Ireland's favorite publican, playwright and storyteller gives us five novellas, each presented as a series of comical letters between colorful characters of the Kerry hills. These stories have become classics over the years as individual books, and are now available in a single volume. In the title story, bachelor farmer John Bosco McClane, at the age of 52, decides to seek a wife. The letters to a matchmaker, his aunt, his solicitor and others are all very funny, but in the background there lies the sad story of stark ...
Read More
Ireland's favorite publican, playwright and storyteller gives us five novellas, each presented as a series of comical letters between colorful characters of the Kerry hills. These stories have become classics over the years as individual books, and are now available in a single volume. In the title story, bachelor farmer John Bosco McClane, at the age of 52, decides to seek a wife. The letters to a matchmaker, his aunt, his solicitor and others are all very funny, but in the background there lies the sad story of stark loneliness. In Letters of a Matchmaker a small farmer involves himself in the delicate business of finding mates for the unattached. Letters of a Successful T.D. gives us insight into the life of a politician on his way up the ladder. Father Martin O'Mora tries to root out sin among his parishioners in Letters of a Parish Priest, and Letters of a Country Postman tell of a gossip who tries to discover secrets hidden within the envelopes he delivers.
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good Plus in Good+ jacket. Book. Sm4to 9 7/8" tall. Humorous collection of five short novels told through a series of fictional letters between a wide range of colorful characters drawn from Irish life in the hill country that divides the counties of Cork and Kerry. Nice copy in very mildly worn dust jacket.
John B. Keane has used the then unusual format of letter writing to entertain us with various stories of rural Irish life. While usually light and breezy, as with all good comedy, the realities of life are never put aside completely however. Worth reading if you have any interest in the subject of irish country life, particularly in the years before EU membership and the Celtic Tiger.