The Mountain Man

by Tim Daly

The Mountain Man is a rogue’s tale. It is about a fetching young Irishman, John McEnley—amorous, ambitious, reckless, quick-tempered—who turns to poteen distilling in order to earn money for his fare to England. His home is a lonely cottage in a desolate, bare district on the west coast. The law is defied and the clergy ignored. He loves Katie and manages to rescue her from the local match-maker, who wants her for an elderly shopkeeper—but the neighbours object, and Mary, a former girl-friend, is jealous. McEnley longs to escape to wider fields, yet he is reluctant to leave his widowed mother in poverty. Disasters pile up; he blames the Guards, the priests and the women who betray him.
  All this is told with an unselfconscious and candid exuberance. The Mountain Man is full of invention and incident, but its success lies in the economy and the simple leisureliness of the handling of its theme.

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960