Out of Focus

by Alf MacLochlainn

DJ is worn, with creased and discloured edge. tear to top of spine, also damage to top of spine on body of book.

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Alf Mac Lochlainn was born in Dublin in 1926, studied at University College, Dublin, and became a librarian, with internships at the Library of Congress and Simmons College in Boston. He was Director of the National Library of Ireland and Librarian of University College, Galway, chairman of the James Joyce Institute of Ireland, and a trustee of the Chester Beatty Library. He was inaugural holder of the Visiting Chair of Irish Studies at Burns Library, Boston College, from 1991 to 1992.

He wrote film scripts for radio, television, and short films and published numerous essays in bibliography, film criticism, and social and intellectual history, as well as satirical verse published in limited editions. His first book was a novella entitled Out of Focus, and his second was the story collection The Corpus in the Library.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the earliest Dalkies. The novel’s blurb (see novel’s blurb) takes a stab at summing this up, and almost succeeds. The closest I can get is to say it’s like a cross between Inish and the Research Bureau columns in The Best of Myles, but not as good and twice as weird. The illustrations are hilarious and some lines are so absurd I chuckled, despite my utter bemusement. I read this while distracted to the point of . . . distraction. So add an extra star if you must to excuse my anxious state, and congratulate me on my graduation, which was today.