Rumours

by Seamus Deane

Paperback

Published January 1, 1977

About the author

Seamus Deane was a Northern Irish poet, novelist, critic, and influential intellectual historian whose work left a lasting mark on Irish literature. He earned international recognition with his debut novel Reading in the Dark, a multilayered story that won several major awards and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Although he began as a poet, Deane built a distinguished academic career, teaching in Ireland, the United States, and at the University of Notre Dame, where he became a leading voice in Irish Studies. A founding director of the Field Day Theatre Company, he also shaped critical discourse as editor of the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing and other landmark projects.

Reviews

[Khrustalyov · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't help but pick up a Seamus Deane book while in a bookshop in Derry last year. I didn't really know his work but knew enough to understand his significance to the literature of that city and indeed Ireland more generally. His poetry was the work of his youth, before he became internationally known as a scholar and one-time - fairly successful - novelist. Indeed, the work in Rumours is certainly far from that of his Northern Irish contemporaries and colleagues such as Heaney, Carson, Mahon, Muldoon, and others. There are some interesting poems in here and Deane clearly has talent in his compositions. However, I often found them to be a bit turgid in their metres and moreover lacking much of a compelling theme. The better poems were those that reflected on his childhood and these were scattered throughout the short volume among poems that were sometimes more academic and other times obscure to me. The poetry is, to put it prosaically, okay, but I wouldn't rush to another of Deane's collections, of which there are a few. That said, his intelligence does shine through often and I will definitely pick up his novel and scholarly books soon.