Nobody Move, This Is A Review: REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED, edited by Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone

REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED is an audacious exercise in joining the dots between Ireland’s mythological heritage and the current explosion in contemporary Irish crime writing. Basically, Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone have commissioned a number of modern crime stories based on Irish mythology. Contributors include Brian McGilloway, Arlene Hunt, Ken Bruen, Adrian McKinty, Una McCormack, Garbhan Downey, Sam Millar and Stuart Neville. Among the myths invoked are those of Diarmuid and Grainne, the Children of Lir, Queen Maeve and the Brown Bull of Cooley, the Hound of Cu Chulainn, and the Banshee.
  What editors Stone and Brennan have attempted to do is draw parallels between the narrative tensions of an ancient and modern form. Much is made, for example, of the female characters in the myths, such as Queen Maeve and Grainne, as forerunners of the manipulative and often deadly femmes fatales of crime fiction.
  It’s also true that narrative fulcrums such as greed, sex and the lust for power are timeless, as most of the stories here confirm.
  Arlene Hunt’s ‘Sliabh Ban’ is a modern take on the Queen Maeve story, in which revenge plays a considerable part in motivating the main character, whose husband has not only run off with a younger woman, but taken her prize racehorse with him. Hunt’s story is perfectly pitched between myth and modern story, particularly in terms of the tragic ending.
  On the other hand, Adrian McKinty’s story ‘Diarmuid and Grainne’ makes few concessions to the myth that inspired it. While acknowledging the elopement element of the myth, it is to all intents and purposes a hard-nosed tale of an undercover cop on the Border between the Republic and Northern Ireland making a fatal error of judgment while investigating dissident Republicans. Gritty and brutal, it belongs in the category of contemporary story, and shies clear of indulging the mythological aspects.
  John McAllister’s ‘Bog Man’, on the other hand, reverses McKinty’s approach almost entirely: his protagonist is Tarlóir, an enforcer of the peace who goes up against the Morrigan clan in the years immediately following the arrival of St Patrick. McAllister drenches his tale with ghosts, gods and the superstitions of pre-Christian Ireland. In effect, McAllister frames the ancient tale with the modern concept of the police procedural. Where McKinty takes the myth and looks forward, McAllister takes the contemporary form and looks back. Both are equally persuasive.
  Less persuasive in terms of style is Neville Thompson’s ‘Children of Gear’, a riff on the ‘Children of Lir’ story. Thompson sets his story in modern Dublin, yet uses the ancient names for his characters in a tale of a family lost to heroin. The net result is that the story never allows the reader to accept the story as fully myth or modern crime story, but that unsettling aspect contributes to the fact that Thompson’s forceful and unadorned reworking of the myth is a haunting one.
  Some stories have only a tenuous connection to Irish mythology and legend - John Grant’s ‘The Life Business’, for example, offers a couple of glancing references to St Patrick in what is otherwise a compelling coming-of-age tale. Others, such as Ken Bruen’s ‘She Wails Through the Fair’, which takes the myth of the banshee for its inspiration, are entirely suffused with by the story’s inspiration.
  Two stories, both police procedurals, are faithful to the mythology to an almost simplistic degree, yet both are the most successful at drawing out the timelessness of the myths. Brian McGilloway’s ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ and Garry Kilworth’s ‘Hats Off to Mary’ seem to skim the surface of the source material: entirely contemporary, they both convey the apparent simplicities of the mythological narratives, while also sketching in the often crude motivations that lie beneath what we often simply skim ourselves when rereading mythology.
  REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED doesn’t always reach the standards set by its audacious concept. By its very nature, and the nature of the material from which the stories take their inspiration, the tone is uneven, with some stories trading in black humour, others in irreverent revisionism, and some striving too hard to locate what is essentially a prehistorical morality in a contemporary setting.
  That said, the collection is for the most part a vibrant reimagining of a body of literature that is in danger of being preserved in the literary equivalent of aspic. It is at worst a long overdue shot in the arm for Irish myths and legends, and deserves to be taken seriously as a courageous attempt to revitalise a tradition that is in danger of being smothered in academic dust. - Declan Burke

  Meanwhile, here’s a link to a piece on REQUIEMS I had published in the Irish Times last month.

