Killoyle - (American Literature) by Roger Boylan & Boylan Roger & Boylan (Paperback)

About the Book

Proving that the Irish literary spirit of James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, and Samuel Beckett still exist in at least one Irish writer, Roger Boylan has composed a debut novel filled with hilarity and doom about the inhabitants of the Irish town of Killoyle--a host of peculiar folks, all suffering from and tortured by problems with God, sex, the drink and, of course, Ireland.

Book Synopsis

Proving that the spirits of James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, and Samuel Beckett still flow in the veins of at least one Irish writer, Roger Boylan has composed a novel filled with hilarity and doom about the inhabitants of the Irish town of Killoyle: Milo Rogers, a headwaiter and would-be poet with a bit of a drinking problem and a bit of a sexual one; Kathy Hickman, a writer for the woman's fashion magazine?"Glam," as well as a former pin-up girl; Wolfetone Grey, who only reads books by or about God, and who also makes anonymous phone calls throughout the town in order to make people believe, among other things, that they have just won the lottery; and a host of other peculiar folks, all suffering from and tortured by problems with God, sex, the drink, and of course Ireland.

Accompanying all of this is a nameless figure who bursts on the scene in the form of acerbic, opinionated, hilarious footnotes that rudely comment upon the characters and numerous other subjects. "Killoyle" wildly celebrates the great Irish tradition of laughter amid despair and tears.

From the Back Cover

Proving that the spirits of James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, and Samuel Beckett still flow in the veins of at least one Irish writer, Roger Boylan has composed a novel filled with hilarity and doom about the inhabitants of the Irish town of Killoyle: Milo Rogers, a headwaiter and would-be poet with a bit of a drinking problem and a bit of a sexual one; Kathy Hickman, a writer for the woman's fashion magazine Glam, as well as a former pin-up girl; Wolfetone Grey, who reads books only by or about God, and who also makes anonymous phone calls through-out the town in order to make people believe, among other things, that they have just won the lottery; and a host of other peculiar folks, all suffering from and tortured by problems with God, sex, the drink, and of course Ireland. Accompanying all of this is a nameless figure who bursts on the scene in the form of acerbic, opinionated, hilarious footnotes that rudely comment upon the characters and numerous other subjects.

Review Quotes

..".hilarious Irish farce, a first novel that captures the absurdly comic spirits of Joyce and Beckett in its depiction of an Emerald Isle town peopled by some most peculiar folk, indeed." -- "Library Journal"

."..hilarious Irish farce, a first novel that captures the absurdly comic spirits of Joyce and Beckett in its depiction of an Emerald Isle town peopled by some most peculiar folk, indeed." -- "Library Journal"

About the Author

Roger Boylan is an American writer who was raised in Ireland, France, and Switzerland and attended the University of Ulster and the University of Edinburgh. His novel "Killoyle" was published in 1997 by Dalkey Archive Press and has been reprinted four times. In 2003, a sequel, "The Great Pint-Pulling Olympiad," was published by Grove Press, New York. German versions of both novels, translated by the award-winning German translator and author Harry Rowohlt, were critically and commercially successful. The third volume in the Killoyle trilogy, "The Maladjusted Terrorist," was published in Germany in 2006 and is forthcoming in English. The entire trilogy was reissued in German in 2007 by Kein & Aber, Zurich.