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Title: The Street and Other Stories (2 ed) by Gerry Adams, Jimmy Breslin ISBN: 1-56833-216-5 Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Publishers Pub. Date: May, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Killer stories
Comment: Irish-Americans love affair with terrorism continues with this book with Jimmy Breslin (who should be ashamed of himself) adding his endorsement of the bearded killer.Adams may or may not have some talent as a writer but I suspect his shady past adds a sick and decayed glamor in the minds of his fans, particularly in the US which has a distant and romantic view of IRA violence. On an ironical note I wonder how many Irish-Americans who died in the WTC were Noraid members.
Rating: 4
Summary: Provocative and tender, political and personal
Comment: Gerry Adams delivers an impressive and memorable collection of short stories in "The Street," a gathering together of many voices, experiences, and outlooks from the 'trenches' of the 'Troubles.' For thos unfamiliar with Gerry Adams only from his political stylings--"An Irish Voice," or "Free Ireland"--you will be, I think, properly surprised at Adams' literary voice presented here and in his other collection of short fiction, "Cage 11."
There is no avoiding certain facts. This book is, obviously, written about Catholic Belfast, namely set in the communities around the Falls Road and Ballymurphy. Moreover, again predictably, there is a pronounced Republican slant to most of the contemplations that occur in this stories.
Having said, having offered that bit of necessary observation, let me say even more emphatically that Gerry Adams presents a versatile, powerful multitude of people, powers, and feelings in these works. I was deeply impressed, not only by his spare and aching writing style, but by his ability to involve so many situations and sentiments in these works. If you're expecting a load of rehearsed Sinn Féin clichés, you would do well to think again.
We have old women at odds with their church, fathers trying to sort out a computerised beurocracy, rows in the home, hurling memories, and stray dogs. Adams' gives the whole repertoire of humour, tenderness, violence, and uncertainty that, IMO, does very much for Belfast what Joyce did with _Dubliners_. I'm not willing to debate the supposed 'literary' achievements in comparison of these two writers, but I will say that Adams--in emphatic Belfast idioms and allowing vivid descriptions to come from his various characters--declares an Ulster world that no political commentary, ever, has come close to describing.
Particularly memorable is the piece "The Mountains of Mourne" where Adams comes closest to representing a Protestant, lower-class voice in his character 'Geordie.' This story is probably my favourite, with it's vicious and sentimental contests of words between two men, painfully similar and painfully apart. As Geordie and 'Joe' take their van across Co. Down unloading drinks, meeting Gaelic speaking hermits and confronting invisible lines of nationality on the landscape, they converge in a strange understanding that maybe, oh so maybe, on a small level represents a way of peace.
I love these stories. I've read loads of fiction but this is one book I've never forgotten. Gerry Adams has a real gift for storytelling, there's little doubt for me. I showed this book to a friend of mine from El Salvador, and he commented that political writers were often the best fiction writers in his country. Gerry Adams achieves an arc of awareness in these works that'll put genuine light on ordinary lives in extraordinary circumstances.
As a final thought, if you can read Irish, Adams has an edition he wrote (originally?) of these stories called 'An tSráid.' It's a very different experience to read these short stories in Irish.
Rating: 4
Summary: People who deal with everyday life just like you or me.
Comment: This book is full of political commentary with good use of non political stories as well as in your face political stories. The use of everyday people who move through their own days and lives is positioned in direct opposition to the "Troubles" that are a part of their lives. Whether the story is about two men from different sides, or a grandmother waiting up for her grandson, you see that the people have a mission and it is to help each other understand or just get through the days. There is also social commentary on the lives of these Irish Catholics who are the poor class in Northern Ireland. These stories are wrapped around less obvious commentary that strikes one as just plain good story telling. It is the way the book is set up that may bring you to a greater understanding of the way things are seen in N. Ireland. Gerry Adams loves his country and you can see it and feel it in the descriptions of his surroundings and the simple people he knows. I loved these stories and am even more admiring of the man who wrote them. He is a man of his people.
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Title: One Day in My Life by Bobby Sands ISBN: 1856353494 Publisher: Mercier Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: A Farther Shore: Ireland's Long Road to Peace by Gerry Adams ISBN: 0375508155 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Before the Dawn: An Autobiography by Gerry Adams ISBN: 0688143121 Publisher: Harpercollins Pub. Date: 01 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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