and goes, but we must put one foot in front of the other, in an effort to "be like the cat which does not know it will perish".
I am glad that so many people found this book inspiring. On balance, I did not. I was very interested in the story of Ms. O'Faolain's family and her life but was not at all familiar with most of the people, places or institutions she named. This left me confused and, frankly, bored for much of the book. It is not a book that "travels" to other cultures well. The parts about the experiences of women, especially middle-aged women, were excellent -- but there was a lot of material to sift through to get at it.
for me this was a bit of a funny duck of a book. my favourite part was actually frank mccourt's foreword, the afterword and the interview at the very end. the meat in the middle was a bumpy ride. (wow, mixed metaphor alert maybe, eh?) when o'faolain was writing about her feelings or the dynamics of her family, i was riveted. but there was so much name-dropping going on throughout the memoir that it made the read very disjointed. i felt like her definition of 'are you someone' only had merit in the context of 'depends on who you know'. mccourt's set-up of the book made me expect something far more emotional that what it was (for me).
Journalist Nuala O'Faolain's memoir has all the elements of a stereotypical mid-20th century Irish life - grinding poverty, rigid Catholicism, ingrained misogyny, violent father, mother bowed by alcoholism and a constant succession of pregnancies. Reading her story, it seems incredible that anybody ever emerges from such beginnings intact. Detailing just how she managed it, via a mix of steely determination and occasional dashes of good luck, O'Faolain makes Are You Somebody? a sometimes bleak but nonetheless compelling read.
One warning is that O'Faolain is rivaled only by Dominick Dunne in the name-dropping department, and many of the luminaries mentioned will mean nothing to non-Irish readers (like me). Beyond that, it offers a frank show more account of the life of a Dublin woman that is well worth reading. show less
One warning is that O'Faolain is rivaled only by Dominick Dunne in the name-dropping department, and many of the luminaries mentioned will mean nothing to non-Irish readers (like me). Beyond that, it offers a frank show more account of the life of a Dublin woman that is well worth reading. show less
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Author Information
12+ Works 3,472 Members
Journalist and author Nuala O'Faolain was born in 1940 and grew up in the countryside near Dublin. Before earning a postgraduate degree in English from Oxford University, she studied English as University College, Dublin and medieval English literature at the University of Hull. She had numerous jobs including a lecturer in the English department show more at University College; produced programs for Open Door, a community-access documentary department at the BBC; and produced current-affairs television programs for Radio Telifis Eirann. She started writing a weekly opinion column for The Irish Times in 1986. She wrote two memoirs, Are You Somebody? (1996) and Almost There (2003), and two novels, My Dream of You (2001) and The Story of Chicago May (2006). She died of lung cancer on May 9, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Nur nicht unsichtbar werden : ein irisches Leben
- Original title
- Are you Somebody? : The Life and Times of Nuala O'Faolain
- Original publication date
- 1996
- People/Characters*
- Nuala O'Faolain
- Important places
- Dublin, Ireland
- First words
- When I was in my early thirties and entering a bad period of my life, I was living in London on my own, working as a television producer with the BBC.
- Quotations
- That's how the life I have described here has been. There has been no steady accumulation; it has all been in moments.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)What can I do, when everything is so various and so beyond me, but cling on, and thank the God I don't believe in for the miracles showered on me?
- Blurbers
- O'Brien, Edna; Doyle, Roddy; Toibin, Colm; McCourt, Frank; Heller, Zoe
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 070.92 — Computer science, information & general works News media, journalism & publishing Documentary media, educational media, news media; journalism; publishing Biography And History Biographies
- LCC
- PN5146 .O39 .A3 — Language and Literature Literature (General) Literature (General) Journalism. The periodical press, etc. By region or country
- BISAC
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- Reviews
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- (3.37)
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 32
- ASINs
- 14