MR SWIFT recommends... In the Library’s continuing series of book selections by members of staff, Mr Swift has made a selection which perhaps doesn't include all his absolute favourite books in the world ever but instead he has used the guideline, ‘Books I’d read by the age of 19, or wish I’d read by then.’ All of Mr Swift’s recommendations are available in the Library
DUBLINERS by James Joyce Here’s a good way to enter the world of our city at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th. It’s also by far the most accessible way to become introduced to one of Ireland’s most revered authors. Dubliners is rightly considered one of the best short story collections ever written, and truthfully every one’s a gem. A favourite line? It would have to be Gabriel towards the end of The Dead saying, ‘Why am I feeling this riot of emotion?’
AS I WALKED OUT ONE MIDSUMMER MORNING by Laurie Lee This is an enchanting read especially for those of you who perhaps feel cooped up and fenced in by exams and study. If you are planning to journey abroad during a gap year this book will inspire the wonder of travel and the necessary sense of adventure required. With only his violin as a potential income stream the 18 year old Laurie takes off on foot from the Cotswolds for London and then Spain. Set in the 1930’s and written in a poetic, romantic prose Lee describes a country that still seemed medieval. By the end of this memoir however all that was about to change, change utterly.
RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS by J.D. Salinger It’s possible that if you enjoyed studying Catcher in the Rye you have worked your way through the rest of Salinger’s published work but let me recommend this one. It tells the strange story of how our narrator turns up as the soul family representative to his older brother’s wedding in New York, the brother however never shows up! Tricky situation. He finds himself in a car bound for the jilted bride’s parents’ house with other guests. Should he reveal his fraternal link to the absent groom? Most memorable is a tiny man in a top hat with a cigar who, by saying nothing, becomes our hero’s only ally…it’s a short read so stick with it.
THE RAZOR’S EDGE by W. Somerset Maugham Although Maugham isn’t terribly popular these days I think he is still worthy of our attention. He is a very clear and vivid storyteller. I liked this novel because it speaks directly with a narrator’s voice that you feel must be the author himself. In fact in his preface he claims to have made nothing up, I wonder…Anyway this only serves to make the story of Larry Darrell’s quest (and attainment) of spiritual enlightenment more intriguing.
THIS BOY’S LIFE by Tobias Wolff This is the first of Wolff’s memoirs covering his boyhood move to the American north-west with his flighty mother. Perhaps doing what she felt was best for them both she enters into marriage with a cruel, controlling and humourless man whose presence gradually saps the joy from their lives. Wolff, many agree, raised the bar for writers of literary memoir with this masterpiece. His deft recollection of his youthful self, his frustrated dreams and his desire to break free from his incarceration in glum Concrete, Washington are more often tinged with humour than bitterness. Wow!
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY by Jean-Dominique Bauby Another memoir but one written from a unique perspective and one ‘written’ extraordinarily. Bauby was a successful magazine editor in Paris until the day in 1995 he suffered a massive stroke which left him completely paralysed, apart from the ability to blink his left eye. In cases such as this where the mind is still working perfectly the person is said to suffer from ‘locked-in’ syndrome. Bauby set about ‘dictating’ his book, letter by letter, by blinking his eyelid when his transcriber called the letter from the alphabet needed to spell his next word. This alone is mind-boggling but the reality is that regardless of its mode of composition this is a haunting and moving read from a strangely unknowable place. It inspired a terrific, Oscar winning, film adaptation which should surely be considered for Mr. Coldrick’s TY film society. I’m only sayin’…
MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING by Victor Frankl This is a well known book concerned primarily with the German concentration camps of WW II. The description of what took place there by the author doesn’t quite match the spine-chilling writing in Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man; however as a trained psychologist Frankl uses the second half of the book to explore this most depraved chapter in human history to seek some essential understanding of the human condition. I remember chancing upon this book in a bargain shop when my spirits needed lifting and believe it or not it cheered me up no end.
THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran This piece of ‘inspirational fiction’ dates from 1923 yet has the feel of some lost scrolls or inscribed tablets of an ancient civilisation. It is written in a faux-archaic style but still seems to entrance the reader as the wisdom of the words penetrates our innermost longing for truth. The Prophet on Teaching, ‘No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.’ Well said that mystic!
SO LONG, SEE YOU TOMORROW by William Maxwell It’s years since I read this novel, recommended to me by John Fanagan, former head of English, but it has stayed with me. I’m going to leave it unread for a while more but I remember being impressed by the sympathetic insights of the novelist and the understanding he displayed, in his uncluttered prose, of the sometimes muddled motivations of the adolescent soul. This is not a novel you’d normally chance upon or pluck from the shelves without a bit of nudging – but that’s what we’re here for, nudge, nudge.
DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON by George Orwell This is a really interesting piece of social reportage from the late 1920s. Orwell decided to experiment with a self-imposed exile to the most marginalised fringes of the two cities of the title. In Paris he becomes a dishwasher in a restaurant which he says was akin to slavery and in London he describes the awful conditions that homeless men of that era had to endure in the appalling hostel accommodation. It seems that he really lived it. The overall effect is to make SCC dormitories seem like presidential suites at the Ritz.
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway Studying English literature in school should introduce you to the big themes; and in this little story Hemingway does just that. Mankind’s struggles with the forces of nature, the potential of the human spirit to overcome, the presence of death in life and the perilous employment conditions of Cuban sea anglers – they’re all here! The style is distinctive, lean and deceptively simple and the end result was the little book you hold in your hand won the Pulitzer Prize for Hemingway.