The Devil's Diary

by Patrick McGinley

Overview

Idealistic love and death, sibling rivalry and obsessive lust are themes familiar to McGinley's work, focusing here on Arty Brennan, who built factories, a supermarket and a noisy motel, trading a spiritually enriching culture for a "hippiedrome" of second-rate 20th century glitter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448209521
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	07/18/2013
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Patrick McGinley (1937 - present) is an Irish novelist, born in Glencolumbkille, Ireland. After teaching in Ireland, McGinley moved to England where he pursued a career as a publisher and author. His strongest literary influence is his Irish predecessor; author Flann O'Brien, who McGinley emulates most noticeably in his novel The Devil's Diary. McGinley is the author of eight novels including: Goosefoot (1983) Foggage (1983) The Trick of the Ga Bolga (1986) and most recently The Lost Soldier's Song (1994).

Editorial Reviews

A psychological mystery with haunting overtones, this novel focuses on a priest tormented by the loss of the Gaelic culture, by the increasing worldliness of religion and by his own sexual desires. After a long illness, Father Jerry McSharry returns home to rural Ireland. The peaceful village he remembers no longer exists; his childhood playmate, Arty Brennan, a poor boy who returned wealthy after 10 years in America, has brought prosperity to the area. To Father Jerry, these changes are ``monstrosities that leapt aggressively to the eye.'' Olga, a sculptor to whom Father Jerry is drawn, seems to be attracted to him but she also admires Brennan. Then Father Jerry's brother Hugo comes back to the village and purchases a farm coveted by Brennan. Hugo becomes the butt of malicious pranks for which he believes Brennan is responsible. Father Jerry doesn't quite believe him until he and Hugo narrowly escape a car crash. Later, Brennan is found dead, and Father Jerry discovers Hugo's ``diary'' and reads the latest entry: a compelling, supposedly fictional account of Brennan's disappearance. The priest finds himself drawn into the ambivalent world of the diary, which reflects his deepest, darkest thoughts and desires. McGinley ( The Red Men , Foxprints ) tells an evocative, disturbing story of a man who wants to pursue a life of ``work, study, and prayer alone'' but who is distracted by the world in which he lives. (October)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly