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Seaman: A novel
109 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1978
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September 13, 2023
'...stripping and going through the motion in a room even if the passion's a bit soft. You turn him over, and looked at he's not the beauty your imagination had you see in the bar or under the streetlight. Not the great love you defied the state, the church and the hearth to find. Just an ordinary Joe with nothing to say...' (From the back cover of the only edition of this novel by Co-Op Books, Dublin, 1978)
This novel is the story of Mac a 25 year old despairing of the pointlessness of life navigating the working class inner city Dublin Streets in the early 1970's. He is queer though his unhappiness is not due to his sexuality but his inability to connect in any real way with anyone, or to believe any more that such connection is likely or possible. Although he has worked on ships he is not a 'seaman' in the proper sense, being disqualified permanently due to colour blindness. I am sure in any case that the seaman referred to in the title is the other sort.
This novel was published in 1978 by the Irish Writers Co-Operative, a short lived body founded c. 1976 which was responsible for launching the careers of writers like Desmond Hogan and Neil Jordan (and others I presume). It apparently didn't last long because once writers attracted the attention of major publishers they jumped ship - perfectly understandable but obviously didn't help the writer's co-op.
That Brendan's novel was published around the same time and by the same who published Hogan's first novel 'The Ikon Maker' shows that this novel was deemed worthy of publication by those well qualified to judge. I think it exceptionally fine novel.
I will admit in many ways that this novel, with it's utter acceptance of queer sex and the way it is intrinsic to the character but plays no part in the motivation of the novel's plot astounds me. I had finished school in Dublin and was attending my first year at university at the time this book was published. I had no idea that words like those quoted above were available on sale anywhere in Dublin. Of course I make no claims to being an aware, or even remotely out young man, I was as lost anyone in those days, though it would have been lovely to have found this book and known that things like that could be thought, written and published.
This novel could be claimed as a lost 'gay' classic most impressively because it isn't about being gay. It still impressed me. I am of course utterly unreliable because it's Irish origin and date of publication tie in too strongly with my own youth for me to be completely dispassionate.
What I wish more then anything would be to know more about the author and about the Irish Writers Co-Operative and what other authors they published. I can't even be sure how I came across this novel. I think it was while tracking down the works of another Irish writer Padraig Rooney whose brilliant novel 'Oasis' I bought and read this year. If anyone knows anything about any of the above I'd love to know.
Please note the James Brennan who wrote this novel was born, I think, in Dublin on October 18, 1944 and has no connection, as far as I am aware, with the authors of any of the other books listed under that name on Goodreads.
This novel is the story of Mac a 25 year old despairing of the pointlessness of life navigating the working class inner city Dublin Streets in the early 1970's. He is queer though his unhappiness is not due to his sexuality but his inability to connect in any real way with anyone, or to believe any more that such connection is likely or possible. Although he has worked on ships he is not a 'seaman' in the proper sense, being disqualified permanently due to colour blindness. I am sure in any case that the seaman referred to in the title is the other sort.
This novel was published in 1978 by the Irish Writers Co-Operative, a short lived body founded c. 1976 which was responsible for launching the careers of writers like Desmond Hogan and Neil Jordan (and others I presume). It apparently didn't last long because once writers attracted the attention of major publishers they jumped ship - perfectly understandable but obviously didn't help the writer's co-op.
That Brendan's novel was published around the same time and by the same who published Hogan's first novel 'The Ikon Maker' shows that this novel was deemed worthy of publication by those well qualified to judge. I think it exceptionally fine novel.
I will admit in many ways that this novel, with it's utter acceptance of queer sex and the way it is intrinsic to the character but plays no part in the motivation of the novel's plot astounds me. I had finished school in Dublin and was attending my first year at university at the time this book was published. I had no idea that words like those quoted above were available on sale anywhere in Dublin. Of course I make no claims to being an aware, or even remotely out young man, I was as lost anyone in those days, though it would have been lovely to have found this book and known that things like that could be thought, written and published.
This novel could be claimed as a lost 'gay' classic most impressively because it isn't about being gay. It still impressed me. I am of course utterly unreliable because it's Irish origin and date of publication tie in too strongly with my own youth for me to be completely dispassionate.
What I wish more then anything would be to know more about the author and about the Irish Writers Co-Operative and what other authors they published. I can't even be sure how I came across this novel. I think it was while tracking down the works of another Irish writer Padraig Rooney whose brilliant novel 'Oasis' I bought and read this year. If anyone knows anything about any of the above I'd love to know.
Please note the James Brennan who wrote this novel was born, I think, in Dublin on October 18, 1944 and has no connection, as far as I am aware, with the authors of any of the other books listed under that name on Goodreads.
Displaying 1 of 1 review