a good deed and other stories reviewed

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McCabe Book Review 8/19/2010

Book Review: Sean McCabe’s A Good Deed and Other

Stories

When it comes to multicultural literature of the English-speaking world, Ireland

is probably not generally considered a member of this expansive territory. In fact, thanks

to grand lads like Joyce and Yeats, the Irish written word as genre, if it is to be classified,

is often part of the default setting for “standard” English and—by way of cultural

influence—American literature, even if not always canonical in estimation. Maybe this is

a boon for some Irish chest-thumpers of the literary kind; however, in terms of English-

language literature, a disservice may be done to uniquely Irish literature in the modern

era, in that it isn’t able to take its place outside the shadows of its cultural and historical

associations with the aforementioned big guns (especially when one considers that other

English literature of the Diaspora must often do this, though very much more so under the

radar).




Perhaps it is time for this to change a little. After all, Irish culture is more than

just Guinness and Bono’s trademark sunglasses. Likewise, perceptions of Irish literature

should not only be assumed through the legendary efforts of mavericks from another age.

In other words, it doesn’t have to be as “big” as all that to be worthwhile. Sean

McCabe’s A Good Deed and Other Stories, the interconnected recollections of Eoin

Grady as he grows up in the fictional small town of Baile in the 1970s, come about

exactly as memories do: small snapshots of time, place, and people taken together here to

create a patchwork quilt of humor, disappointment, indifference, and as is case in most

twelve-year-old lives, the frustration with parents who just don’t “get it.”

Two of the earliest offerings, the title opener “A Good Deed” and “Permission”,

are significant pieces, particularly as they map out the preoccupations young Eoin is beset

with throughout the rest of the collection. There’s the quiet rebellion against adult

authority and limitations, conscience versus desire, and his near ceaseless pursuit of

escapism through any number of things: junk food, the local carnival, travel, BeeGees

records, and the relatively permissive state of affairs in the household of his well-heeled

best friend Henry Dean. Other standouts include “Coffin Nails”, with its schoolroom nod

to slapstick humor in tow, the morally ambiguous “Stranger in the House”, and towards

the end of the collection, “The Trip to Paris”, where Eoin visits The City of Light on a

school trip, allowing him to experience the stirrings of an ever-burgeoning sexual

awareness, but most importantly, the freedom of the city with neither parental nor even

parochial bonds to hold him back.

With its motifs of Catholic symbolism, in addition to the adolescent-male-as-

protagonist approach (though certainly not unique to him), the ghost of Joyce actually




does take a peek in now and again, but McCabe thankfully manages his work without

those mind-numbing twists and turns of language and allusions to classical subject matter

Joyce was so fond of. These are the tales of an Irish youngster very much a part of his

own unique generation. He doesn’t really say all that much in profundity, but this

ironically reveals a good deal about where he comes from. McCabe’s offerings are a nice

example of what can happen when an apparent simplicity in form and style reveals a tacit

complexity. The reader is left with more questions than ready answers, and the end

result elicits one of the best responses to any narrative: the desire to know more.

Hopefully, the saga of Eoin Grady does not end at the tender—yet tragically unfulfilled—

age of twelve, the age he still is at the close of the collection. He should just be getting

started.

-TwistaSista

a good deed and other stories reviewed

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