Tales from the Poorhouse

Rating:
Summary: McCABE IS A MASTER OF VOICE...
Review: The first work I read by Eugene McCabe was his incredible novel DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES - it's been a long time since I've come across writing that evoked its characters so powerfully. TALES FROM THE POORHOUSE, an earlier work, shows me that McCabe is indeed a master at his craft. The ability to conjure life and substance so readily for his characters is a magical one - and the strength of this gift rests on the firm foundation of the voices of the people in his work. Those voices ring with truth - they are not embellished beyond the point of belief. The humor, pathos, pain, suffering, and joy that are illustrated so vividly in these characters stands up well to the light of life. It's obvious that the author loves these people he has imagined - based, I'm sure, on his own life experiences as well as the history of Ireland, his adopted country - and his respect for them shines from the pages of his work.

TALES FROM THE POORHOUSE takes a hard look at one of the most painful periods of Irish history - the mid-19th century, at the height of the so-called 'potato famine', when a blight struck the potato crop and left 'the poorest of the poor' to starve to death, or, if they were lucky enough to find passage, to emigrate to America. Those who were left behind faced certain death from starvation or disease - typhus was rampant, spreading exponentially via raw sewerage and hastily-disposed corpses. When these unfortunate souls could not pay the rent they owed as tenants to their landlords, they were evicted from their homes - the houses were 'tumbled', razed to the ground and burned - and had little alternative but to enter into the poorhouses to work off their debts. These establishments were man-made hells on earth - the women, men and children were segregated from one another, without regard to family ties, and with little warning upon entry. Those who were considered to be less than in complete control of their faculties were consigned to lunatic wards - and the conditions there were even worse than those for the others.

McCabe relates this story from four points of view: that of an orphan girl, the poorhouse master, a local landlord, and the final section by the orphan girl's mother. Their stories are interrelated - and it's mind-opening to hear them told by these individuals, and to see them intertwine. The distinctions between their individual outlooks are drawn perfectly, and reveal much about the social, political and religious structure at work in Ireland at the time. The author's rendering of these characters is so perfect that I could hear them in my head as I read the book, as distinctly as if they were in the room with me speaking their thoughts. Writing this effective takes my breath away, and makes me long for more.

There is humor to be found in these stories - but it's a dim light in the darkness of these characters' stories, and in the story of this sad era in Irish history. Man's greed, man's inhumanity to man, and the lust for power are at the root of these 'troubles' - as they are at the root of most troubles we bring upon ourselves as a race. Hypocrisy plays its part as well - there's plenty of it to go around. Particularly illuminating are the jealous exchanges between the Catholic and Protestant clerics in part two ('The master') - petty squabbling over matters of the soul.

Many of McCabe's works are theatrical pieces - and I see from the notes on this book that the pieces here were presented as a play on RTE (Irish television). There's also a note that DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES is due to be filmed - that'll be a grand thing, and I hope I'm able to experience it in that form.

No matter if you've an interest in Irish history or Irish writers - if you enjoy fine writing, don't pass Eugene McCabe up. He's one of the greatest voices writing today - and his words will echo in your heart and mind for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: How do you humanise an unspeakable national horror?
Review: This is an important, harrowing and beautiful book. Important, because it takes an historical event that has been abstracted by ideologues - the Great Famine - and restores its humanity. Harrowing because of the descriptions of this disaster, not of its social or political importance, but the way it effected families and destroyed the land, creating a tangible atmosphere of death. It is (perversely?) beautiful because, like all McCabe works, it is alive to the harsh beauty of nature, and also because the four speakers of these monologues try to order the horrors by telling stories, full of excuses, self-delusion and bitter hatred, but also nostalgia, revelation and epiphany. The book works by taking stock figures from the Famine - the Orphan, the Landlord, etc. - and making them compellingly human and complex, not bogeymen.