The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction

Ireland has never been short of quality writers, but since 1968, the year free secondary education was introduced, a storm of new writing has arisen, much of it approaching the potency of Joyce and Beckett and all of it serving to illustrate the diversity and dynamism of the contemporary Irish experience. The absence of work written in, or translated from, Gaelic notwithstanding, this anthology of short fiction and novel extracts from 50 writers (many previously unpublished in the U.S.) comes as close as possible to capturing the scope and vitality of Irish literature today. The collection opens with a late piece by Beckett, who's credited in the illuminating introduction as an increasingly important influence, and moves through sections arranged in the chronological order in which works are set. The juxtapositions are canny: younger bloods like Neil Jordan and Bernard MacLaverty rub shoulders with well-known writers like Mary Lavin and William Trevor, and the established young writers like Roddy Doyle and Patrick McCabe face off with even younger, but no less promising, newcomers like Bridget O'Connor and Colum McCann. Perhaps most remarkable is the variety of tone, style and topic; going far beyond traditional concerns, the selections show a society flexing its muscles. Sins of omission are inevitable in any anthology--bestseller Maeve Binchy, for example, is absent--but with selections from John Banville, Brian Moore, Edna O'Brian, Colm Toibin, John McGahern, Deirdre Madden, Gerardine Meaney and many more, this is a wide-ranging, highly readable and probably definitive survey of the wealth of talent in Ireland. (Oct.)