  Lately I have been mostly reading: MY FRIEND JESUS CHRIST by Lars Husum, ORCHID BLUE by Eoin McNamee, SPIES OF THE BALKANS by Alan Furst, BAD INTENTIONS by Karin Fossum and FALLING SLOWLY by Robert Fannin.

O’Bloggers, Where Art Thou?

Took a quick shufty around ye olde bloggeosphere yesterday, and realised how many top-notch Irish blogs there are dealing with crime fiction. Tony Bailie (right) has a nice piece called ‘Thick as Thieves’ up on his interweb yokeybus, and I’m not saying that just because he name-checks yours truly. Okay, that’s a goodly part of the reason, but it’s still a pretty nifty piece nonetheless …
  Elsewhere, Neville Thompson has kicked off a recession-busting innovation. Quoth Nev: “In order to help with the current credit crunch, I have decided to write my latest novel as a blog novel, a chapter every Thursday.” Which is nice of him. Why not toddle along and leave him a comment?
  As always, Gerard Brennan over at CSNI leaves us all choking in his fragrant dust – this week alone he has posts on Ian Sansom, Sam Millar, John McFetridge and Brian McGilloway. All this when he’s supposed to be scribbling away on his own opus. Actually, it feels rather strange to try to remember a time when the world didn’t have CSNI … It’s a bit like mince pies, really. We could probably do without them, but wouldn’t you hate to have to try?
  Mmmmm, mince pies.
  Uber-babe and crime scribe Arlene Hunt has started blogging more often recently, very probably because she’s just released her latest novel, UNDERTOW, but she still doesn’t blog as often as she should, because she’s very funny when she does. Golly-gosh, isn’t it a terrible pity that she doesn’t know someone who could, y’know, help her out with that whole blogging malarkey?
  Finally, there’s always John Connolly’s blog. As he says in the intro to his latest piece, he’s been blogging less frequently too, mainly because he doesn’t want to repeat himself and waste our time. Bless. Anyhoo, there’s some smashing stuff in there this outing, in which John beards the literary types in their Canadian den. My theory on literary snobbery is, given that literary novels don’t really sell, the snobbery is all they’ve got. Literary writers are like the guys ‘n’ gals still living in two rooms of a crumbling old 40-room pile in the Home Counties, clinging on to that vestige of aristocracy in the hope that that will convince people they still matter. Quoth JC:

“A fellow Irish author enquires how I go about constructing a mystery narrative, given that it requires the farming out of information at certain intervals. I reply that I don’t plan it at all, and instead the revelations in question occur in part both naturally in the course of the initial draft and are also subject to revision during the process of rewriting as the heart of the narrative gradually reveals itself. I make the point that it is no different from the way in which a literary author approaches a book, and note the fact that his own most recent novel depends upon a series of revelations about an act of startling violence that has occurred many years in the past, so the difference between our texts is hardly as significant as he might believe. He doesn’t even answer, but simply turns around and walks away, as if appalled that I might suggest any degree of commonality between us.”

  An unnamed ‘fellow Irish author’, eh? My money’s on Michael Collins.

  UPDATE: Hurrah, a little birdie tells me it wasn’t Michael Collins! That’s a relief.

Gerard Brennan: His Ass Is Officially Grass

Has anyone else noticed the amount of work Gerard Brennan is getting through over at Crime Scene Northern Ireland? The guy must have eight arms, or else he’s repatriated all the elves who abandoned Crime Always Pays for the flesh pots of Santa Ponsa during the summer and never came back. Sob, etc.
  Anyhoos, in the last fortnight alone, Gerard has posted interviews with uber-babe Arlene Hunt (right), Ken Bruen and Neville Thompson; reviewed Brian McGilloway’s BORDERLANDS and Paul Charles’ THE DUST OF DEATH; and posted sundry other Irish crime fic-related bits ‘n’ bobs. And not only that, but he’s gone and half-inched the only regular contributor Crime Always Pays ever had, aka Adrian McKinty, who’s written a very funny review of Julian Barnes’ ARTHUR AND GEORGE. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he gets tons more comments than Crime Always Pays does. Boo.
  What’s to be done? Well, it’s obvious, innit – we’re taking a hit out on the boy Brennan and putting a CAP in his ass. Gerard? It’s pistols at ten paces in a murky Russian dawn. Well, it’s either that or slow down, squire. You’re making us all look bad …

