Books about/set in Dublin
April 15, 2023 10:27 PM Subscribe
I'll be spending a week in Dublin in June and would like to read some books to get a sense of the place and its history in preparation.
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Fiction, non-fiction, any genre, any time period. I've already covered Joyce.
As to my tastes: last year I asked this question about Istanbul and ended up reading the following books:
A.S. Buyatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
Charles King, Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul.
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, A Mind at Peace
Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City
Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul.
Fiction, non-fiction, any genre, any time period. I've already covered Joyce.
As to my tastes: last year I asked this question about Istanbul and ended up reading the following books:
A.S. Buyatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
Charles King, Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul.
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, A Mind at Peace
Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City
Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul.
Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown books, or really, anything by Roddy Doyle gives a nice sense of Dublin.
Tara Road by Maeve Binchy is light and talks a lot about the atmosphere of a restored Georgian home and about the changing climate of Dublin real estate in the 90s. Binchy is often dismissed as chick lit, which just means that her target audience is women.
Waking Up in Dublin by Neil Hegarty is a 20th century musical history of Dublin.
Faithful Place and Broken Harbour by Tana French are murder mysteries that are atmospheric and give some economic and social history.
posted by corey flood at 10:53 PM on April 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
Tara Road by Maeve Binchy is light and talks a lot about the atmosphere of a restored Georgian home and about the changing climate of Dublin real estate in the 90s. Binchy is often dismissed as chick lit, which just means that her target audience is women.
Waking Up in Dublin by Neil Hegarty is a 20th century musical history of Dublin.
Faithful Place and Broken Harbour by Tana French are murder mysteries that are atmospheric and give some economic and social history.
posted by corey flood at 10:53 PM on April 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
I just read a nice Book review of Maeve Brennan in the Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/claire-louise-bennett-uncanny-brilliance-maeve-brennans-short/
posted by pairofshades at 10:57 PM on April 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/claire-louise-bennett-uncanny-brilliance-maeve-brennans-short/
posted by pairofshades at 10:57 PM on April 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
“Dublin: The Making of a Capital City” by Dr. David Dickson is a great academic history of the city. 700 pages from the Viking era to the present day, so not a small endeavour to read.
Others have mentioned Roddy Doyle’s books. He is very vivid in describing working-class Dublin in the 1980s and 1990s. At the other end of the spectrum, the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly series of books are a humourous parody of affluent, South Dublin from the 2000s onwards.
Given how large Dublin looms in Irish politics, economics, and history, a general Irish history would not be a bad thing to cover. Diarmuid Ferriter’s ”The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000” is a good general survey. For a more personal perspective, Fintan O’Toole is one of Ireland’s leading columnists and his book ”We don’t know ourselves” chronicles the changes in Ireland over his lifetime (with a lot of Dublin elements as that is where he grew up and works).
posted by techrep at 12:35 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Others have mentioned Roddy Doyle’s books. He is very vivid in describing working-class Dublin in the 1980s and 1990s. At the other end of the spectrum, the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly series of books are a humourous parody of affluent, South Dublin from the 2000s onwards.
Given how large Dublin looms in Irish politics, economics, and history, a general Irish history would not be a bad thing to cover. Diarmuid Ferriter’s ”The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000” is a good general survey. For a more personal perspective, Fintan O’Toole is one of Ireland’s leading columnists and his book ”We don’t know ourselves” chronicles the changes in Ireland over his lifetime (with a lot of Dublin elements as that is where he grew up and works).
posted by techrep at 12:35 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
I cannot believe that no one yet mentioned 'Ulysses' by James Joyce
posted by slimeline at 1:37 AM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by slimeline at 1:37 AM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Between James Joyce and Roddy Doyle, there is The Ginger Man [1955] by WWII USN ex-Pat J.P. Donleavy.
Slanguage A Dictionary of Irish Slang and Colloquial English in Ireland by Bernard Share may be of interest.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:54 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Slanguage A Dictionary of Irish Slang and Colloquial English in Ireland by Bernard Share may be of interest.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:54 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney is set primarily in Dublin, though I don't recall the city feeling like a major element of the book.
posted by knapah at 2:58 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by knapah at 2:58 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
You said any genre, so if you're up for some romance, consider the works of Marian Keyes. I read her books in the early '00, and I remember them as quirky with a bit of darkness to them. Many of her stories are set in Dublin.
Also years ago, I read several books by the Irish author Jennifer Johnston, including How Many Miles to Babylon and the Christmas Tree - I thought they were brilliant and heartbreaking. I've been meaning to go back and reread these books.
posted by kbar1 at 3:03 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Also years ago, I read several books by the Irish author Jennifer Johnston, including How Many Miles to Babylon and the Christmas Tree - I thought they were brilliant and heartbreaking. I've been meaning to go back and reread these books.
posted by kbar1 at 3:03 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Gur cakes and coal blocks - classic, easy read of memories growing up in Dublin in the forties or so, which frankly is a grey zone up to the seventies anyhow.
Hollow Oaks - queer urban fantasy with a bang of proper Irish supernatural about it, set partially in contemporary Dublin so you can visit places.
The Ross O’Carroll Kelly books are great, but at this stage, so many!! But yeh, pick an era you like or go with the original Frappucino one. See how much you follow!
Disclaimer, I’m from Dublin.
posted by Iteki at 3:38 AM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Hollow Oaks - queer urban fantasy with a bang of proper Irish supernatural about it, set partially in contemporary Dublin so you can visit places.
The Ross O’Carroll Kelly books are great, but at this stage, so many!! But yeh, pick an era you like or go with the original Frappucino one. See how much you follow!
Disclaimer, I’m from Dublin.
posted by Iteki at 3:38 AM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Tana French (mentioned upthread) answered this very question in the NYT last fall! Gift link.
posted by kickingthecrap at 5:28 AM on April 16, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by kickingthecrap at 5:28 AM on April 16, 2023 [5 favorites]
I read the Dublin Saga series by Rutherford before I went to Ireland a few years ago and it gave me a grounding in the basics of Ireland's history.
posted by codhavereturned at 6:36 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by codhavereturned at 6:36 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Bunny McGarry books by Caimh McDonnel are excellent and recent-ish. Funny and thriller-adjacent, sort of a Guinness-scented Dick Francis but with a hurling stick?
posted by wenestvedt at 9:10 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by wenestvedt at 9:10 AM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
It sprawls through a lot of Irish history, not just Dublin, but The Heart's Invisible Furies is primarily set in Dublin. It's a little magical realism, a little (fictional) memoir, and a really engaging, beautiful read.
Someone else mentioned We Don't Know Ourselves, and that is probably the best book about what Ireland both was and is that I've read in 20 years.
posted by pdb at 12:24 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Someone else mentioned We Don't Know Ourselves, and that is probably the best book about what Ireland both was and is that I've read in 20 years.
posted by pdb at 12:24 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
I cannot believe that no one yet mentioned 'Ulysses' by James Joyce
The OP says they have already got Joyce and are looking for other things.
I have a topic suggestion as opposed to a single book - the 1916 easter uprising.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:00 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
The OP says they have already got Joyce and are looking for other things.
I have a topic suggestion as opposed to a single book - the 1916 easter uprising.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:00 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Fiction: the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French
posted by panther of the pyrenees at 9:58 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by panther of the pyrenees at 9:58 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Just to add that Gur cakes and Coal blocks seems to be available for free on archive.org
posted by Iteki at 1:32 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Iteki at 1:32 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:41 PM on April 15, 2023 [5 favorites]