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Young Irelanders: Stories
In the space of twenty years Ireland has gone from a land of high unemployment and emigration to one of the five richest countries in the world. The stories in Donavan?s Young Irelanders magnify the New Ireland and illuminate how the Irish are coping with its rewards and immigration, mid-life crisis, adultery and divorce, a lost sense of place and history, and of course, what to do with all that prosperity. This is an important new chapter in the career of a top-flight literary writer.
244 pages, Paperback
First published July 3, 2008
About the author
Gerard Donovan
15 books58 followersGerard Donovan is an acclaimed Irish-born novelist, photographer and poet currently living in Plymouth, England, working as a lecturer at the University of Plymouth.
Donovan attracted immediate critical acclaim with his debut novel Schopenhauer's Telescope, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. His subsequent novels include Doctor Salt (2005), Julius Winsome (2006), and, most recently, Sunless (2007). However, Sunless is essentially a rewritten version of Doctor Salt -- ultimately very different from the earlier novel, but built upon the same basic narrative elements—of which Donovan has said: "Doctor Salt... was a first draft of Sunless. I wrote [Doctor Salt] too fast, and the sense I was after just wasn't in the novel. ... I saw the chance to write the real novel, if you like, [when Doctor Salt was due to be published in the United States in 2007] and this I hope I've done in Sunless."
Prior to his career as a prose author, Donovan published three collections of poetry: Columbus Rides Again (1992), Kings and Bicycles (1995), and The Lighthouse (2000). His next publication will be a collection of short stories set in Ireland, followed by a novel set in early twentieth-century Europe which he is currently writing.
Donovan made a huge Dubai picture, with 4.250 photoshots (45 billion pixels) in Dubai's panoramica area.
Donovan attracted immediate critical acclaim with his debut novel Schopenhauer's Telescope, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. His subsequent novels include Doctor Salt (2005), Julius Winsome (2006), and, most recently, Sunless (2007). However, Sunless is essentially a rewritten version of Doctor Salt -- ultimately very different from the earlier novel, but built upon the same basic narrative elements—of which Donovan has said: "Doctor Salt... was a first draft of Sunless. I wrote [Doctor Salt] too fast, and the sense I was after just wasn't in the novel. ... I saw the chance to write the real novel, if you like, [when Doctor Salt was due to be published in the United States in 2007] and this I hope I've done in Sunless."
Prior to his career as a prose author, Donovan published three collections of poetry: Columbus Rides Again (1992), Kings and Bicycles (1995), and The Lighthouse (2000). His next publication will be a collection of short stories set in Ireland, followed by a novel set in early twentieth-century Europe which he is currently writing.
Donovan made a huge Dubai picture, with 4.250 photoshots (45 billion pixels) in Dubai's panoramica area.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 24, 2019
This is a book I never would consider purchasing if I picked it up in a bookstore. However, since I got it as a surprise in a subscription box, I thought it was worth giving it a try.
The stories were interesting, but nothing monumental. I also don't have much interest in Irish history, so if you are more tied to the culture and development of the island, this book may interest you more.
The stories were interesting, but nothing monumental. I also don't have much interest in Irish history, so if you are more tied to the culture and development of the island, this book may interest you more.
July 2, 2023
I enjoy a good collection of short stories. And it was an interesting experience reading these. Each story focused on different characters with nothing in common except Ireland. Each story touches on different topics of hardship and/or change and how it affects the characters. These are stories of struggles and there are few happy endings. A good read but not if you're looking for a feel good one.
September 1, 2009
This is a fine, if not totally remarkable collection of short stories all set near Galway Bay in Ireland. I read something recently (I think it was in "Book Lust" actually, oh well) that Irish fiction writing is almost always influenced by two things, James Joyce and the ongoing Irish/British/Cathotic/Protestant conflicts. I think it's pretty neat that this guy confronted at least one of those head on by naming his short story book "Young Irelanders" (yes, see "Dubliners") and populating it with average joe characters caught in a moment of recognition of their true natures (see the same). Courageous.
None of the stories, save the quite beautiful middle point "Archaeologists," were particularly exciting to read, but they were all solidly constructed. The idea of the story tended to reveal itself a bit too early and then you merely read to see how it played out. I did really enjoy the last story, a somewhat aimless piece about a man visiting his mother in her nursing home. One of the last paragraphs of the book: "Outside I saw her sitting in the wheelchair, hands folded on her lap, and I knew I was living the moment that says nothing, that will allow nothing said of consequence."
Yes, exactly. It's worth the meandering 222 pages to get to a line like that.
None of the stories, save the quite beautiful middle point "Archaeologists," were particularly exciting to read, but they were all solidly constructed. The idea of the story tended to reveal itself a bit too early and then you merely read to see how it played out. I did really enjoy the last story, a somewhat aimless piece about a man visiting his mother in her nursing home. One of the last paragraphs of the book: "Outside I saw her sitting in the wheelchair, hands folded on her lap, and I knew I was living the moment that says nothing, that will allow nothing said of consequence."
Yes, exactly. It's worth the meandering 222 pages to get to a line like that.
November 19, 2012
This is a collection of short stories, written over the course of many years, about the author’s fellow countrymen and their lives in a changing Land of Erin.
Young Irelanders seemed tremendously promising for the first two or three entries, demonstrating some fantastic storytelling, and then... I’m not sure. Maybe it just lost steam, or maybe I just got bored with what the book turned out to be. In fairness, it may be that stories of bored people squabbling halfheartedly over sex, dating and marriages within a generic setting nearly indistinguishable from every colorless suburb in America actually is an accurate picture of Irish life in recent decades. But it just didn’t do a lot for me.
Young Irelanders seemed tremendously promising for the first two or three entries, demonstrating some fantastic storytelling, and then... I’m not sure. Maybe it just lost steam, or maybe I just got bored with what the book turned out to be. In fairness, it may be that stories of bored people squabbling halfheartedly over sex, dating and marriages within a generic setting nearly indistinguishable from every colorless suburb in America actually is an accurate picture of Irish life in recent decades. But it just didn’t do a lot for me.
April 30, 2012
I enjoyed this collection of short stories based on Celtic Tiger Ireland. The book is called County of the Grand in the Europe (where I am) and the characters are all based generally here in Galway. The collection has interesting layers and motifs: the cars and highways in nearly every story, the archeological references, etc. The title Young Irelanders implies a connection with the romantic nationalists of the 1800s but the stories seem to belie that sort of ideology. The story 'archeologists' was definitely my favorite and well worth a read. I loved this look at contemporary Galway.
October 21, 2009
Mr. Donovan, though at times a talented and insightful writer, seems overly obsessesed with cheating wives. I am partial to the first story, which begins with a great vision of Ireland and the Gulf Stream. The others did not capture my interest in the least.
October 7, 2008
Excellent, spare and succinct shorts by The West of Ireland's Raymond Carver. Each character is remote and discomposed and conforms to reality.
February 18, 2009
this is 'Country of the Grand' in the UK - see my review there..
dnf-partial-read
August 12, 2015Read a few of the stories and never felt pulled in. Gave up.
December 27, 2016
I just didn't love the stories as much as I wanted to. These were Carver-esque displays of tormented people, but I consistently lacked sympathy for the characters.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews