Com Toibin

conno16

have not read any of his stuff til now
just finished The Blackwater Lightship and have to say i was well underwhelmed
very basic, not very interesting overall
(i've picked up a copy of Flashman to aid my recovery, might follow it up with some PG Wodehouse)

question is, did i pick a bad first novel by the writer or is all his stuff mediocre and this dreary - clearly different strokes for different folks and all that, maybe hes just not my cup of tea

i was planning on reading Brooklyn at some point but at this point would be reluctant to invest the time

conno16

should say, i am interested in reading contemporary irish fiction btw

Boulevardier

Best thing I have seen from CT is the play Testament, a fascinating study of the Virgin Mary's possible relationship with the apostles. Brooklyn was quite a good novel but nothing special. I did not finish The master.

I saw CT in Davy Byrne's last night (Wed) with Diarmuid Ferriter and some other historian types. Anyone know if there was a book launch or sdomething like that going on?

conno16

are you suggesting such folk only leave the house for book launches and the like?

Boulevardier

They had a palpable air of having been at an occasion of some sort. This was at about 8.30pm, which is the sort of time people would come away from something like a book launch.

conno16

people commonly meet up for a few jars around that time also

back on topic please

Boulevardier

conno16, I cannot see why you have to quibble with something I said in perfectly good faith.

I am unfollowing this thread as soon as I have posted this.

conno16

no quibble

i just have a short patience for stereotypes frequently pushed under the noses of us writers

Toby Take a Bow

conno16 wrote: »

i was planning on reading Brooklyn at some point but at this point would be reluctant to invest the time

There was a couple of articles written about how Brooklyn was like a sub-par Maeve Binchy novel, so if that floats your boat. Haven't read him myself, none of the books appeal to me, and the more I see him on tv shows/book launches/in my back garden the more I intensely dislike the man.

Each to their own, and all that.

emeraldstar

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

There was a couple of articles written about how Brooklyn was like a sub-par Maeve Binchy novel, so if that floats your boat. Haven't read him myself, none of the books appeal to me, and the more I see him on tv shows/book launches/in my back garden the more I intensely dislike the man.

Each to their own, and all that.

Yup, I hated Brooklyn. The text was so... incredibly simplistic. Now presumably it was intended to be that way, but I hated it. It read like a ten-year-old had written it. Add to that the weak plot and the naïveté of the lead character... I wouldn't bother, OP.

conno16

case closed on toibin so
hes obviously a bluffer

PhiliousPhogg

conno16 wrote: »

i just have a short patience for stereotypes frequently pushed under the noses of us writers

That's why we hang out together us writers, don't worry conno you're one of us;).

I agree on Brooklyn, it was about an innocent Irish girl who took the great adventure of going abroad, had some romantic adventures then wound being torn between home & the free life. Admittedly it's a fine story for those days & those times and it sums up a large element of 20th century Irish history but I didn't find it riveting & it's far from contemporary for an Irish reader in their 20s or 30s who has grown up with the services of Ryanair.

conno16

Has Ryanair made Colm Toibin irrelevant?

future leaving cert question (or maybe a final exam question on some future FAS course)

Nolanger

conno16 wrote: »

case closed on toibin so
hes obviously a bluffer

One ugly bluffer!

Toby Take a Bow

PhiliousPhogg wrote: »

it was about an innocent Irish girl who took the great adventure of going abroad, had some romantic adventures then wound being torn between home & the free life.

Reading the plot synopsis when it came out, it did seem like he was writing a novel that had been done countless times before. You'd have to ask what the point was, until you read the sales figures, which was probably what was going through his mind.

pog it

A lot of writers in the popular literary genre could be said to be over-rated. But despite this is it not better that they are putting their energies into that than say working in the Department of Agriculture or wherever?

emeraldstar

pog it wrote: »

A lot of writers in the popular literary genre could be said to be over-rated. But despite this is it not better that they are putting their energies into that than say working in the Department of Agriculture or wherever?

Not particularly. I fail to see your point. And the Department of Agriculture needs employees, just like any other organisation?

pog it

emeraldstar wrote: »

Not particularly. I fail to see your point. And the Department of Agriculture needs employees, just like any other organisation?

The difference being that there are thousands of people who could work in the civil service, but not everybody can write to a high standard, or present an excellent current affairs radio programme, etc. Toibin and others could have taken the easy option but didn't. For that I applaud them.

Nolanger

Maybe they couldn't pass the Civil Service entrance exam?

emeraldstar

pog it wrote: »

The difference being that there are thousands of people who could work in the civil service, but not everybody can write to a high standard, or present an excellent current affairs radio programme, etc. Toibin and others could have taken the easy option but didn't. For that I applaud them.

I see. Your use of the word "over-rated" led me to believe that you didn't, in fact, think that Toibín, etc. write to a high standard. Hence my confusion over the meaning of your post.

pog it

emeraldstar wrote: »

I see. Your use of the word "over-rated" led me to believe that you didn't, in fact, think that Toibín, etc. write to a high standard. Hence my confusion over the meaning of your post.

Writing to a high standard and being over-rated are not necessarily incompatible. Toibin is an excellent writer, but I was disappointed with what I read given the hype surrounding him. Again, I'm glad he chose to go with writing for a career and leave the Dept of Agriculture for others.

fisgon

Can't think of a better Irish writer than Colm Toibin, though he isn't to everyone's taste. His style, especially in The Blackwater Lightship, is very bare, spare, apparently very simple, and I found that book very hard to engage with initially. But it draws you in, the style and the story, and that's now my favourite Toibin novel, very effecting, profound.

If you didn't like that novel, though, you're not likely to enjoy any of his others. The style is the same, no flourishes, steady, simple, but dragging you along, sucking you in.

conno16

dragging me along is not how i like to spend my literary down-time..

mickoregan

I'm glad I came across this thread. I was totally unaffected in any way at all by BROOKLYN and I thought maybe it was just me.

Carraway

I though Brooklyn was a good novel, deceptively simple. You could make the same argument about the prose being too simple about McGahern or Hemingway. If you're looking for books by Toibin that are more artful I'd suggest The South or his collection of short stories The Empty Family.

Yahew

There were parts of Brooklyn which would be written, word for word, by Maeve Binchy. On the other hand, he pushed out paragraphs which she couldn't possibly do - on occasion.