Cathy at 746 Books is hosting Reading Ireland Month, and since I’m the lucky one who won the giveaway for Nora by Nuala O’Connor, it seems only appropriate for me to whip up a post about my favourite Irish women writers. I haven’t yet read anything by Nuala O’Connor, but I feel confident that she will join my other favourites because her novel Nora is the fictionalised love story of of Nora Barnacle, wife and muse of my favourite male Irish writer, James Joyce…
However, these are the Irish women writers who are my favourites so far. Links are to my reviews:
Elizabeth Bowen
The Heat of the Day, and a Sensational Snippet: The Heat of the Day
Mary Costello
The China Factory, Guest Review by Karenlee Thompson
Evelyn Conlon
Not the Same Sky, and on the wishlist Skin of Dreams, Stars in the Daytime and a Glassful of Letters. (On the wishlist means that I have read an enticing review somewhere.)
Anne Enright
The Gathering, Winner of the Booker Prize in 2007
Eva Trout, read before blogging. I wrote reams about this in my journal, which makes me want to read it again. And on the TBR, The Green Road.
Jennifer Johnston
I owe my discovery of Jennifer Johnston to Kim from Reading Matters, who has read 13+ of JJ’s novels.
Edna O’Brien
and on the TBR, The Little Red Chairs, and August is a Wicked Month. On the wishlist is The Country Girls, In the Forest and Girl with Green Eyes. Yes, not having discovered O’Brien until a couple of years ago, I am now hooked on her writing.
Kate O’Riordan, whose books I read before blogging.
Involved.: My journal entry begins with ‘This one is hard to put down; I read the last chapters with a mouth dry with fear.”
The Boy in the Moon: This was very bleak, but I concluded that ‘O’Riordan is a very powerful writer, and it is compulsive reading.’
I haven’t read anything by O’Riordan since The Angel in the House. In my journal I dissed it as a film script not a novel, and it turns out that O’Riordan has gone on to have a career as a script writer, but I still count her as one of my favourites!
Update, the next day: taken to task by Tony for my failure to include Molly Keane in my list of favourites, I can only hang my head in shame and plead that I’d neglected to tag her as Irish at Goodreads, so she didn’t show up in my search.
I read Good Behaviour many years ago when I was a member of the Yahoo Booker group. Good Behaviour was nominated for the Booker in 1981, and when it was chosen for the group to read in 2003, (the year before The Book Depository was founded in 2004) it wasn’t readily available at all. Today we search, we find, we pay and it gets delivered, but back then it cost me more in time than money when I finally tracked down a copy through Abe Books Australia (which was not then owned by Amazon.) Which is a long-winded way of explaining why I didn’t buy any more of Molly Keane’s books, even though I loved Good Behaviour.
Now, you can buy a NYRB edition or a Virago of Good Behaviour, and her other books besides. If you want to see why you should seek her out, see Tony’s post about it here.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog
Happy to see Jennifer Johnston on your list, but where is Molly Keane?
LikeLike
By: Anokatony on March 15, 2022
at 1:22 pm
Where indeed?
*pause* checks Goodreads to see if I tagged her as Irish…
*gasp* No I hadn’t!
That’s why she didn’t show up in my list….
I shall amend it forthwith!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on March 15, 2022
at 2:39 pm
Nuala O’Connor is one of my favourite Irish authors, Lisa! I highly recommend the novels You and Miss Emily. And now you’ve reminded me to order Nora :-)
LikeLike
By: amandacurtin on March 15, 2022
at 2:31 pm
I shall check out those too as well, thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on March 15, 2022
at 3:51 pm
I’m looking forward to reading Nora in April, I’ve read a couple if Nuala O’Connor’s books and enjoyed them.
Detested Good Behaviour.
LikeLike
By: Claire 'Word by Word' on March 15, 2022
at 5:36 pm
No… no… say it isn’t so! I love that kind of bland satire where it takes a while to realise what she’s doing…
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on March 15, 2022
at 9:43 pm
I’m afraid so you can check out my review here. I did learn a few things I wasn’t aware of, but I’m really not good with characters that lack empathy and bland satire for me it was not. I would even go so far as to say it was toxic.
From my review:
“I like a book in which a character can in some way redeem themself, can change or transform, ‘nasty, black comedies’ and characters that take pleasure in using their wounds as weapons against another isn’t entertaining for me”
LikeLike
By: Claire 'Word by Word' on March 15, 2022
at 9:56 pm
I meant bland in the way that Keane has a character say or do something innocuous, until you think about it, and you realise, wow, that was really very cutting. Like Dame Edna Everage telling you that you’re wearing a nice little frock, and how clever you are to have made it yourself. *Ouch*
I think, for Keane, there could be no redemption for her characters who talked about ‘good behaviour’ but never behaved well.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on March 16, 2022
at 11:27 am
I love Jennifer Johnston and Evelyn Conlon is seriously underrated so it is great to see her on your list!
LikeLike
By: Cathy746books on March 15, 2022
at 8:13 pm
I really must read more of her work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on March 15, 2022
at 9:42 pm
Glad to see you join the Edna O’Brien fan club. Molly Keane made it to my list so I am relieved to have escaped Tony’s wagging finger!
