A companion to Leonard's delightful childhood memoirs Home Before
Night, this volume takes up many of the same themes as 'Jack'
emerges from adolescence into the world of work and complicated
adult relationships. The title provides the clue to a shift in
emphasis. Nothing of the wit and charm of the earlier volume is
lost as he revisits embarrassing family blunders, describes the
antics and the abuses of the priests at school, and re-lives early
sexual encounters, but, ten years on, he casts a more critical eye
on relationships and events which had previously been viewed from
the perspective of youthful innocence. We find Jack less ready to
brush aside the cruelty of his adoptive mother, a drunk who never
misses an opportunity to remind him of his status as an
illegitimate child, although with the benefit of age, he comes to
an understanding of her treatment of him and his long-suffering
father. This relationship, too, comes under closer scrutiny as
descriptions of his father's outbursts of temper and frustration at
his failure to stand up to his mother tarnish the previously
unblemished object of childhood adoration. He now asks searching
questions about a society in which illegitimacy is an almost
unbearable stigma and women are brutalized by men as a result of a
'loathing of sex' brought about by Catholic dogma. This is a
contradiction tellingly encapsulated in a hilarious moment when
Jack admits in the confessional to 'self-abuse'. A furious priest
demands whether he wants to become a degenerate to which Jack
innocently replies, 'Yes please', having no idea of the meaning
either of the crime to which he is confessing or its sanction.
Finally, Leonard explores in greater depth the transition from
bored civil servant to full-time professional writer via a wealth
of painfully amusing incidents in amateur theatre. (Kirkus UK)
This title presents the memoirs of Ireland's acclaimed author and
playwright, Hugh Leonard. Born in 1926 in Dublin, he was educated
at Presentation College, Dun Laoghaire. He is an award winning
playwright and screenwriter, and was Literary Editor at the Abbey
Theatre, Dublin 1976-77. He now lives in Dalkey in County Dublin.
This second volume of autobiography is a portrait of adolescence in
Dublin in the 1940s and 1950s: schooldays and altar-boyhood, early
bliss in the sevenpennies at the Astoria, problems with Gloria and
Dolores. Leonard stirs in theatre ancedotes, vignettes of Patrick
Kavanagh and Brendan Behan and divulges his own beginnings as a
writer. The result is a humorous analysis of Dublin and Dubliners.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
