Are You Somebody? : The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman
by O'Faolain, Nuala
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Abingdon, Illinois, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York, NY, U.S.A.: Owl Books, 1999. Trade Paperback. Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Self-preservation did not come instinctually to Irish journalist Nuala O'Faolain. One of 9 children--her mother had 13 pregnancies in all--she grew up in the 1940s and '50s in a defeated Dublin household. Her reporter father seems to have spent his time and money, and even love, elsewhere--and as the family grew more isolated and unable to cope, alcohol became her mother's only way out. "One of the stories of my life has been the working out in it of her powerful and damaging example in everything," the author admits, "Nothing mattered to her except passion." Some of O'Faolain's siblings emphatically didn't make it, but she was lucky to find refuge in books. They have been a defense, a comfort, and a delight. Are You Somebody offers a wrenching account of childhood and a highly provocative take on the sexual and professional situation of Irish women. Though literature made O'Faolain, the male-dominated literary life and industry certainly didn't, and she now gives it more than a few body blows. It was a world in which writing and drink mattered far more than women: "The 'literary Dublin' I saw lied to women as a matter of course and conspired against the demands of wives and mistresses. Women either had to make no demands, and be liked, or be much larger than life, and feared." Irish women didn't seem to know to look for, let alone demand, equality. O'Faolain miraculously avoided pregnancy; but others were not so blessed. "Lives were ruined at that time, thousands and thousands of them, quite casually. They were hotly pursued, and half longed to yield, but they were not able to defend themselves against pregnancy, and they were destroyed if they got pregnant." For all her energy and ambition and good fortune (and she needed this trio to jump her family's "sinking ship" and avoid getting pregnant), O'Faolain fell for the cant that she must marry, have children, and serve. Some will be initially shocked by her assertion that she was lucky never to have had a child. "Childbearing, along with bad education, relationships that managed to be simultaneously all-absorbing and rewarding, and financial dependence--these were the enemies of promise. But that's not why I'm glad; I didn't think of myself as having promise. I'm glad because under the old system it was so easy to rear children badly. The child wouldn't have properly survived." Yet the '70s enabled her to break out of the assumptions and realities of Irish women's lives, not to mention her yearning to be like "the troubled, rich, English upper-class people in books." At the end of her memoir, O'Faolain knows she finally is, in fact, somebody. Still, those who don't recognize her see her only as a single, middle-aged woman. Like children, such individuals "aren't supposed to kick up." Thanks to this bracing book, the author gets to permanently do so. The writing exercise has answered some of her questions and some of her fears, but O'Faolain is too honest not to admit that for others there is no response or cure. She leaves us wanting to know more about her life but grateful that she has allowed us in. 215 pages..
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Get Your Books Here (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 3867
- Title
- Are You Somebody? : The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman
- Author
- O'Faolain, Nuala
- Book Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- New York, NY, U.S.A.: Owl Books, 1999
- Keywords
- WOMEN JOURNALISTS IRELAND BIOGRAPHY AUTOBIOGRAPHY GENERAL LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES JOURNALISM SOCIAL SCIENCE S STUDIES 0805056645 BIOGRAPHIES
- Bookseller catalogs
- Biographies;
Terms of Sale
Get Your Books Here
Returns accepted within two weeks of delivery. Books returned for any reason other than desciption or condition will forfeit the shipping fee when bought, but book price will be returned. Book must be in same-as-shipped condition.
About the Seller
Get Your Books Here
Biblio member since 2005
Abingdon, Illinois
About Get Your Books Here
We are a small business owned and operated by family.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Trade Paperback
- Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...