Am kicking myself that I overlooked Anne Enright for my own list.
LikeLike
By: BookerTalk on March 15, 2022
at 8:59 pm
*Chuckle* We can’t list them all!
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on March 15, 2022
at 9:41 pm
of course, today I am thinking of even more authors I could have highlighted.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: BookerTalk on March 16, 2022
at 5:11 am
Glad to see Bowen in there – love her writing!
LikeLike
By: kaggsysbookishramblings on March 16, 2022
at 12:46 am
If I didn’t already have nine (9) books out from the library….
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on March 16, 2022
at 11:08 am
Great post, Lisa, and thanks for the mention re: Jennifer Johnston!
I’ve read a few of Nuala O’Connor’s books – they were all wonderful – she sometimes goes under her Irish name of Nuala Ní Chonchúir.
And Mary Costello is a fave of mine, too, especially her novella ACADEMY STREET which is just beautiful and melancholy and heart-rending.
The only Molly Keane I have read is Time After Time (on Tony’s recommendation), which was hilarious but quite dark and none of the characters is very likable! I think she must have been a desperately unhappy woman, TBH, and possessed a bit of a nasty streak!
Not read any Kate O’Riordan – a new name to me, actually, so must see if there’s anything by her in the local library.
I would add Claire Keegan to the mix, although she’s really only written short stories/novellas, Sara Baume, Anakana Schofield and Christine Dwyer-Hickey.
LikeLike
By: kimbofo on March 16, 2022
at 5:26 pm
There is a wealth of Irish writing really, the hard part is choosing what to read first!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on March 16, 2022
at 5:31 pm
Great list — and very helpful, as I’ve yet to read many of these writers. Molly Keane is also a favorite of mine; like you, I’ve noticed (and rejoiced in the fact) that her books are easily available these days.
LikeLike
By: Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead on March 16, 2022
at 10:30 pm
I predict a worldwide splurge on Irish women writers and it’s all due to Cathy 746!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on March 16, 2022
at 10:43 pm
Oh, my: Yahoo bookgroups. I’d all-but forgotten!
Great idea to contribute a summary post in March!
LikeLike
By: Marcie McCauley on March 17, 2022
at 11:52 am
Oh yeah, and didn’t we think they were just wonderful, uniting readers from around the world!
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on March 17, 2022
at 12:25 pm
Reblogged this on penwithlit.
LikeLike
By: penwithlit on March 18, 2022
at 2:36 am
I remember that kimbofo loves Jennifer Johnston and I have one of hers on my TBR, but I don’t think I’ve reviewed one Irish writer since blogging! I can’t quite believe that. I did read a memoir by Nuala O’Faolain and Anne Enright’s The gathering in the decade before blogging but nothing since. Hmm … sorry Cathy. It’s not for lack of interest!
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on March 19, 2022
at 5:22 pm
Well now, with your love of short stories, what about just one of James Joyce’s Dubliners?
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on March 19, 2022
at 5:44 pm
Funny you should mention that. I haven’t read those since high school , but a couple of weeks ago I borrowed an audio version of it, but of course my plan to “read” more audio hasn’t gone to plan! However, as you say, I could read just one to get runs on the board!
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on March 19, 2022
at 6:11 pm
I read them at uni when I was discovering Joyce, but I listened to a lovely Irish brogue recording when I was last having trouble with my eyes and couldn’t read myself to sleep. I hope your version is the same one. (ISBN: 586044744, it has different narrators if I remember correctly.)
You might have noticed that my reading has slowed down a bit… The eye problem BTW is now back with a vengeance, and this time the optometrist has a new imaging thingy which has frightened me into compliance with his orders: the damage is like the Milky Way across my pupils. Repairable, he says, but only if I am assiduous about the treatment *sigh*.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on March 19, 2022
at 6:23 pm
Yes, in fact, I had noticed … have had a big couple of weeks but I was planning to email you. This ageing is not fun is it?
And no, mine is a different ISBN. Narrator is the actor Chris O’Dowd whom I’ve seen and liked so he could be good.
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on March 19, 2022
at 9:17 pm
Fingers crossed that things improve, there’s no way I could put up with a diet of just audio books.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on March 19, 2022
at 11:49 pm
It would be awful, I agree, I’d hate it too… But better than nothing? Can you do eBooks with the print enlarged alot or is the whole need to read the eyes?
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on March 20, 2022
at 8:49 am
Screens, mostly, but also close print. I have to keep stopping and do something that involves looking far away.
Amber is getting more walks…
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on March 20, 2022
at 8:51 am
Oh, then that’s that! At least someone is getting benefit – and, it explains the shoes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: whisperinggums on March 20, 2022
at 9:02 am
[…] Favourite Irish Women Writers – Lisa at ANZ LitLovers […]
LikeLike
By: Reading Ireland Month: Week Three Round-up! on March 20, 2022
at 8:00 pm
[…] Favourite Irish Women Writers – Lisa at ANZ LitLovers […]
LikeLike
By: It’s Reading Ireland Month 2022! on April 4, 2022
at 6:45 pm