Document Type
Article
Rights
This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only
Disciplines
General literature studies
Abstract
In 1992, I remember reading Mary O’Donnell’s debut novel, The Light Makers, with a mixture of awe and excitement: awe that a novel could be this well-written, excitement at what I perceived to be the advent of a significant new voice in Irish fiction. Two other novels followed in the 1990s – Virgin and the Boy (1996) and The Elysium Testament (1999) – that failed to capture the public imagination in the same way. They are both good novels, but they are not nearly as compelling as The Light Makers. We had to wait 15 more years for O’Donnell’s early promise to be confirmed with Where They Lie (2014), a subtle treatment of a Protestant family’s grief in the wake of the disappearance of the bodies of two of their members, victims of sectarian violence.
Recommended Citation
Maher, E. (2017) Mary O’Donnell’s 1992 Debut Retains its Awesome Word Power 25 years on The Light Makers was a Compelling, Beautifully Written Tale of Relationship Breakdown, The Irish Times, Saturday August 19th, 2017.
Publication Details
Published in The Irish Times, Saturday August 19th, 2017.