A Wild People

Publishers Weekly

A generalization about the Irish (from a William Hazlitt essay quoted in the epigraph) provides the title of this urbane, often droll first novel by a celebrated Irish playwright (Da), but there's nothing particularly wild about these modern-day Dubliners or the activities sometimes farcical, sometimes melancholy they engage in. The narrator is T.J. Quill, a film critic living with his wife, Greta, sleeping with Josie Hand, the flamboyant wife of a rich and often cuckolded nonentity, and fretting about his new role as the archivist for Sean O'Fearna (the given name of American-born director John Ford). There's not much drama in the Ford story line or in the love affair with the Italian-born Josie. It's not even clear why Josie is attracted to the diffident and passive Quill, but her narrative function is to serve as a liberated, un-self-consciously lusty counterpart to Irish women like Greta (plagued by guilt and emotionally constrained). Leonard also depicts Dublin's literary/theatrical community Quill's milieu and its eccentric cast of characters, many of whom are deftly etched, from Quill's seemingly self-effacing best friend and film critic Shay Lambe and the colorful man-about-town and producer J.J. "Thorn" Thornton to the brash, American-born widow of the great O'Fearna. Leonard writes fluidly and creates clever dialogue, though his slice of contemporary Irish life at first seems aimless, if atmospheric. But the haphazard plot gradually grows into a complex social comedy in which betrayal marital and otherwise spreads in wider and wider circles and becomes a morality tale befitting the times, culminating in an ironic denouement that is fitting in every way. (July) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This first novel by the Tony Award-winning Irish playwright Leonard (Da and A Life) happily shows that his talents are not limited to the stage. T.J. Quill is a "fillum" buff, happiest when working at what he loves and enjoying the company of good friends. He has no great ambitions, but when a series of too-good-to-be-true offers come his way - to serve as archivist for a major film collection, write a biography of his favorite Western film director (think John Ford), and write a screenplay - he takes them all without stopping to question the motives of those who are offering. By the end of the novel, he realizes that he is in over his head and that people are not always as they seem. Setting his novel in contemporary Ireland, Leonard obviously writes of what he knows, and the authenticity of his characters captures the essence of Irish culture without resorting to "cutesy" stereotypes. American readers may be confused by some of the slang and pop cultural references, but most are easily understood in context. Recommended for public libraries with a following for Irish fiction. - Karen Traynor, Sullivan Free Lib., Chittenango, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A rollicking yarn, in the best J.P. Donleavy tradition, about an Irish scribbler on the make, told with wit and style by playwright Leonard (Out After Dark, 1991, etc.). T.J. ("Thady") Quill is a happy fixture of the Dublin literary scene. A film buff and reviewer, he gets on well with the small but stylish circle of the city's thespians. Most of them have to cadge their drinks when they go out, but T.J. has managed to get himself a sweet job on the strength of his reviews: Chief archivist and general director of the Sean O'Fearna Center in Dublin. O'Fearna was an Irish-American director (read: John Ford) known primarily for his westerns. His widow Kitty is known by one and all as a holy terror who could bargain the miter off an archbishop: In exchange for setting the O'Fearna Center up in Dublin, she managed to get Irish citizenship posthumously awarded to her husband. Now she's taken a shine to T.J. and taps him to write the authorized biography. Can things get any better? Well, nothing attracts like success, and soon T.J. finds himself with a mistress-the beautiful Josie Head, married to the rich wastrel Andrew Head. Even T.J.'s long-faced wife Greta begins to look kindly on her newly successful husband. But there's no place like Ireland for taking a man down off his high horse. First, the daughter of T.J.'s best friend is seduced and impregnated by Kitty's godson. Then T.J. gets himself beat up by Andrew. Finally, Kitty finds out about an unauthorized sequel to one of O'Fearna's films that T.J. has begun to produce behind her back-and fires him on the spot. Back at square one, he has no one to rely on but his wife. But in Ireland, remember, if herself is on your side you've not toomuch to fear. Delightfully witty, funny, and true-to-life: Leonard's debut novel should travel better than Guinness.