McCabe Book Review

8/19/2010

Book Review:
Stories

Sean McCabes A Good Deed and Other

When it comes to multicultural literature of the English-speaking world, Ireland

is probably not generally considered a member of this expansive territory. In fact, thanks to grand lads like Joyce and Yeats, the Irish written word as genre, if it is to be classified, is often part of the default setting for standard English andby way of cultural influenceAmerican literature, even if not always canonical in estimation. Maybe this is a boon for some Irish chest-thumpers of the literary kind; however, in terms of Englishlanguage literature, a disservice may be done to uniquely Irish literature in the modern era, in that it isnt able to take its place outside the shadows of its cultural and historical associations with the aforementioned big guns (especially when one considers that other English literature of the Diaspora must often do this, though very much more so under the radar).

McCabe Book Review

8/19/2010

Perhaps it is time for this to change a little. After all, Irish culture is more than just Guinness and Bonos trademark sunglasses. Likewise, perceptions of Irish literature should not only be assumed through the legendary efforts of mavericks from another age. In other words, it doesnt have to be as big as all that to be worthwhile. Sean McCabes A Good Deed and Other Stories, the interconnected recollections of Eoin Grady as he grows up in the fictional small town of Baile in the 1970s, come about exactly as memories do: small snapshots of time, place, and people taken together here to create a patchwork quilt of humor, disappointment, indifference, and as is case in most twelve-year-old lives, the frustration with parents who just dont get it. Two of the earliest offerings, the title opener A Good Deed and Permission, are significant pieces, particularly as they map out the preoccupations young Eoin is beset with throughout the rest of the collection. Theres the quiet rebellion against adult authority and limitations, conscience versus desire, and his near ceaseless pursuit of escapism through any number of things: junk food, the local carnival, travel, BeeGees records, and the relatively permissive state of affairs in the household of his well-heeled best friend Henry Dean. Other standouts include Coffin Nails, with its schoolroom nod to slapstick humor in tow, the morally ambiguous Stranger in the House, and towards the end of the collection, The Trip to Paris, where Eoin visits The City of Light on a school trip, allowing him to experience the stirrings of an ever-burgeoning sexual awareness, but most importantly, the freedom of the city with neither parental nor even parochial bonds to hold him back. With its motifs of Catholic symbolism, in addition to the adolescent-male-asprotagonist approach (though certainly not unique to him), the ghost of Joyce actually

McCabe Book Review

8/19/2010

does take a peek in now and again, but McCabe thankfully manages his work without those mind-numbing twists and turns of language and allusions to classical subject matter Joyce was so fond of. These are the tales of an Irish youngster very much a part of his own unique generation. He doesnt really say all that much in profundity, but this ironically reveals a good deal about where he comes from. McCabes offerings are a nice example of what can happen when an apparent simplicity in form and style reveals a tacit complexity. The reader is left with more questions than ready answers, and the end result elicits one of the best responses to any narrative: the desire to know more. Hopefully, the saga of Eoin Grady does not end at the tenderyet tragically unfulfilled age of twelve, the age he still is at the close of the collection. He should just be getting started. -TwistaSista