I was thumbing through the Borders May catalog and was delighted to find a book by Joseph O'Connor. I read Sweet Liberty: Travels In Irish America back in the mid 90s, and laughed so hard. It's been years since I've thought about O'Connor. The prospect that he might have another book out, excited me. Some digging on Amazon led me to a whole sleugh of his books.
Star of the Sea, tells the story of a boatload of Irish emigrants that travel to New York to escape the Great Famine.
Author bio on Amazon.com:
Joseph O’Connor is the author of several widely acclaimed and best-selling novels, including COWBOYS AND INDIANS, INISHOWEN, and THE SALESMAN. Among his other works are an acclaimed collection of short stories, TRUE BELIEVERS, a travel book, SWEET LIBERTY: TRAVELS IN IRISH AMERICA, and several collections of journalism. He has also written criticism, plays, and screenplays, and edited YEATS IS DEAD: A SERIAL NOVEL BY FIFTEEN IRISH WRITERS FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, which included contributions by Frank McCourt and Roddy Doyle. Joseph O’Connor lives in Dublin.
Jen, I’ll pick up one or two. Thanks for the lead.
Dear Jen
Hi, it’s Joe O’Connor here, in Dublin. Hope you enjoy the new book. You’ll find it very different from ‘Sweet Liberty’, but I’m hoping you stick with it.
All best
Joe
Bought a copy in my last minutes in Dublin in July. Read it on trains in Melbourne this last week. Oh yes, like tipping a bucket of broken glass over your head: pretty colours, cutting edges. Nothing thrills more than the litany of curses streaming from Mary Duane’s pretty mouth. Am sending copies to Canberra, Middle Park (Melbourne suburb), and the Aland Islands – for starters. And yet my Irish connection – who had given me that other work of art of a rather different culture, John McGahern’s That They May Face the Rising Sun – told me in an email that he does not read Joseph O’Connor. I keep asking myself why.