Search results for ""Malachy McCourt" "A Monk Swimming""

Book SynopsisBACK IN PRINT!A rollicking good read that, as the Irish say, would make a dead man laugh. Philadelphia InquirerMalachy McCourt was already famous as an actor, saloon-keeper, and late-night television personality when Angela''s Ashes was published. Brother Frank''s book introduced the incorrigible, indomitable young Malachy to a worldwide audience that was charmed, and clamored for more.Frank''s book was a hard act to follow, but Malachy''s delightful memoir, which picked up where Angela''s Ashes left off, won critical acclaim and commercial success.Born in Brooklyn, and raised in the lanes of Limerick, Malachy returned to New York in 1952, at age 20. After stints in the Air Force and as a longshoreman, he parlayed his gifts of gab and conviviality into an ownership position at Malachy''sthe first singles'' barlocated around the corner from the Barbizon Hotel for young women, whose glamorous residents frequently repaired to Malachy''s for a tipple and flirt.Malachy''s madcap, manic life ricocheted from higher highs to lower lows as he tried selling Bibles at the beach on Fire Island and smuggling gold in Zurich. He entertained a voracious public on the stage as a member of the Irish Players and was a semi-regular on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. In these years, he was almost always drunk, almost always chasing (or being chased) by women. His gifts for language and storytelling are so well honed that when you read A Monk Swimming, You''ll laugh uncontrollably . . . You''re in the grip of a master raconteur (Houston Chronicle).Now the last of the McCourts of Limerick, Malachy reflects on the tumultuous events of the twenty-five years since he wrote A MONK SWIMMING in his Afterword.Read it and weep: they don''t make lives like this anymore. The Irish Voice

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"You don't have to be Irish to cherish this literary gift—just being human and curious and from a family will suffice." –Malachy McCourt, New York Times bestselling author of A Monk Swimming"Other works have been situated at the same intersection of time and place, but rarely has the tale been told with such a charming simplicity of voice plus a vividness that fully captures the distinctive sound and pulse of Irish life." –Billy Collins"Phelan's prose has an unpretentious beauty as he describes the farm, its routine and the people he remembers... With rich detail and sensitivity, We Were Rich translates for us a rural world that has disappeared. And to assist townies like me, he appends a glossary." –Star Tribune"Plain, honest, funny, occasionally sad and rich in material detail, this wonderful memoir […] is the real thing." –Newsday"A tender recollection of growing up on a farm in Ireland in the 1940s... a captivating portrait of a bygone time." –Kirkus Reviews, starred review"[A] series of tender and earnest anecdotes of coming-of-age in the rural Irish midlands of the 1940s… Phelan’s vivid images of his life on the farm and at school provide a rich and colorful snapshot of the times that shaped him." –Publishers Weekly"An evocative memoir with echoes of Frank McCourt." –Newsday"This might seem like a grim childhood, and to be sure at times it was, but Phelan also draws on the small victories, the love of the land and of family. At a time when we have so much and are satisfied with none of it, Phelan’s story is one of grace and beauty." –CAYOCOSTA72"In this very interesting memoir, we are drawn into a strange world from another time. One would love to sit down with the characters that are described in scintillating detail..." –Irish Echo

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Book Synopsis Light of the Diddicoy is the riveting and immersive saga of Irish gangs on the Brooklyn waterfront in the early part of the 20th century, told through the eyes of young newcomer Liam Garrity. Forced at age 14 to travel alone to America after money grew scarce in Ireland, Garrity stumbles directly into the hard-knock streets of the Irish-run waterfront and falls in with a Bridge District gang called the White Hand. Through a series of increasingly tense and brutal scenes, he has no choice but to use any means necessary to survive and carve out his place in a no-holds-barred community living outside the law. The book is the first of Irish-American author Eamon Loingsigh''s Auld Irishtown trilogy, which delves into the stories and lore of the gangs and families growing up in this under-documented area of Brooklyn’s Irish underworld.Trade Review"Novelist Eamon Loingsigh has so comprehensively inhabited the teeming New York City of his debut novel Light of the Diddicoy that he captivates the reader from the first page... It's a brutal story of Irish America that the author, whose family roots in the city are as deep as his characters, was apparently born to write. Loingsigh's prose has immense narrative force, and his characters are innocents or chancers on the make who know there'll be no second chances... This is wonderful pulp fiction that knows that one man's tale can in fact tell the entire city's." --Irish Central "The dark and compelling Irish American gang lifestyle of early 1900s Brooklyn pulses through this sharp, hardboiled drama. Loingsigh's book looks at a fascinating lifestyle drawn from his extensive research and his own family history." --Foreword Reviews "[A] potent coming-of-age story ... the first in a series about one man's hardscrabble life... Rings with passion and pain... An engrossing read." --Kirkus Reviews "An original and poetic coming-of-age story, Light of the Diddicoy touches on some fascinating material." --Historical Novel Society "Eamon Loingsigh's book LIGHT OF THE DIDDICOY is an amazing series of literary leaps from terra firma into the stratosphere above. The writing embraces you, and his description of the savagery visited on poor people is offset by the humor and love of the traditional Irish community. Yes there is laughter here too and it is a grand read, leaving any reader fully sated. Don't leave the store without this book." --Malachy McCourt, author, A Monk Swimming, Malachy McCourt's History of Ireland "Eamon Loingsigh is a poet with a pickaxe-and a scalpel attached to the working end. In LIGHT OF THE DIDDICOY, he depicts the Brooklyn Waterfront of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries, and the Irish who controlled it, with hammer-blow prose and spare dialogue. Unsparing in his account of the prevailing violence he is eloquent in laying out the reasons why. Eamon Loingsigh, the meticulous historian, paints a rich picture. Mr. Loingsigh, the novelist, tells it like it was. And brilliantly so. LIGHT OF THE DIDDICOY is a great read." --Alphie McCourt author of A Long Stone's Throw and Heartscald "This book unearths and brings to life a long-lost world of hard men and women struggling to get ahead in an America not yet fully formed. Gangsters and dock wallopers along the Brooklyn waterfront intermingle with dirty cops, labor rabble rousers and the unwashed masses of an Irish immigrant class bursting with pluck and vitality... LIGHT OF THE DIDDICOY is written with tremendous flavor and panache, and within its pages is a profound understanding that history is most present when revealed through the lives of characters in a story well told. Historical fiction at its best." --T.J. English, author of Paddy Whacked and The Westies

