Just finished reading . . .

After the Wake by Brendan Behan (published 1981, but most of the short stories and pieces originally written and published in the 1940s, 1950s).

9 out of 10


I've had this book for ages and dipped in and out of it - I'm not good with short stories. This time I just read it through from cover to cover. Where did I get this? It is an obscure publisher - maybe from some alternative bookshop somewhere. There was that one in Manchester, round the side of Debenhams, years ago - 'Grassroots' - that sold lefty, feminist and alternative perspective books. Gone now (I think).

Brendan Behan was an Irish nationalist and member of the IRA. He was also an author, a playwright, a diabetic and a very heavy drinker who sent himself into an early grave. He spent time in prison for his republican activities.
I award this book 9 out of 10 on the back of about 5 of the short stories that he tells. Some of his writing is obscure and occasionally disjointed, so one has to work very hard to understand it, if at all.
But I want the whole world to read 'The Last of Mrs Murphy' which is funny and tragic and Irish and so human. I want the whole world to read 'The Execution' in order to stand in the shoes of someone with values and beliefs and loyalties that might not lie easy with the reader, especially the English one. And 'The Confirmation Suit' is such an important story, as is 'After the Wake'.
Paul and I sometimes judge people by whether we would want to have them round for dinner. I don't think I'd be able to spend an evening in Brendan's company, unless we hid the alcohol. But then he wouldn't stay! But maybe he'd show us what craic really is.
I learned some things about Ireland and its relationship with the history of other countries - notably the Spanish Civil War and Mexico. I already knew a fair bit about Ireland's relationship with England.

Next, I'm going to read Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Sylvia's Lovers'. I've read others of hers, like Cranford and North and South. She is political, like Behan, but she is a different gender, and from another age.