The Monday Lynx

Being a round-up of mildly interesting stuff-‘n’-such discovered by Jinx the Lynx (right) on his weekly prowl around the interweb. To wit:

John Connolly is interviewed over at Me and My Big Mouth.

Gerard Brennan has interviews with Neville Thompson and Ken Bruen.

Adrian McKinty is running a competition to win a copy of THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS.

Tana French tells The Guardian about her ‘Top 10 Maverick Mysteries’ …

… while her second novel, THE LIKENESS, gets reviewed at the Irish Independent.

Garbhan Downey talks journalism and crime writing at Detectives Beyond Borders.

Back to The Guardian for James Lasdun’s review of Benny Blanco’s THE LEMUR.

And this was the saddest news of the weekend …

“Just A Perfect Day / I’m Glad I Spent It With Youse …”

I don’t generally have much truck with Kilkenny, this on the basis that its hurlers knocks the stuffing out of Wexford on an annual basis, but yesterday, at the invitation of organiser Neville Thompson (right), I headed down country for the inaugural Castlecomer Writers’ Festival. A fine day it was too, with the sleepy hamlet bathed in sunshine and none of the locals inclined to boast that their county’s hurlers are the finest specimens of the art known to mankind, and are therefore the finest sportsmen ever to grace the planet.
  Anyhoos, I did my best to ruin the convivial atmosphere by injecting some crime into proceedings but no one seemed to take it personally, and the morning’s crime writing workshop went off without a hitch, apart from the fact that I was unforgivably late. It being Castlecomer, no one was rude enough to point out this fact, and it was only afterwards I realised it. Folks? Sincere apologies …
  Bizarre as it was to be asked for my advice on how to write (“Erm, I dunno – rip off someone good, like Elmore Leonard …?”), it was a terrific experience. Because the truth is that I’m about a half-a-rung up the publishing ladder from the folks who are currently struggling to piece their first novels together, which made the whole process a fairly chastening reality check. Mind you, the highlight of the morning was the nun who recounted how she’d taught a hardened prisoner the meaning of the acronym ‘fuck’.
  Upward and onward to lunch, where I met James Lawless, whose novel PEELING ORANGES sounds like a good one. To wit:

PEELING ORANGES tells the story of Derek Foley, who, while sifting through his late father’s diaries and his mother’s correspondence with an IRA man, discovers that Patrick Foley, a diplomat in Franco’s Spain, was not really his father. Derek’s mother, who is ailing, is unwilling to discuss the past, forcing her son on a quest that will plunge him into the early history of Irish diplomacy, taking him to Spain and later to Northern Ireland, until he discovers who his real father was – with tragic consequences.
  PEELING ORANGES is a novel full of personal and political intrigue, fraught with ideology, as it intersects the histories of two emergent nations – Ireland and Spain. It is also a beautiful and lyrically written love story of childhood sweethearts – the apolitical Derek and the passionate nationalist, Sinéad Ní Shúileabháin. “A book to lose oneself in. I highly recommend it.” – Gabriel Byrne.

