Black Swan S.
2 total works
When Brendan Behan died in 1964 at the age of 41, he had rung the changes in his short life: bomber, gunman, borstal boy, alcoholic and, finally, international literary figure with the success of "The Quare Fellow", "The Hostage" and "Borstal Boy". But Behan drowned his talent in a whiskey bottle and became the caricature of an Irish stage drunk, clowning his way with oaths and stories between bars in Dublin, London, Paris and New York. Written in association with his widow, his mother and others of his family and friends, and old IRA comrades, this is a biography of Brendan Behan.
Dublin is the only city in the world to produce three Nobel Prize winners for literature. An indication that something remarkable was taking place, not only in the capital but in the whole country, came in the extraordinary confluence of talent which appeared at the end of the nineteenth century. The names alone - W. B. Yeats, George Moore, George Russell (AE), James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, John Synge - spell out a renaissance. The revival of the Irish language, folk movements and growing nationalism were other ingredients. Ulick O'Connor has created a brilliant composite portrait of the figures who dominated the era of this literary renaissance. He has written the story of the rebirth of a nation with so much local colour that at times it reads like a novel. Yet every event took place and minor characters are not neglected. 'Celtic Dawn' is acute, passionate, sometimes partisan, a pioneer work of biography, and compulsive reading even for those not closely acquainted with the figures who fills its pages.