Edna O'Brien Criticism
Edna O'Brien's work occupies a significant place in contemporary literature, celebrated for its emotional depth and narrative power that often reflect the Irish Gothic tradition. Her writing is marked by a profound exploration of women's emotional landscapes, skillfully capturing the essence of rural life and its conflicts, as well as the intricacies of urban existence. Critics like Oliver Conant and Thomas Cahill have praised her for the almost "prehistoric" quality of her prose, which resonates with the rhythm and truth-telling power of ancient Irish storytelling traditions, even as some, such as Pearce and Lanters, offer mixed assessments.
Her short fiction, recognized for its lyrical descriptions, deftly navigates the conflicts faced by women in love, family, and societal expectations. Stories like "My Mother's Mother" and the collection Returning resonate with themes of longing and liberation, influenced by Catholicism's moral strictures as explored in the critique of sacrificial martyrdom. The complexity of mother-daughter relationships in stories such as "A Rose in the Heart of New York" is further illuminated by studies on consuming love and female rivalry in theoretical essays.
O'Brien is frequently compared to James Joyce, solidifying her position within the Irish literary tradition. Her humor, an essential component of her short stories, receives attention in analysis of the Irish comic tradition. Her exploration of female sexuality and complex character dynamics, including the portrayal of lesbian desire in "Sister Imelda," has led to critical interpretations such as Thompson's essay, which underscore her willingness to challenge societal norms. Despite some critiques of her characterization of men as selfish or incompetent, O'Brien's resilient female protagonists continue to offer insightful depictions of women confronting life's adversities, affirming her enduring influence in literature.
Contents
- Principal Works
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O'Brien, Edna (Vol. 116)
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Girl Meets Men
(summary)
The following is a mixed assessment of August Is a Wicked Month. A great deal of nonsense has been written in gossip columns and glossy magazines about Miss O'Brien as a militant spokesman of her sex, voicing in her new novel all the perplexity and private savagery said to be felt by women today. August is a Wicked Month seems, for this if no other reason, all set for a succès de scandale; and it would be foolish to pretend that the author's personality, or the topical titillation of her subject-matter, ought not to influence any so-called literary judgment of the book. Miss O'Brien is a naturally subjective writer, and the fact that her sense of the ridiculous, which in previous novels she allowed to prick the bubble of sentimentalism and soften the bitterness, is this time subdued almost out of sight, means that many readers—probably men more than women—will find the uninhibited exposure of sexual emotion and guilt quite uncomfortable, if not shocking. Ellen, who is an older and sadder Kate, may not be the kind of woman any stable society could content or cushion against the turmoil of her emotions, but her pragmatic honesty and vulnerability do make her peculiarly characteristic of her sex today.
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Deadly Chain of Events
(summary)
In the following review of Casualties of Peace, Dienstag asserts that O'Brien's "old-fashioned" and clichéd structuring of her novel destroys the effectiveness of her "extraordinary style."
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A Pagan Place
(summary)
In the following review, Donoghue maintains that A Pagan Place is an "interesting" and "pleasant" novel, but does not "go deep" enough to merit consideration as a significant work of literature.
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Hooligan's Wake
(summary)
In the following review, the critic provides a largely negative assessment of Night, in which O'Brien is faulted for failing to sustain and build on the "strength and honesty" in her writing.
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Mother Ireland
(summary)
In the following review, Broderick offers a highly unfavorable assessment of Mother Ireland.
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'That Trenchant Childhood Route'?: Quest in Edna O'Brien's Novels
(summary)
In the following essay, Snow explores the 'journey' O'Brien's heroines make 'to reclaimed innocence' in her novels.
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Irish Passions: Women Under the Spell
(summary)
In the following review, Peters surveys the stories in The Fanatic Heart, noting that reading Edna O'Brien's anthology reveals the same story born again and again, built up into new configurations although the root is the same.
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Tales for the Telling: Irish Folk and Fairy Stories
(summary)
In the following review, Binchy offers a favorable assessment of Tales for the Telling.
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The Silly and the Serious: An Assessment of Edna O'Brien
(summary)
In the following essay, Peggy O'Brien explores the psychology behind Edna O'Brien's literary choices and examines the negative critical commentary on her works.
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Tough Luck: The Unfortunate Birth of Edna O'Brien
(summary)
In the following essay, Haule examines O'Brien's treatment of birth, infancy, childhood, and motherhood in her works.
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A Colony of the Disgruntled
(summary)
In the following review, Robinson offers a mixed assessment of The High Road.
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Edna O'Brien's 'The Doll': A Narrative of Abjection
(summary)
In the following essay, Carriker analyzes O'Brien's 'The Doll,' in terms of the author's use of the doll as a means of communicating the abjection of the narrator of the story.
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Lantern Slides
(summary)
In the following review, Lanters provides an unfavorable assessment of Lantern Slides, noting Edna O'Brien's outspokenness on women and sexuality and the nostalgic themes present in her latest collection of stories, which seem to reflect a bygone era.
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Bearing the Burden of Love
(summary)
In the following review, Harris offers a laudatory appraisal of Time and Tide. In the prologue of Time and Tide, we learn that the protagonist, Nell, has lost one son to a 'watery' death and is terrified that her hastily spoken words have forced a permanent breach with her surviving son. Throughout the rest of Edna O'Brien's latest novel, Nell is dominated by her parents, husband, lovers, and children. She moves from a degrading marriage through a series of damaging love affairs, experiences a terrifying acid trip, suffers a nervous breakdown, loses her mother and her home, and watches her eldest son succumb to drug abuse. Although Nell struggles through each of these situations, she is never prepared for the next catastrophe, which is all too likely to occur.
