"Because Murder is More Fun Away From Home"
You've read about it here, and now Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century is finally here. Read more here.Labels: Declan Burke, Ireland
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 12:19 AM
This blog is a proud winner of the 2009 Spinetingler Award for special services to the industry and its blogkeeper a proud former guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's Here on Earth. In civilian life I'm a copy editor in Philadelphia. When not reading crime fiction, I like to read history. When doing neither, I like to travel. When doing none of the above, I like listening to music or playing it, the latter rarely and badly. Click here to find an independent bookstore near you.
25 Comments:
I'm so excited about this one, and I really hope we can get it over here soon, one way or another.
Much obliged for the nod, sir. Have away and shite, etc.
Cheers, Dec
Seana, I've written about Irish crime fiction a time or two; I'm excited about this book as well. I hope our good editor will keep us posted about U.S. availaibility -- or about when it will be time for us to take matters into our own hands.
Declan: My pleasure, and congratulations on seeing this project through. I suspect this book will launch a thousand discussions.
I hear the chapter on Northern Irish crime fiction pre 1990 is genius.
"An account of Northern Ireland crime writing, 1940s-1990s," if my memory serves me well. I seem to recall that you, er, that the author of the chapter once expressed some harsh judgments on early Northern Irish crime writing. Is that the case, or am I hallucinating?
Peter
There are a few gems but generally its a pretty barren time for all fiction writing in Northern Ireland. The real energy seems to have been challenged into poetry and the odd play. But the genius of course is in the telling not the tale.
I know literally zero about fiction from Northern Ireland of the time, much less crime writing. That's one reason I'm looking forward to the chapter. If it ws a barren time, why? What go things moving again? Does current Northern Ireland crime writing owe anything to that barren period?
It's easy enough to assume the Troubles and their aftermath got everything started, but there has to be more to the roots of the current boom than that.
Peter
No I think it was a deeper malaise. 1940's austerity and 50's conformity stretched all the way into the 70's and then the Troubles were so shocking that it seemed vulgar to approach them in fictional form. Poetry, at least in Ireland, has always been the Queen of the arts and certainly the most respected and serious. And they got lucky too the 1970's poetry circle in Belfast included Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson etc. who went on to win Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes etc. etc.
I would not have been able to guess at explanations for such a malaise. At least in the south, one could blame the church or fear thereof for clamping down on creativity. (Whether the blame would be accurate is another matter.)
I sure hope I can get this book through Book Depository when it's out.
If the Book Depository does not come through, I'll look into ordering directly from the publisher.
(I am waiting for my first Book Depository order to arrive. It shipped ten days ago. A few more days of patience are called for, I guess.)
Hmm. I've ordered about five things from them now and it's always been about a week.
People have always raved about the Book Depository. Thing about this order was that it was a surprise, sent by me to someone else. I have heard from this person, but without mention of the book. So I suppose it could have arrived. Hmm, I'll have to find some clever way to broach the subject.
Is it possible they didn't know it was from you?
Alternatively, are they in prison?
Not in prison, as far as I know. In any case, I've bitten the bullet and asked via e-mail if the book has arrived.
My experience has been that of Seana's with Book Depository. I get the book(s) within a week, unless they are out of stock or the book isn't yet in their facilities.
They have always responded quickly to my email inquiries.
I also can't wait to read "Down these Green Streets," and will be checking with Book Depository, too.
I assume news of its availability might even be posted here.
Also, in addition to Seamus Heaney, whose poetry I adore (and I'm not a poetry reader, in general), what I know of Irish poetry has come from a frequent contributor from Oz to this website.
I'm afraid that the knowledge of my Irish ancestors' culture is coming from crime fiction blogs and mysteries. And, that goes from music to poetry to snakes in zoos and their relationship to Parliament in Ireland (you had to be there!).
Kathy, I'm the only person I know of who has had any complaint with the Book Depository. They did respond promptly to a question I had right after I placed my order. It's just the book has not arrived. I'll give it another day or two.
And I hope to post further news about Down These Green Streets.
"Green streets," huh? So this isn't that book about the environmental aspects of sustainable development in the field of urban transportation policy?
Not the book about Green Streets Canada--the flagship program of Tree Canada--the country's only national urban forest innovation initiative?
Oh, okay...
v-word = play "misti" for me
So this isn't that book about the environmental aspects of sustainable development in the field of urban transportation policy?
You wag!
My experience is that many younger creative people in contemporary Ireland are drawn to the visual arts and have embraced new computer technologies with enthusiasm. You might enjoy a photo blog by Kyle Tunney, for instance.
I find the current enthusiasm for thriller and crime writing, which is an international phenomenon, a bit puzzling. Having spent most of my adult life on the edge of a frightful time in Northern Ireland, the last thing I would think of would be to write about it. However, Eavan Boland was very helpful in understanding the flowering of poetry in such troubled times:
"A poet cannot excape their history" she explained at a lecture. The ability to identify with a time in history can be quite a burden.
Thanks for mentioning Kyle Tunney. I found some useful and entertaining stuff there.
I have heard similar thoughts to yours expressed about crime writing. Here's part of my interview with Caryl Ferey, who wrote the violent Zulu:
"... We’re not accustomed to this violence, so we have the roman noir as a catharsis. For us, who have an ultra-securitized society, we are even more scared of violence. By contrast, I think that if I were a black South African author, I would not write about a violent life. What would interest me would be love stories, that kind of thing, because “Violence? OK, we know it.”
Also, it's important to remember that the boom in Northern Irish crime writing follows the Troubles. The books that stick out in my mind are not stories of what happened during the fighting, but rather of its aftermath. So they are contemporary stories, not historical fiction.
That is so helpful.
I'll reserve a copy of this important book in my local library.
I'm probably too close to life in Ireland to be able to distinguish boom and post-boom realities and see them in distinct categories. In fact I entertain friends by claiming that the boom was a wonderful event and that now we have excellent roads and very interesting modern buildings, if next to no money.
The writers on this list may be of interest to readers of your blog:
"http://www.critiqueslibres.com/i.php/forum/sujet/8334 "
The reality is that so many South African writers did write about violence as it was happening and so many of their stories are shot through with sadness.
Certainly much to think about thanks to this post.
Tales, I don't know exactly how the book will be organized, but it would be interesting to see what sort of crime fiction was being written in Northern Ireland during and before the Troubles. That's where Adrian McKinty's contribution.
As far as "literary" writers being ahead of crime writers in writing about South Africa under apartheid, maybe they were just more senstitive. Or maybe, crime fiction being a popular art form, its publishers, writers and potential readers did feel up to reading about ugliness and violence. That's one reason James McClure's novels are interesting and possible exceptional.
I put up a couple of posts about Alain Mabanckou some time ago.
And congratulations on that entertaining observation about Ireland:
"I entertain friends by claiming that the boom was a wonderful event and that now we have excellent roads and very interesting modern buildings, if next to no money."
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