Broken Irelands

Mary M. McGlynn is professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY, and the CUNY Graduate Center, as well as cochair of the Columbia University Seminar for Irish Studies.

The book is the work of a scholar whose efforts to define the literature of this most fascinating era for Irish fiction will surely shape the critical discourse.-- "Eoghan Smith, Books Ireland" A fascinating book, and insightful discussion of how Broken Ireland is represented in texts written during the Celtic Tiger and after the crash of 2008. The points of comparison are sharp, and range of the novels and styles is to be commended.-- "Deirdre Flynn, Mary Immaculate College" McGlynn identifies fascinating patterns in contemporary Irish fiction and persuasively connects these to the cultural logics of the time period....This is a complex and challenging endeavor and McGlynn does it with a sophistication that is dizzyingly brilliant.-- "Claire Bracken, Union College" Broken Irelands does what a good academic monograph should: it shows us our world, and it tells us interesting things about the art that reflects, and sometimes changes, that world.-- "Kevin Power, The Irish Times" Broken Irelands offers a carefully calibrated analysis of capital, class, and narrative form in the post-Celtic Tiger Irish novel. Deftly combining literary criticism, theories of neoliberalism, and studies of late capitalist modernity, McGlynn contends, convincingly, that it is at the level of formal brokenness, rhetorical technique, and syntactical and stylistic strangeness and distress that something like the politics of contemporary Irish fiction discloses itself. Written with brio, critical affection for its subject matter, and intelligent insight, Broken Irelands sets an impressively high bar for future reflection on these topics.-- "Joe Cleary, Yale University" The economist's narrow vision has not served Ireland well, so if you want a multi-dimensional account of the twenty-first century nation, then you need to read this book: Nuanced, savvy, and brilliant, Broken Irelands incisively assesses the origins and aftermaths of the Celtic Tiger boom by centering literature, society, and history.-- "Mary Burke, University of Connecticut"