Edna O’Brien, the author who put rural Ireland on the literary map with The Country Girls in 1960 and caused a scandal (one church ordered it to be burnt by the congregation), died recently aged 93. I remember seeing her at the literary festival at Hay on Wye a while ago deep in conversation about life and poetry with a young Sri Lankan poet.
She produced some 18 novels, plus short stories, drama and non-fiction. Philip Roth described her as “the most gifted writer writing in English”. She undoubtedly had glamour and intellect and was very quotable. From an interview I was fortunate enough to gain in 2010 for The Belfast Telegraph, in which she talked inter alia about the Troubles, O'Brian observed that beauty could be a hindrance. As photographs of the writer attest, she knew what she was talking about. "If you have, let's say less than awful looks, it can generate spite which I found when I first came over (to England). It's absurd."
On the scandal following publication of The Country Girls, which included the famous sex lesson given by Mr Gentleman to the heroine, she said that only one reaction ultimately mattered "my mother's - I was terrified of what she would say".
And on writing - "Being a writer's not a romp but I would continue even if overnight I fell into a fortune." And she always read a bit of Shakespeare before writing her own work, longhand.
O’Brien often intimated that Ireland was not just a country but a state of mind. While she didn’t live here, she did believe in the concept of a united Ireland and told me: “I feel there was justification (for the republican armed struggle) and I believe Ireland is one country but my human side is relieved the guerilla war…is over. Congratulations on that.”
RIP. Suaimhneas siorai.
Jane Hardy
