Reading Recommendations for St. Patrick's Day

March 17 is the Feast Day of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Patrick was not Irish himself; he was born in Britain in the 5th century, around the end of Roman rule there, and became a missionary to Ireland. According to legend, he once stood on a hill and and banished snakes from Ireland, causing them to slither into the sea; however, research has shown that there were no snakes in Ireland. A more believable legend is that he used the three-lobed shamrock, a common plant in Ireland, to illustrate the three aspects of the Trinity. 

Saint Patrick's Day in America has come to be a celebration of all things Irish (and quite a few that aren't really that Irish, like corned beef and cabbage, which was created by Irish immigrants in America). So in that spirit, I would like to recommend some wonderful books by Irish authors. Celebrate all things Irish today, including great literature produced by the Irish!

Bram Stoker's Dracula

A Dublin native, Stoker was a sickly child who spent much of his youth homebound, listening to Celtic fairy tales which included some about fairies who drank blood. No doubt these stories contributed to his most famous novel, Dracula. As an adult, Stoker moved to London and worked with the famous actor Henry Irving, whose tendency to dramatically sweep his cape about also contributed to Dracula's mannerisms. Stoker's Dracula has a great influence on the way we imagine vampires today, and inspired countless movies. If you have never read the original novel, try to forget all the movies you're seen about Dracula, and let yourself be drawn into the chilling tale by Stoker's words. 

C.S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy

Another prolific writer, Lewis is often thought of as British, as he attended boarding school in England and spent many years as a don at Oxford University, but he was actually born in Belfast and spent his early years there. He may be most well-known for his children's books series, The Chronicles of Narnia, but he also wrote The Space Trilogy (Perelandra, Out of the Silent Planet, and That Hideous Strength), and a number of books on Christian theology (The Problem of Pain, Mere Christianity, and The Four Loves, among many others). Surprised by Joy is a very personal book that chronicles his own life from his youth in Belfast to his becoming a don at Oxford, and how his life experiences led to his conversion to Christianity. Whether or not you are a believer, this book is a fascinating story of a brilliant and logical man who approached faith in a very practical and factual way. 

Maeve Binchy's Circle of Friends

Binchy is well-known for her fictional novels, which are generally set against the backdrop of her own small-town life in Ireland. One of her most popular novels, Circle of Friends follows the lives of Benny (Bernadette) and Eve, two young women who become close friends despite being polar opposites in many ways. Benny is tall and overweight, the child of working-class parents who are loving but somewhat overprotective, while Eve is pretty and thin, but orphaned since childhood and raised in a convent because she is estranged from her mother's aristocratic family, who disapproved of Eve's middle-class father. The girls go to college together and navigate the difficulties of adult life and problems with help from the circle of friends that they make there. 

Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

Swift was born in Ireland to English parents, and eventually moved to England after studying at Trinity College for both a bachelor's degree, which he completed (sort of), and a master's degree, which he did not. There's a good chance you read A Modest Proposal in high school, along with Swift's slightly more well-known Gulliver's Travels. But it's well-worth re-reading now. The satirical essay, the full title of which is A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, is a barbed commentary on England's treatment (and exploitation) of Ireland. It is also a fascinating example of using seeming logic to come to a completely untenable conclusion. 

W.B. Yeats' The Land of Heart's Desire

William Butler Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923, and although he is generally thought of as a poet, he was also a playwright. The Land of Heart's Desire was his first play to be professionally produced, in 1894. It tells the story of a fairy child who meets a pair of newlywed humans, and entices the young wife to leave her husband and come with the child to the land of fairies. Despite entreaties from her husband, the wife succumbs to the lure of immortality and mindless pleasure, and dies in his arms. The language of the play is glorious poetry, such as the child's speech to the wife, which includes the lines, "You shall go with me, newly-married bride, And gaze upon a merrier multitude. White-armed Nuala, Aengus of the Birds, Feacra of the hurtling foam, and him Who is the ruler of the Western Host, Finvarra, and their Land of Heart's Desire, Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood, But joy is wisdom, Time an endless song. I kiss you and the world begins to fade." It's no surprise that she gave in to that temptation. 

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Another Nobel Laureate (fun fact: Beckett is the only Nobel laureate in Wisden's, the bible of cricket history), Beckett was born, raised, and educated in Dublin. His most well-known work is Waiting for Godot, a play that was originally published in French. It is the story of two men discussing their lots in life while waiting for someone named Godot, whom they hope will explain to them their reason for existence. Godot continually sends messages that he is on his way, but - spoiler alert - he never actually shows up. You may never have read the play (I hadn't), but no doubt you have used (or at least heard) the expression "waiting for Godot" to mean waiting for something that will probably never happen. The play can be - and has been - interpreted in many different ways. To me, it is fascinating as a work that makes you think, and shows you how other people think that may be very different from you. It is also well worth reading for its clever language, which no doubt read more beautifully in the original French, but it still marvelous in English; for example: "Ever tried, ever failed. No matter. Try again, Fail better."

Lisa McInerney's The Glorious Heresies

Lisa McInerney's The Glorious Heresies is described as a "biting and darkly funny" tale of the struggles of people on the fringes of Irish society. The characters include a grandmother who accidentally murders a man, a 15-year-old drug dealer, a sex worker dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, an alcoholic father, and a gangster and contract killer. Despite the dark setting, McInerney brings humor to this exploration of family dynamics and relationships. 

Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost

To end this list on a lighter note, I'm including a work from one of my favorite authors, Oscar Wilde. Another Dublin-born author, Wilde is best known for his plays (such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lady Windemere's Fan, and of course The Importance of Being Earnest), but I opted for The Canterville Ghost because it is a novella rather than a play, which is often easier to read, and because I find it delightfully funny and charming. It tells the story of an American family who moves to England and buys a house which turns out to be haunted by a former owner said to have murdered his wife. The ghost performs his usual tricks of putting bloodstains on the floor, wandering around at night dragging chains, and knocking down suits of armor, but unlike previous residents, the new residents simply scold the ghost, requesting politely but firmly that he oil his squeaky chains and even kindly offer him medicine to cure his creepy laugh. The ghost is stymied by their response and annoyed by the pranks that the twin sons play on him. Eventually he is befriended by the daughter, whom he asks to cry over him so he can be forgiven and move on to the next world. She does, and in return, he leads her to a discovery that reveals his true fate. 

Happy reading, and Erin Go Bragh!