  I also – finally – got to meet Garbhan Downey, who followed me outside when I slipped out for a post-prandial smoke. “I recognised you from the cigarillo,” says he. A top bloke. After lunch we co-hosted a workshop on journalism, during which I felt like a total fraud. I tried to buy a copy of OFF BROADWAY, his Damon Runyon-inspired collection of short stories, but apparently my money is no good in Castlecomer. “If I never wrote another book,” he said, handing it over, “this is the book I wanted to write.” Always nice to hear a scribe say that …
  Back into the Vizmobile, then, and off to Dublin, where I took part in a discussion on the sudden popularity of Irish crime fiction on Newstalk 106 hosted by the ever-radiant Sinead Gleeson. Tana French and I were in the studio, with Paul Charles on the line from London. The verdict? Irish crime fiction is suddenly popular because there’s a whole heap of terrific authors writing crime fiction. Here endeth the lesson.
  Back into the Vizmobile again and hey-ho for Arklow and the afters of a wedding reception, where I got quietly and very pleasantly drunk to the soundtrack of a covers band knocking out pretty decent versions of offerings from The Stones, The Monkees, The Beatles and Joe Dolan. Nice. Mind you, I did make a faux pas when I told one of Mrs Viz’s cousins that I really liked her shoes. What – aren’t married men supposed to notice women’s shoes anymore?
  Anyhoos, back home and off to Sleepytown, not neglecting to give the Princess Lilyput a little cuddle before my pillow finally claimed me for its own. A perfect day? Damn close …

The Embiggened O # 44,106: Yep, It’s That Blummin’ Book Again

Chances are you won’t be in the vicinity of Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, this coming weekend, but if you are you might want to drop in on the inaugural Castlecomer Writers’ Festival, where yours truly (right) will be hosting two workshops, one titled ‘Fictional Crime’, the other ‘Crime Always Pays’. Or leading everyone in a chorus of All Kinds of Everything, depending on how it goes … Other contributors to the weekend include Neville Thompson, Anita Notaro and Garbhan Downey, and Emerging Writer has all the details …
  Meanwhile, the on-line crime fic community continues its generous cheerleading on THE BIG O’s behalf, with Salman Rushdie’s stunt-double, Uriah Robinson, wibbling thusly:

“Fun is the word I associate with Declan’s book and in my review I wrote that ‘THE BIG O is a loveable rogue of a novel ...’ and great read. The full review is here.”

  Thank you kindly, O Salman-ish of Knowledge. Over at Pitched Up, Mack Lundy does us proud too:

“You know how there are television shows where the cast is perfect and they complement each other – Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street, The Shield, The Wire, shows like that. That’s the way I felt about the characters in THE BIG O. I liked many of them but was interested in all of them.”

  Nice one, Mack. Oh, and by the way – in Monday’s round-up of BIG O big-ups, I disgracefully neglected to mention the New Mystery Reader. Folks? I’m currently wearing sackcloth and ashes. Mea culpa …

“All Changed, Changed Utterly / A TERRIBLE BEAUTY Is Conceived.”

It’s been a busy time at CAP Towers recently (typical afternoon pictured, right), what with christenings and Electric Picnics and Irish crime writers weekends and YE BIGGE O heading for publication Stateside, although one reason for being so busy-busy-busy was self-inflicted. Basically, the notion is this – given the recent explosion in Irish crime fiction, I wondered if there might be any interest in putting together a book offering perspectives on the whys and wherefores of contemporary Irish crime writing. It would consist of a series of essays written by the Irish crime writers themselves, with each author taking a chapter according to his or her speciality. Aimed at a general reading audience, it would decidedly not be an academic tome, but an entertaining and informative read.
  Thus armed with my latest harebrained scheme, I farmed out the idea to some writers I’m in touch with. As of yesterday, those who have confirmed they will be taking part are: John Connolly, Colin Bateman, Declan Hughes, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Gene Kerrigan, Gerard Donovan, Brian McGilloway, Neville Thompson, Adrian McKinty, Gerard Brennan and yours truly, with the latter trio taking on the gig of compiling / editing. If you’re looking at that list and wondering where some glaring omissions are, rest assured that I’m still waiting for more writers to confirm interest or declare otherwise.
  The project currently labours under the working title of A TERRIBLE BEAUTY: A NARRATIVE OF IRISH CRIME WRITING, and yesterday was D-Day for applications for Arts Council funding. That deadline met, we now wait to see if the funding for commissioning the writers comes in. Should it do so, there is already an Irish publisher interested in taking the project on, although it would be unfair at this early point to name any names.
  The plan is to have the book on the shelves by September 2009. Should the project come to fruition here in Ireland, we’ll then be looking abroad to international markets. That’s all a long way off at this point, however, and there’s no sense in trying to run before we can roll over onto our collective tummies. What I’m wondering for now is this: If the project gets the green light, what kind of topics would you like to see explored between the covers? Over to you, people …

