February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
MIDLIFE IRISH
Frank Gannon
Even though his connections to the old country are one generation away, Gannon’s parents were “integraters,” rarely if ever speaking to their son about the life they lived before America.
This account of his search is touching and humorous as, invariably, Gannon discovers much about himself as well as uncovering his family past. The author is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and will read from his book on March 12 at 8 p.m., at Rocky Sullivan’s bar in New York. Warner Books. 243 pp. $23.95.
AND ALL THE SAINTS
Michael Walsh
Drawing on a wealth of period detail, Walsh paints a vivid fictionalized autobiography of Owen “Owney” Madden, the legendary gangster of the early 20th century. Madden is famed for his setting up of the Cotton Club, for being Mae West’s lover and producer of some of her Broadway shows. He also owned five heavyweight champions, including Primo Carnera and James J. Braddock. If that wasn’t enough for one lifetime, Madden was also a major influence in Democratic politics: in 1932 he used it to good effect to help FDR win the nomination for president. Walsh shows madden for what he was: a ruthless killer who displayed extraordinary warmth and loyalty to those he liked. Warner Books. 383 pp. $24.95.
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
Michael Ledwidge
A fast-moving New York crime thriller with a strong Irish flavor, from the hands of the young writer who brought us “Bad Connection” and “The Narrowback.” Ledwidge’s novels have presented characters faced with disaster who are given a final chance for redemption, but often at the cost of selling their souls. He is masterly is describing the wrangling and writhing of the minds of the characters as they are forced to choose between two evils, often only to find that they have been in fact doomed from the word go. It is the mean streets of the Bronx and Manhattan, where Ledwidge grew up and still lives, that give his novels their dark and gritty backdrop. Atria Books. 309 pp. $23.
PEACE COMES DROPPING SLOW
Edith Shillue
Opening with a reference to “the spooky blue-grey eyes for which the Irish are famous,” this record of conversations the author had with Northern Irish people seems destined to collapse under the weight of its own cliches. But it doesn’t: ultimately these are genuine conversations with people outside the political and paramilitary groups, reflecting the complexities of attitudes and identities in the North. Still, Shillue tends to overanalyze the conversations, and the plain speakers of Ulster are interpreted in amusingly inaccurate ways. University of Massachusetts Press. 200 pp. $27.95.