Published by Tramp Press
Featuring Patrick McCabe, Mary Morrissey, John Boyne, Donal Ryan, Andrew Fox, Evelyn Conlon, Oona Frawley, John Kelly, Belinda McKeon, Michèle Forbes, Paul Murray, Eimer McBride, Elske Rahill, Sam Coll, and Peter Murphy.
The introduction to Dubliners 100 by editor Thomas Morris, who came up with the idea for this book, is such a charming piece of writing and tells the reader how the collection was born. The original Dubliners by James Joyce was published 100 years ago, in 1914, and it is my personal favourite of all of Joyce's work. As a Welshman who just moved to Ireland to study English Literature in Trinity College Dublin, Morris tells of a Luas ride with a companion who suggested Morris wouldn't really understand Dubliners because he wasn't from Dublin.
I moved to Dublin from Tipperary to study English and History in UCD and was exceptionally lucky to study three of Joyce's works in my degree through lectures and seminars under one of the world's most expert of academics of all things Joyce, Declan Kiberd. When, in my final year, the opportunity presented itself to attend a seminar on Ulysses - of which Kiberd had written the introduction and notes of the Penguin edition - I jumped at the chance to study this great, postmodern work, episode by episode, with a master of Joyce.
And, as it goes, it was in fact through writing my final year essay for this seminar on the feminine voice in Ulysses I studied the 'Penelope' episode in detail. The closing episode of this literature-changing book placed that female voice in Molly Bloom's hands as she lounges in bed all day while her husband Leopold embarks on his adventures throughout the city. After sitting on the idea for quite a few years until I found a use for it that was worth how special it was to me, from there the name Penelope's Bed was born so when Dubliners 100 was published I felt that it was essential and quite appropriate to feature a review of it on this blog in particular.
As the Ulysses essay and seminar marked the end of my English degree, Dubliners was one of the first pieces of works I studied towards the very start of it and it is still my favourite of all of Joyce's work so Dubliners 100, for me, is such an exciting project. From Patrick McCabe to Mary Morrissey, recent first time novelist John Kelly, Oona Frawley and elven more great writing talents, each of the whom leave their mark on their assigned story.
The idea Morris had was to approach each writer to come up with what he called a cover version of the stories in Dubliners and you can see quite clearly how each of the authors interpreted them; some staying close to the original work while others creating far more abstract interpretations.
The weight upon each author to approach a work from the most world-renowned Irish author of all time must have been a nerve-wracking task that each writer took to with aplomb and the greatest feat of the collection as a whole, in my opinion, is the likeness to the feel and atmosphere of the original Dubliners they managed to achieve, which is the aspect of the original that attracted me most as a teenager who had just moved to Dublin.
Many of the authors take you out of Dublin which is probably the only element I wasn't expecting, but from this you can see it was far beyond capturing a homage to the great city - most of which has changed irrevocably since 1914 - but far more the feeling each story and the collection as a whole evoked. Much like the snow that falls at the closing of 'The Dead' and the closing of Dubliners itself, starting in Dublin but moving wider and wider until it covers the whole country and the universe, its influence in Dubliners 100 also captures Dublin life but spreads further and further outward; as did its Dubliners' audience in the 100 years since its publication.
John Boyne's 'Araby' is both so true to the original but also feels very personal to the the author and is so short and complete. It's one of my overall favourites from the collection. Patrick McCabe's 'The Sisters' couldn't be further in ways from the original but is deeply enjoyable and an excruciating account of a close-knit community huddled outside at nighttime at Christmas as their attention is drawn towards a chimney fire; a mortifying occurrence for whoever caused it. The tight and nosy community and the talk that occurs in it is the ode to Joyce's work McCabe creates while also very much interweaving his own, very well known style through the story.
Other highlights include Donal Ryan's tragic hope of love in 'Evelyn', Mary Morrissey's excruciating, memorable 'An Encounter' and, perhaps the biggest challenge of the fifteen stories, Peter Murphy's take on the most well known and highly lauded of all the stories in Dubliners, 'The Dead'. In it we are immediately launched into a world that, in many ways, could not be more different from the original. Murphy got extremely creative with his subject matter and the result is so imaginative and surreal - I don't want to give much away because you really have to read it - but uses 'The Dead' in as creative a way as possible, set in a bizzarely different future, but one where the themes in Dubliners' closing chapter are still relevant. And the ending is at least as spooky. As a fan of Murphy's writing I was looking forward to seeing what he would do with 'The Dead' and I certainly wasn't disappointed but could never have expected the cover version he created here.
Each story in Dubliners 100 is a piece of art; as is the compilation as a whole. What struck me is what a treat the publication of this is for fans of the original but also how completely accessible and enjoyable the stories are for readers in general who may not have read Joyce's work. Each story is extremely special and this is a collection that can be picked up and put down at your leisure.
Overall, Dubliners 100 marks an exciting event in Irish publishing, combining the excellent taste of Tramp Press as publishers with the innovation of Thomas Morris as editor and showcasing the talent of fifteen very different literary voices to create a homage to Joyce's stunning work.
Dubliners 100 is available in bookshops nationwide priced €15
Other highlights include Donal Ryan's tragic hope of love in 'Evelyn', Mary Morrissey's excruciating, memorable 'An Encounter' and, perhaps the biggest challenge of the fifteen stories, Peter Murphy's take on the most well known and highly lauded of all the stories in Dubliners, 'The Dead'. In it we are immediately launched into a world that, in many ways, could not be more different from the original. Murphy got extremely creative with his subject matter and the result is so imaginative and surreal - I don't want to give much away because you really have to read it - but uses 'The Dead' in as creative a way as possible, set in a bizzarely different future, but one where the themes in Dubliners' closing chapter are still relevant. And the ending is at least as spooky. As a fan of Murphy's writing I was looking forward to seeing what he would do with 'The Dead' and I certainly wasn't disappointed but could never have expected the cover version he created here.
Each story in Dubliners 100 is a piece of art; as is the compilation as a whole. What struck me is what a treat the publication of this is for fans of the original but also how completely accessible and enjoyable the stories are for readers in general who may not have read Joyce's work. Each story is extremely special and this is a collection that can be picked up and put down at your leisure.
Overall, Dubliners 100 marks an exciting event in Irish publishing, combining the excellent taste of Tramp Press as publishers with the innovation of Thomas Morris as editor and showcasing the talent of fifteen very different literary voices to create a homage to Joyce's stunning work.
Dubliners 100 is available in bookshops nationwide priced €15
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