Better The Neville You Know

A prolific chap, Neville Thompson (right), and one not afraid to take chances. MORE STREETWISE: STORIES FROM IRISH PRISONS is the sequel to STREETWISE, the collection of stories written by inmates in Irish prisons and edited by Thompson, who runs writing classes in his role as part-time prison teacher. Quoth the Killynon House blurb elves:

MORE STREETWISE is an eye-opening collection of stories by inmates from Portlaoise and Midlands Prisons. These insightful stories are inspired by the writers’ own experiences of being involved in crime, while other stories reflect on life in prison and seeking the path to redemption. Their stories give a unique insight into the minds of some criminals who are now serving sentences in Ireland. The prisoners involved in the writing of this book are donating their royalties to Autism Ireland.

Meanwhile, Thompson also has his latest novel to promote. A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE is a bittersweet, twisted love story, a two-hander told by an Irish man and a Thai prostitute. Back to those overworked Killynon House blurb elves:

Frank is a fat kid growing up on the streets of Dublin. Bullied at school, mollycoddled at home and ignored at work, he decides to leave it all and have a chance at life. Min was born into a happy if poor loving family. Then, tragically, both her parents died and she is forced into working the streets of Thailand to make ends meet. One fateful night, Min and Frank meet on a beach … and it’s love at first sight. But will others be happy to let them find true happiness?

Erm, you’d expect not or it’d be a pretty short book. For more info, toddle on over to Neville’s interweb blog yokeybus …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 546: Neville Thompson

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...
What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Has to be THE CAVEMAN by David Dawes Green. I love it. I love the whole description of the caveman and the madness of what goes on in his head and then the reality that its not that mad after all. I was disappointed with his next book THE JUROR but CAVEMAN was pure pleasure.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
I love Irvine Welsh, and although his last few novels are crap I still go out and buy everything he does. For guilty pleasures PORNO is hard to beat. I laughed out loud at the stuff he came up with in that. TRAINSPOTTING is a read over and over again book and it never loses its appeal. FILTH (apart from the snake bit at the end) is very clever and possibly the most hateable lead character ever.
Most satisfying writing moment?
For me it is always the latest project, when you get excited about where the story is going and you just stay up writing for hours. Nothing beats it ... well, some things do but you know what I mean. I like writing stuff that will catch the audience out. There’s a guy called Hippo and another called Fing in my latest book and I loved writing them.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
Haven’t a clue, was THE CRYING GAME a novel? Is it crime? If it is, then that. Irvine Welsh is living here now, isn’t he? If that’s the case, FILTH!
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
I should have read all these first, shouldn’t I? THE CRYING GAME! I always thought my own JACKIE LOVES JOHNSER was a model to be made into a film but the only ones who wanted it were foreign. It’s due to be made into a French film this year.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Best is doing what you want to do as a job. Worst is every fucker you meet telling you should write his story.
The pitch for your next novel is …?
Fat guy from Dublin goes to Thailand and falls in love with a prostitute ...
Who are you reading right now?
Reading a book on how to make a micro-budget film ’cause I want to make a film of a script I wrote and no one will touch it with a barge pole ’cause it’s politically incorrect.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Modern, funny, real.

Neville Thompson’s A Simple Twist of Fate is available now.

The Neville Will Find Work For Idle Hands To Do

One of the hardest working men in Irish crime fiction, Neville Thompson (right) has more fingers in more pies than yon Sweeney Todd - writer, editor, playwright, enabler of aspiring scribes and much more, all the details of which are here on his shiny new interweb thingy. Most pertinently, Neville has a new novel on the way, A Simple Twist of Fate, to wit:

“When I went to Thailand on holliers I couldn’t get over the amount of prostitutes and the age at which they started into it. I loved the country but hated that. I also wanted to pay homage to a film I seen years ago, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and I took the name of the book from the song on Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. That song tells the story of a fella falling in love with a prostitute and my book has elements of that too. It’s the latest and there is always a certain feeling of pride about your latest work but I love this book. It’s a move away from my normal but not too far removed.”

