We recently watched the intriguing but utterly inconclusive Series One of “The Fall” on Netflix (apparently Series Two is in production, and one can hope that it will provide the closure that was spectacularly absent in Series One. Not that it ended as a cliffhanger, precisely. But we were still a bit irked that it ended where it did), which is set in Belfast. I’ve also been reading Joyce’s Ulysses these past couple of weeks, when I have the time to do a spot of reading.
The combination got me thinking about Irish works I’ve encountered over the years and enjoyed.
Here are a couple of additional highlights:
Tana French’s books.
I read these a few years back and really liked them. My favourite of hers is Faithful Place, followed by The Likeness and In the Woods, both of which I found really compelling, despite flaws. Broken Harbour was a somewhat distant fourth, from a narrative and character perspective (part of the issue was that I didn’t like any of the characters and I found the story arc ultimately unsatisfying), though it was certainly wonderfully atmospheric and creepy, and shifted between a wistful sadness and something far darker, all of which was wrought with a subtle complexity that makes the book worth checking out in itself, in spite of the fact that neither the characters nor the conclusion were much to my liking. A haunting work. Continue reading