Benedict Kiely (1919–2007)

In this novel, originally published in 1968, Benedict Kiely interweaves the lives of the residents of a small Irish town called Cosmona. One such resident thinks “it would not be extravagant to suppose that something quite out of the ordinary might happen in the course of that day.” And most of what happens is extravagant disguised as the ordinary. A no-good long-lost husband returns to town escorting a Liberian sailor looking for three girls who took his money. He finds them and extracts his revenge. The town’s one-eyed voyeur finds himself one half of a couple having sex openly on the church tower. A convalescent holy man and a nurse find love, or at least sex. Some clever newspapermen are visiting from Dublin to do a story on a dying war veteran whose father is already mourning his loss. A free X-ray truck is parked and making announcements over a loudspeaker: “Step right in. It will only take you a few moments. You don’t have to undress.”

In a town, and a country, dominated by the Catholic Church all manner of behavior is considered sinful. But of course as the story illustrates, it still goes on. As Kiely says here: “This life was a game of consequences sometimes, and sometimes a game of comic senseless contradictions, and sometimes the two mixed up together and a lot more besides.” And so it is in Cosmona.… (mere)

OK, so I have both this book and the Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories, edited by William Trevor and published seven years later. Mostly the same authors but only two duplications ("First Conjugation" by Julia O'Faolain, and "Desert Island" by Terence de Vere White.) Trevor has more folk tales and pre-20th-century material, Kiely has more then-contemporary authors. Trevor includes himself and Kiely, Kiely includes Trevor but was apparently too modest to include himself. Both strongly recommended, it should go without saying.… (mere)

Benedict Kiely was a true Irish storyteller. This book consists of four short story collections and a novella, probably the bulk of Kiely’s short fiction. The stories here are like folk tales. They seem to grow as naturally as grass. Kiely beautifully portrays life in Ireland and Northern Ireland and masterfully creates an entire world in each story. He even takes a stab at some memories of America, notably Atlanta.

In “A View from the Treetop” a guilt laden schoolboy hides in a tree in the center of town, providing a narrative of the town’s activities. In “A Journey to the Seven Streams” a man recollects a day trip his family took by car when he was a boy “when cars were rare and every car, not just every make of car, had a personality of its own.” In “Maiden’s Leap” a stuffy writer learns more about himself than he bargains for.

Kiely doesn’t shy away from lust. In “Elm Valley Valerie” when the beauty rode her bicycle “an Irish setter trotted behind her, tongue out like the rest of us.”

Kiely often portrays a vanishing Ireland by seeing it through the eyes of returnees and descendants. “The Dogs in the Great Glen” is the delightful story of an American finding the glen his grandfather told him about years earlier.

He doesn’t shy away from addressing The Troubles. In his masterpiece novella “Proxopera” a man is forced to drive a car bomb to his town while his family is held captive.… (mere)

First year novitiates in a religious order in 1950s Ireland attempt to adjust to a life of silence, devotion, discipline, and the self-deprivation of “a strictly regulated life.” Those in danger of leaving – “I’m in jail. I might as well be in jail. I can’t stick this place any longer” – are counseled to wait through one more meal before deciding.

The novitiates, of varying ages, interests and vocations, blend together in a group while maintaining their individuality. Even the best among them can be “bogged to the neck in a spiritual desolation” at times.

This is a nuanced, lovely book that offers the best of men, some struggling with their vocation, some steady on the path.… (mere)