Synopses & Reviews
Originally published as three separate volumes--Donkey's Years, Dog Days, and The Whole Hog--A Bestiary relates the life and times of one of Ireland's greatest contemporary writers. As in his fiction, Higgins's writing exquisitely captures sights, smells, and emotions, detailing his life from childhood in County Kildare before his family's economic decline, to his mother's slow, agonizing death; from his travels in England and South Africa, to his two years spent living with a schoolmistress after the end of his first marriage. In writing his memoirs Higgins exposes the sources for many of his best novels, from Scenes from a Receding Past to Langrishe, Go Down, giving the reader a rare look into the "story behind the story." But A Bestiary is more than a factual expose--this collection of memoirs is constructed in a novelistic way, creating a work of literary art out of a life.
Review
"The ferocious dazzling prose of Aidan Higgins, the pure architecture of his sentences, takes the breath out of you. He is one of our great writers.... I have stood stunned with admiration for the muscular power and linguistic acrobatics--to say nothing of the elegant play with language and the daring architecture--of his work for years." Annie Proulx
Review
"Read it and see. Few books inspire like this." Dermot Healy
Synopsis
Originally published as three separate volumes--, and relates the life and times of one of Ireland's greatest contemporary writers. As in his fiction, Higgins's writing exquisitely captures sights, smells, and emotions, detailing his life from childhood in County Kildare before his family's economic decline, to his mother's slow, agonizing death; from his travels in England and South Africa, to his two years spent living with a schoolmistress after the end of his first marriage. In writing his memoirs Higgins exposes the sources for many of his best novels, from to , giving the reader a rare look into the "story behind the story." But is more than a factual expose--this collection of memoirs is constructed in a novelistic way, creating a work of literary art out of a life.
Synopsis
"A bloody marvelous book."--Harold Pinter
About the Author
Aidan Higgins has written short stories, novels, travel pieces, radio plays, and a large body of criticism. A consummate stylist, his writing is lush and complex. His books include Scenes from a Receding Past, Bornholm Night-Ferry, Balcony of Europe, and Langrishe,Go Down, which was adapted for television by Harold Pinter.