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Book SynopsisI came to in the middle of it, like waking inside a horror movie, silent scream and all. Eyes wide open. I was standing at an open window, staring at the dizzying curve of Riverside Drive, five floors below. I’d stopped, somehow, poised, about to jump.Growing up the good girl in an Irish American family full of drinkers and terrible sleepers, Kathleen Frazier was twelve when her seemingly innocent sleepwalking turned dangerous. Over the next few years, she was a popular A+ student by day, the star of her high school musical. At night, she both longed for and dreaded sleep.Frazier moved to Manhattan in the 1980s, hoping for a life in the theater but getting a run of sleepwalking performances instead. Efforts to abate her malady with drinking failed miserably. She became promiscuous, looking for nighttime companionship. Could a bed partner save her from flinging herself down a flight of stairs or out an open window? Exhaustion stalked her, and rest and love were seemingly out of reach.This is the journey Frazier illuminates in her intimate memoir. While highlighting her quest to beat her sleep terrors and insomnia, this is ultimately a story of health, hope, and redemption.Trade Review"Some children are afraid of the dark or of monsters under their beds. But once Frazier started having sleepwalking episodes and night terrors, she had a very palpable reason to fear falling asleep. Over the next 20 years, as she recounts in this harrowing memoir, her anxiety over sleepwalking stole into every corner of her life, affecting her relationships and leading her to drink heavily in a futile attempt to keep the dangers of the night at bay. At times her sleepwalking put her in real danger, and even led to serious injuries, but the physical toll paled in comparison to the mental anguish she endured. While she rhapsodically relates her thrill at discovering her place on the stage as a career, she also acknowledges that during her young adulthood she was stalked by sleeplessness. As much an exploration of the harmful legacy from an unacknowledged family history of addiction and mental illness as an account of dealing with an unexplained sleep disorder, Frazier’s memoir records her search for the roots of her episodes as she memorably captures the tedium and terror of nights spent dreading sleep." —Booklist"Kathleen Frazier has a story to tell and she knows how to tell it. Sleepwalker is a terrifying, compelling, and fascinating tale that takes us deep into the horrors of sleep walking and then reveals to us how the author managed to end a twenty-year nightmare." —Ellen Burstyn, award-winning actress, writer, teacher“Kathleen Frazier is a gifted storyteller. In addition to providing insight into what chronic sleepwalking is like firsthand, this story also tells of a dysfunctional family, alcoholism, heartbreak, and tragedy. But there is love, light, laughter, and, above all, hope. This book will keep you awake and alert to the end.” —Malachy McCourt, New York Times bestselling author of A Monk Swimming"Kathleen Frazier's Sleepwalker is a powerful and poignant account of her awakening from a long night of fear and self-doubt into the light of recovery and self-awareness. Her soulful combination of insight and unflinching honesty fills every page. This is a book that will inspire as well as enlighten." —Peter Quinn, winner of the American Book Award"Sleepwalker is a brave, moving, frightening, and ultimately hopeful memoir. Kathleen Frazier vividly describes her strange and sometimes violent episodes of sleepwalking and night terrors that took hold of her as a child and nearly ruined her life. After several near-fatal sleepwalking incidents, she finally found the support she needed—from loved ones, and from medical experts in sleep disorders—to recover from the condition that held her in its dangerous grip for twenty years. Frazier offers the reader a fascinating and deeply personal glimpse into the interior world of a sleepwalker."Alice Eve Cohen, award-winning author of The Year My Mother Came Back and What I Thought I Knew"Nocturnal clouds haunt each page like a storm threatening. Well-observed and Irishly funny, mulish and ghoulish and death defying, darkly clangorous and boozy yet ultimately sobering, Frazier's eye-opening memoir will have you laughing nervously all night long. Riveting!" —Patrick Tracey, award-winning author of Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia"A brave and harrowing story, told straight from the heart, full of hope and inspiration." —Mary Pat Kelly, bestselling author of Galway Bay and Of Irish Blood, director of Proud"Powerful and poignant—honest and harrowing—a remarkable narrative of one woman’s struggle with decades long sleepwalking. It is about inherited loss and terror, family secrets, near-death experiences, but also about courage and in the end, it's a love story and a life-affirming journey." —Seamus Scanlon, author of As Close As You'll Ever Be“Kathleen Frazier's memoir Sleepwalker is an amazingly