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EDNA & ME
Although her name was often in the news when I was growing up in Ireland, I didn’t have much regard for Edna O’Brien and her novels. Not that I’d read them – oh no, but the women of my mother’s generation who had considered them smutty and lightweight, and that was enough for me. I still wasn’t persuaded when Dr Cronin lectured on her at university, and though I enjoyed the films based on her novels - The Girl with Green Eyes, with Rita Tushingham, Peter Finch and Lynn Redgrave, and I Was Happy Here with Sarah Miles – I was stiil, to my everlasting shame, dismissive of her talent.
In my defence, this arrogance reflects horribly the experience Ms O’Brien had in Ireland, where her books were banned, and in her hometown, burned – but really, there is no defence for such ignorant prejudice on my part.
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Whe I came to London, I was recommended to go and see her play A Pagan Place at the Royal Court, with (surprisingly) comedian Dave Allen and a very young Veronica Quilligan. I’m sure if this play were revived, it would stand comparison with the work of Brian Friel. That was the end of it, though I enjoyed seeing her on television, and especially on the radio, when she refused to discuss a book on gossip, because she didn’t approve of the subject.
For some reason, many years later, I gave a friend a book of short stories by William Trevor and Edna O’Brien. I was surprised (can’t think why) when Clare told me that she had loved the stories, and that I must read them. It was a damasene moment for me: here were two writers who spoke my language, who understood my own experiences and could interpret them for me, and without whom my life would be far less rich. Since them, I’ve read extensively through their short stories – good novelists as they are, they excel in the short story form. Reading them is like getting a letter from an old friend.
It was therefore with great excitement that I went to see Edna O’Brien being interviewed by Eimear MscBride at the National Theatre. She is 88 now, and still elegant – one could even say glamorous. She walks with a stick and perhaps has some infirmities of her age, but her mind is sharp and clear.
“I’ve been told by Eimear that I should start by reading an extract from my book. I’m a good pupil, so that’s what I’m going to do,” she announced, and read from the opening of her new book, Girl.
This is based on..../continued HERE
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