Neville? Colour us intrigued already. Keep us posted, sir …

The Monday Review: Like, Are There Any Irish People Out There Who AREN'T Writing Crime Fiction?

A bumper crop of reviews this Monday, folks, kicking off with The Times’ take on John Connolly’s The Unquiet: “At times he approaches the spiritual and the supernatural, without falling into the abyss of total impossibility.” Which is, um, good, right? Cool … “Hugely under-rated among thriller writers,” Paul Charles gets the big-up from the Sunday Tribune, which reckons his latest Detective-Inspector Kennedy yarn, Sweetwater, is “one for that long air journey.” … Mystery Books is equally impressed with Ruth Dudley Edward’s latest, Murdering Americans: “Baroness Jack is a delightful character … in this entertaining and witty book.” Mmm, lovely. Next up is Alex Barclay, who “shows promise as a mystery writer, but she needs to make her characters behave more rationally,” warns the rather stingy Kansas City Star … “Be warned: even my scepticism did not prepare me for the ending of this book,” says The Book Chase of Ken Bruen’s The Dramatist. “I was stunned at its suddenness and power. (It’s) the first Ken Bruen novel that I’ve read without thinking about, and admiring, the author’s style more than the novel’s plot. Jack Taylor fans will consider this one to be a classic.” Crikey – do you want jam with that, sir? … Neville Thompson is well in with RTE’s Afternoon Show: “Mama’s Boys is a touching yet funny story starkly depicting life today,” say the Afternooners … Elsewhere, the Kirkus Reviews lauds Andrew Nugent’s Second Burial: “What shines throughout (is) the piercing compassion that crosses racial and national lines to embrace everyone who seeks the truth,” say Mr & Mrs Kirkus … “Irish-born Michael Collins is an astute chronicler of contemporary America, and this stylish campus thriller sees him at the top of his game,” clickety-clicks The Telegraph about The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton, while The Elegant Variation is tickled pink at Benjamin Black’s Christine Falls: “Those who feared Banville might turn in an overly literary effort needn’t worry … At the heart of the book is the coroner Quirke, a Banvillean creation on par with Alex Cleave and Freddie Montgomery.” A ‘Banvillean’ creation? Don’t confuse Der Blandville with Benjamin Black, bro – he won’t be best pleased.

This Week We're Reading ... Of Wee Sweetie Mice And Men and Streetwise

An angrier, tipsier Carl Hiaasen loose in New York foiling the IRA's plans for world domination against a backdrop of a heavyweight boxing world title fight? It could only be Colin Bateman. Boasting the verbs 'slabber', 'mizzle' and 'gulder', Of Wee Sweetie Mice And Men (right) is a "fast and furious" tale that "throws in black humour that has you laughing out loud at the most awful of situations." Which is, to be fair, what Bateman does best ... Streetwise (left) is a more sober affair, being a compilation of short stories written by inmates in an Irish prison and edited by Neville Thompson. Based on real-life experiences, for the most part, the collection is a mixed bag but certainly worth dipping into. Says Critical Mick: "Snooty critics will turn up their starched spats and whine in a D4 accent, 'Oh, pshaw! All these facts has already been well established, I daresay!' Critical Mick will kick their fancy pants." Don't say you haven't been warned, Snooty Critic-types ...

They Say The Neville Has All The Best Tunes

Word around the campfire is that Neville Thompson has a new novel due next month, A Simple Twist of Faith - which may or may not be hinked into the Dylan tune of the same name. Thompson looked set fair when his debut, Jackie Loves Johnser, OK? sold a staggering 17,000 copies in the Irish market, and he then penned the superbly titled Two Birds / One Stoned - until those pesky contractual wrangles set in with Poolbeg, to the surprise of absolutely every writer in Ireland (ahem). Anyhoo, the way the rabidly intelleckshual Dublin Quarterly devotes the vast part of its current Big Conversation to Neville's offering of last year, Mama's Boys, is entirely post-modern, or summat, we can't keep up ... but hey, at least they're giving Irish crime fiction the respeck, yo. Which is nice ...