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Against Ample Adversities
(summary)
In the following review, Craig provides a mixed evaluation of Time and Tide, discussing the central disaster faced by the heroine and the various subsidiary disasters that illustrate her endurance.
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Down & Out in Life
(summary)
In the following review, Hosmer offers a commendatory assessment of Time and Tide, describing it as a haunting water poem and a heartfelt elegy engendered by love and loss, emphasizing O'Brien's extraordinary achievement in this novel.
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Love Objects: Love and Obsession in the Stories and Edna O'Brien
(summary)
In the following essay, O'Hara surveys O'Brien's handling of obsessive love in her short stories.
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The Terror and the Pity
(summary)
In the following review, Lee offers a mixed evaluation of House of Splendid Isolation.
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The Terrorist and the Lady
(summary)
The following is L'Heureux's generally laudatory review of House of Splendid Isolation, in which he notes some faults in the novel but asserts that O'Brien's "attempt nonetheless merits praise."
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The Widow and the Terrorist
(summary)
In the following review, Bawer offers a largely positive assessment of House of Splendid Isolation, but notes some stylistic weaknesses.
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Sacrificial Women in Short Stories by Mary Lavin and Edna O'Brien
(summary)
In the following essay, Shumaker explores O'Brien's and Mary Lavin's use of martyred, Madonna-inspired women characters in their stories.
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Edna O'Brien's 'Lantern Slides' and Joyce's 'The Dead': Shadows of a Bygone Era
(summary)
In the following essay, Pearce examines similarities between the works of O'Brien and James Joyce, in particular focusing upon O'Brien's 'Lantern Slides,' which Pearce characterizes as a 'feminist rewriting' of Joyce's 'The Dead.'
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Saved from Drowning
(summary)
In the following review, Mantel offers a favorable assessment of Down by the River, but faults O'Brien for what she perceives as overly pedantic, elaborate prose and a tendency to exhaustively reiterate issues.
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Obsession
(summary)
In the following review, Innes offers a positive appraisal of Down by the River.
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Girl Meets Men
(summary)
- O'Brien, Edna (Vol. 8)
- O'Brien, Edna (Vol. 5)
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O'Brien, Edna (Vol. 13)
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Anatole Broyard
(summary)
In the following essay, Anatole Broyard critiques Edna O'Brien's short stories in "The Rose in the Heart" for their repetitive themes and tendency towards self-parody, contrasting them with the author's usual style of passionate honesty found in her novels.
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Elegiac and Life-loving
(summary)
In the following essay, Victoria Glendinning explores the distinctive style of Edna O'Brien, highlighting her blend of raw authenticity and unpolished prose, which some critics see as a limitation, while also emphasizing the emotional depth and resilience in O'Brien's depiction of female experiences and relationships.
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Risks of Loving
(summary)
In the following essay, Mary Gordon argues that Edna O'Brien's genius lies in her ability to explore passionate themes of loss and its repercussions with precise language, avoiding sentimentality by maintaining clarity and precision in her prose.
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Anatole Broyard
(summary)
- O'Brien, Edna (Vol. 3)
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O'Brien, Edna
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Sacrificial Women in Short Stories by Mary Lavin and Edna O'Brien
(summary)
In the following essay, Shumaker finds parallels in the treatment of women in stories by Mary Lavin and O'Brien, contending that “the disturbing martyrdoms of the heroines created by both writers stem, in part, from Catholic notions of the Madonna.”
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Consuming Love: Edna O'Brien's ‘A Rose in the Heart of New York’
(summary)
In the following essay, Malpezzi examines O'Brien's portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship in her story “A Rose in the Heart of New York.”
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(S)he Was Too Scrupulous Always: Edna O'Brien and the Comic Tradition
(summary)
In the following essay, Gillespie views humor as an integral part of O'Brien's short fiction and situates her within the Irish literary comic tradition.
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Snow through the Ages: Echoes of ‘The Dead’ in O'Brien, Lavin, and O'Faolain
(summary)
In the following essay, Pearce explores the influence of Joyce's seminal short story “The Dead” on O'Brien, Mary Lavin, and Sean O'Faolain, maintaining that these three authors “build upon imagery of snow or fire in their short stories to present unrelievedly pessimistic world visions, far more bitter than Joyce's that demonstrate their permanent loss of hope in a postlapsarian world.”
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Mother-Daughter Rivalries in Stories by Irish Women: Elizabeth Bowen, Edna O'Brien, Mary Beckett, and Helen Lucy Burke
(summary)
In the following essay, Shumaker applies theorist Julia Kristeva's “myth of the superior woman” to explicate the troubled mother-daughter relationships in several stories by Irish women writers, including O'Brien's “A Rose in the Heart of New York.”
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Uncanny and Undomesticated: Lesbian Desire in Edna O'Brien's ‘Sister Imelda’ and The High Road
(summary)
In the following essay, Thompson provides an interpretation of “Sister Imelda” and O'Brien's novel The High Road in terms of lesbian desire and female sexuality.
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Sacrificial Women in Short Stories by Mary Lavin and Edna O'Brien
(summary)
- Further Reading