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Tag Archives: Edna O’Brien
“Before verse can be human again it must learn to be brutal.” — Austin Clarke
“He cleared a non-Yeatsian space in which an Irish poet might build a confident poetry in English for which the term ‘Anglo-Irish’ is meaningless.” – Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets Austin Clarke was born in Dublin on this day … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day, writers
Tagged Austin Clarke, Edna O'Brien, Ireland, Irish poetry, John Montague, Michael Schmidt, poetry, Robert Frost, Thomas Kinsella, W.B. Yeats
2 Comments
“The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed.” — Edna O’Brien
Today is the birthday of the great Irish writer Edna O’Brien, who just died this past summer at the age of 93. I came to her Country Girls trilogy fairly young. I was in college. I think that might be … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, writers
Tagged documentary, Edna O'Brien, fiction, Ireland, women directors
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November 2024 Viewing Diary
Stranger Things, Season 2, episodes 5, 6, 7 (2016) Continuing the very slow “binge” watch with my niece Lucy, and having so much fun. She gets such a kick out of showing it to me. She knows every moment and … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Charles Vidor, comedy, documentary, drama, Edna O'Brien, film noir, Iranian film, Ireland, Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Mohammad Rasoulof, Paul Schrader, Richard Gere, Rita Hayworth, romantic drama, sci-fi, Sidney Lumet, women directors
28 Comments
For Liberties: Edna O’Brien: Documentary of A Writer and A Star
Edna O’Brien, a giant of Irish literature, died this past July. The loss is almost too much to get your head around, at least not immediately. She was a prolific writer for 70 years. Her books (and memoir, and non-fiction, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, writers
Tagged documentary, Edna O'Brien, Ireland, Liberties, women directors
4 Comments
R.I.P. Edna O’Brien
We knew this day was coming but still … it’s a sad one. A connecting thread is lost, with the 20th century, with my father, who introduced me to O’Brien’s work (and not just her work but what she meant, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, RIP, writers
Tagged Edna O'Brien, fiction, Ireland, The Country Girls
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Rejoyce. It’s Bloomsday.
Some men send flowers to commemorate an anniversary. James Joyce wrote Ulysses. Overachiever. On June 15, 1904, young James Joyce sent a note to Nora Barnacle, who was a waitress at Finn’s Hotel. Barnacle (what an apt name) was a … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day, writers
Tagged Bloomsday, E.M. Forster, Edna O'Brien, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Ford Madox Ford, Frank McCourt, George Bernard Shaw, Gertrude Stein, Ireland, John Banville, Katherine Mansfield, Stefan Zweig, Sylvia Beach, T.S. Eliot, Ulysses, Vladimir Nabokov, W.B. Yeats, William Carlos Williams
54 Comments
Edna O’Brien on The Country Girls
A terrific essay by Edna O’Brien about the publication of her first novel The Country Girls. Well worth reading but I’ll pull out the two parts I liked especially: The Country Girls took three weeks, or maybe less, to write. … Continue reading
The Books: “Girls In Their Married Bliss” (Edna O’Brien)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: Girls In Their Married Bliss, by Edna O’Brien. Girls In Their Married Bliss, with its obviously sarcastic title, is the final book in Edna O’Brien’s famous “Country Girls Trilogy”. Here’s my post about The Country … Continue reading

