Ciaran Carson, The Guardian (London), August 3, 2002
"A memoir which is by turns funny, quirky, and lyrical."
David Wheatley, The Sunday Tribune (Dublin), June 9, 2002
"I scarcely expect to read a more enjoyable book of prose this year."
Karl Miller, The Spectator, June 22, 2002
"The book is a success, untroubled by irrelevance...with many interesting stories to tell."
Ronan Farren, The Sunday Independent, July 21, 2002
"Rich in well-told anecdotes."
John Montague, The Irish Times, June 22, 2002
"A lively and even brave account of a rich and complicated life."
Book Description
In The Kick, poet Richard Murphy constructs — from astonishingly detailed diaries kept over five decades — a memoir of his personal life and the violent legacies of Anglo-Irish history. In unsparing prose, he writes about painfully delicate personal issues, including his sexuality. He also explores his obsession with the coastline of west Ireland and with the Protestant gentry from which he comes. With serene, devastating honesty, he describes the literary milieus of London, Dublin, and New York, and his encounters with some of the most significant postwar writers and friends, including W. H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, J. R. Ackerley, Laura Riding, Robert Graves, John McGahern, and Conor Cruise O’Brien. These are the personal, literary, and political engagements of a lifetime, as recounted by a poet with the “gift of epic objectivity” (Ted Hughes).
From the Publisher
In The Kick, Irish poet Richard Murphy constructs—from astonishingly detailed diaries kept over five decades—a memoir of his personal life and the violent legacies of Anglo–Irish history. In unsparing prose, he writes about painfully delicate personal issues, including his sexuality, as well as the Protestant gentry from which he comes. With serene, devastating honesty, he describes the literary milieus of London, Dublin, and New York and his friendships and encounters with some of the leading postwar writers, including W.H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, J.R. Ackerley, Laura Riding, Robert Graves, John McGahern, and Conor Cruise O’Brien. These are the personal, literary, and political engagements of a lifetime, as recounted by a poet with the “gift of epic objectivity” (Ted Hughes).
The Kick FROM THE PUBLISHER
"In The Kick, the Irish poet Richard Murphy, drawing on five decades of private notebooks, has created a memoir of his life and times. Written with the personality of a diary and full of self-disparaging wit, his memoir takes us from a decayed Protestant 'Big House' in the west of Ireland to the colonial island of Ceylon, where, in the 1930s, the author's father was the last British Mayor of Colombo." Murphy writes about delicate personal issues, including his own ambivalent sexuality, as he chronicles the making and unmasking of a writer. He includes amusing and moving accounts of his meetings and friendships with many prominent writers and actors from the literary milieux of London, Dublin and New York, including Harold Nicolson, J. R. Ackerley, Patrick Kavanaugh, W. H. Auden, Theodore Roethke, Robert Lowell, Conor Cruise O'Brien, James Dickey, Kenneth Tynan, Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Peter O'Toole, John McGahern, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.
Art & Photography
Book Info
