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| 1955 novels | |
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First published in Paris and banned in the United States, the novel is set in Ireland just after World War II . PLOT INTRODUCTION It follows the often racy misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American living in Dublin and studying law at Trinity College . This book represents the fictionalised roar of the end of the Second World war hiatus represented by the collussi of American Literature Dos Passos, Hemingway and Steinbeck. It is the voice of the twice exiled returning Irish hero, long exiled on foreign shores, humiliated and degraded. Now returning to the virginal shores of the Green Isle; Dangerfield (what a name, what a stance) comes, in more ways than one, upon the native soil of Ireland. His parents were intelligent and cultured members of the lower ranks of the Anglo-Irish plutocracy; forced by famine and degradation to leave their beautiful homeland for the stink and squalor of early 20th Century New York. They drag a pretty, eloquent and frail son into the lowlife swillholes of the Bronx and Brooklyn. This child (Sebastian in the book, James Patrick in real life) upon his return to Dublin for an education, realises that he has a mission; simply put to fornicate and philosophise; until his vital force is spent. The book gives us the map of the terra incognito of late 1950's sexual encounters in Dublin and his later books spell out the aftermath (particularly A Fairytale of New York - later a prompt, some would say crutch, for the middle class Irish write Sean MacGowans classic song of the same name made famous by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl). FILM, TV OR THEATRICAL ADAPTATIONS The book is set to hit the silver screen for the first time with Johnny Depp playing the main protagonist, Sebastian Dangerfield. Shooting is due to get underway in late 2006. The director will be Laurence Dunmore ( The Libertine (2005 Film) ) |
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