Description
Book SynopsisGetting to Good Friday uses literary texts by writers with connections to Northern Ireland, including Brian Friel, Deirdre Madden, and Colum McCann to illustrate peace process developments in the lead up to the Good Friday Agreement, arguing that creative writers were both responding to contemporary events and trying to influence them.
Trade ReviewProfessor Richtarik's book applies her deep knowledge of the psychological and political terrain of Northern Ireland to this empathetic study of a cohort of remarkably talented and closely linked writers. It brings new and arresting insights to the troubled history of the province, its contested cultural paradigms, the pressures which led to the peace process, and the tensions which continue to threaten that achievement. * R. F. Foster, Emeritus Professor of Irish History, University of Oxford, and Emeritus Professor of Irish History and Literature, Queen Mary University of London *
Getting to Good Friday, a profound meditation on historical and political events and the cultural response of writers, confirms that it is by writing that a refinement in character is possible—and that the best self is the self that writes. In Reading in the Dark, published two years before the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, Seamus Deane presciently identified the problem of the aftermath: the problem of telling or not telling. Marilynn Richtarik describes the drive towards Good Friday through riveting storytelling, but her detailed attention to creative writers' texts is her finest achievement. * Anne Devlin, author of After Easter and The Apparitions *
Getting to Good Friday is an important book at a critical time. In arguments about Brexit and the protocol it is sometimes remarked that the people who defend the 1998 agreement never read it ... Getting to Good Friday is a welcome bridge between these sundered generations, made of the words that join them, conditional as they are. * Nicolas Allen, The Irish Times *
Table of ContentsChronology Introduction 1: Storytelling 2: Understanding 3: Grieving 4: Repeating 5: Drafting 6: Conclusion: Truth-Seeking
