Impure thoughts is the first study of the twentieth-century Irish Catholic Bildungsroman. This comparative examination of six Irish novelists tracks the historical evolution of a literary genre and its significant role in Irish culture. With chapters on James Joyce and Kate O’Brien, along with studies of Maura Laverty, Patrick Kavanagh, Edna O’Brien and John McGahern, this book offers a fresh new approach to the study of twentieth-century Irish writing and of the twentieth-century novel. Combining the study of literature and of archival material, Impure thoughts also develops a new interpretive framework for studying the history of sexuality in twentieth-century Ireland. Addressing itself to a wide set of interdisciplinary questions about Irish sexuality, modernity and post-colonial development, as well as Irish literature, it will be of interest to students and scholars in various disciplines, including literary studies, history, sociology and gender studies.

This book studies the 20th-century Irish Catholic Bildungsroman. This comparative examination of six Irish novelists tracks the historical evolution of a literary genre and its significant role in Irish culture, with chapters on James Joyce and Kate O'Brien, along with studies of Maura Laverty, Patrick Kavanagh, Edna O'Brien and John McGahern.

Out where the cityas sprawl meets the plains, two brothers, in these four tales, cope with painful change, senseless crime, and thwarted love. The Arsonists- A high-school loner plunges into a series of pointless felonies and forces a terrified younger schoolmate to become an accomplice. Weller, a volunteer cop, must fight his own chief before he can stop it all. The Stunt- Weller, an ex-Navy pilot, helps a young protA(c)gA(c)e learn to fly. But he should have known more about his new friend first. The result is spectacular but disastrous. The Last of the Visigoths-Vivid daydreams help Larry, 18, escape painful realities. Sometimes heas a handsome cavalier, sometimes a fearless Roman soldier. But his dreams become real when he meets an older, married woman, and his troubles vanishauntil the crash. Godas Phone Booth-Larry, 12, has a serious problem; it is religion, but he thinks itas sex.