honest, heartbreaking, haunting but ultimately illuminating study of the secrets behind our slumber and our dreams. A dazzling debut.” —Susan Shapiro, author of Lighting Up, Unhooked, and What's Never Said"A vivid and engrossing saga that takes us from the comforting xenophobia of an Irish-American family to the competitive alleys of New York City's theatre world; all the while Ms. Frazier is haunted by the demons of sleeepwalking. This is a story of redemption and triumph—you find yourself rooting for the author through every line of this inspiring book." —Larry Kirwan, author of Green Suede Shoes"Some children are afraid of the dark or of monsters under their beds. But once Frazier started having sleepwalking episodes and night terrors, she had a very palpable reason to fear falling asleep. Over the next 20 years, as she recounts in this harrowing memoir, her anxiety over sleepwalking stole into every corner of her life, affecting her relationships and leading her to drink heavily in a futile attempt to keep the dangers of the night at bay. At times her sleepwalking put her in real danger, and even led to serious injuries, but the physical toll paled in comparison to the mental anguish she endured. While she rhapsodically relates her thrill at discovering her place on the stage as a career, she also acknowledges that during her young adulthood she was stalked by sleeplessness. As much an exploration of the harmful legacy from an unacknowledged family history of addiction and mental illness as an account of dealing with an unexplained sleep disorder, Frazier’s memoir records her search for the roots of her episodes as she memorably captures the tedium and terror of nights spent dreading sleep." —Booklist"Kathleen Frazier has a story to tell and she knows how to tell it. Sleepwalker is a terrifying, compelling, and fascinating tale that takes us deep into the horrors of sleep walking and then reveals to us how the author managed to end a twenty-year nightmare." —Ellen Burstyn, award-winning actress, writer, teacher“Kathleen Frazier is a gifted storyteller. In addition to providing insight into what chronic sleepwalking is like firsthand, this story also tells of a dysfunctional family, alcoholism, heartbreak, and tragedy. But there is love, light, laughter, and, above all, hope. This book will keep you awake and alert to the end.” —Malachy McCourt, New York Times bestselling author of A Monk Swimming"Kathleen Frazier's Sleepwalker is a powerful and poignant account of her awakening from a long night of fear and self-doubt into the light of recovery and self-awareness. Her soulful combination of insight and unflinching honesty fills every page. This is a book that will inspire as well as enlighten." —Peter Quinn, winner of the American Book Award"Sleepwalker is a brave, moving, frightening, and ultimately hopeful memoir. Kathleen Frazier vividly describes her strange and sometimes violent episodes of sleepwalking and night terrors that took hold of her as a child and nearly ruined her life. After several near-fatal sleepwalking incidents, she finally found the support she needed—from loved ones, and from medical experts in sleep disorders—to recover from the condition that held her in its dangerous grip for twenty years. Frazier offers the reader a fascinating and deeply personal glimpse into the interior world of a sleepwalker."Alice Eve Cohen, award-winning author of The Year My Mother Came Back and What I Thought I Knew"Nocturnal clouds haunt each page like a storm threatening. Well-observed and Irishly funny, mulish and ghoulish and death defying, darkly clangorous and boozy yet ultimately sobering, Frazier's eye-opening memoir will have you laughing nervously all night long. Riveting!" —Patrick Tracey, award-winning author of Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia"A brave and harrowing story, told straight from the heart, full of hope and inspiration." —Mary Pat Kelly, bestselling author of Galway Bay and Of Irish Blood, director of Proud"Powerful and poignant—honest and harrowing—a remarkable narrative of one woman’s struggle with decades long sleepwalking. It is about inherited loss and terror, family secrets, near-death experiences, but also about courage and in the end, it's a love story and a life-affirming journey." —Seamus Scanlon, author of As Close As You'll Ever Be“Kathleen Frazier's memoir Sleepwalker is an amazingly honest, heartbreaking, haunting but ultimately illuminating study of the secrets behind our slumber and our dreams. A dazzling debut.” —Susan Shapiro, author of Lighting Up, Unhooked, and What's Never Said"A vivid and engrossing saga that takes us from the comforting xenophobia of an Irish-American family to the competitive alleys of New York City's theatre world; all the while Ms. Frazier is haunted by the demons of sleeepwalking. This is a story of redemption and triumph—you find yourself rooting for the author through every line of this inspiring book." —Larry Kirwan, author of Green Suede Shoes

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