Post by Maolsheachlann on Jun 6, 2017 22:24:49 GMT
I'd be interested to know if any other members have read and/or liked the novelist Walter Macken. I was crazy for him in my teens. He was something of a traditionalist writer in two senses; first of all, as a writer he was very much a "solid" storyteller, who nobody would mistake for avant-garde; and, secondly, he tends to portray the clergy quite positively. His son became a priest and I believe Walter was an orthodox Catholic. I remember, in one particular scene in the novel I Am Alone, the Irish protagonist (in London) looks at contraceptives in a barber's and reflects how embarrassing it would be to have to confess to a priest that he'd used them.
I admired his works because they were a mixture of the sentimental and the realistic, even gritty, which I found quite winning. I liked The Bogman (the story of a songwriter trapped in a loveless marriage), I Am Alone (an Irish emigrant to London, or perhaps it was some other city), Quench the Moon (the life of an aspiring novelist), and Brown Lord of the Mountain (which is set against the electrification of a rural area). His famous historical trilogy I didn't like so much, nor his short stories.
He was particularly good at describing stream of consciousness, and simple things like the taste of food or the experience of a sleepless night.
I admired his works because they were a mixture of the sentimental and the realistic, even gritty, which I found quite winning. I liked The Bogman (the story of a songwriter trapped in a loveless marriage), I Am Alone (an Irish emigrant to London, or perhaps it was some other city), Quench the Moon (the life of an aspiring novelist), and Brown Lord of the Mountain (which is set against the electrification of a rural area). His famous historical trilogy I didn't like so much, nor his short stories.
He was particularly good at describing stream of consciousness, and simple things like the taste of food or the experience of a sleepless night.
