Mon 5 Oct 2009
TMF Review: BARTHOLOMEW GILL – McGarr on the Cliffs of Moher.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[4] Comments
BARTHOLOMEW GILL – McGarr on the Cliffs of Moher. Charles Scribner’s Sons, US, hardcover, 1978. Robert Hale, UK, hardcover, 1980. US paperback reprint: Penguin, 1982; reprinted as The Death of an Irish Lass: Avon, pb, 2003.
Quite remarkably, when three young people from the same small village in County Clare, Ireland, come to New York City, they find nearly equal amounts of success. When it happens that they all return home at the same time, their troubles and their angers are brought with them, and one of them, the girl reporter after the truth about the IRA, dies, having been stabbed to death with a pitchfork at a lovely spot overlooking the sea.
McGarr is Ireland’s top cop. Why he’s on this case from the beginning is never made clear. And with background of this sort assumed and never properly filled in, and with the failure of McGarr to investigate immediately the questions the reader wants asked (well, the ones I did), it’s no wonder that my mind wandered, having distinctly gotten the feeling that the mystery was only incidental.
What we do have is a very Irish, very picturesque novel about the problems troubling Ireland today. As a worthy reflection on the objectives that the IRA should have (and doesn’t), you probably cannot do better. I wish that I had found it more interesting, but I am nearly ashamed to say that I did not.
(slightly revised).
[UPDATE] 10-05-09. It isn’t fair, I know, but on the basis of reading only the one book by Gill, it remains the only one I’ve read. He wrote a few of them over the years, and I’ll submit to you a list below. If I were to read another, which should it be?
The Peter McGarr series, by Bartholomew Gill ––
1. McGarr and the Politician’s Wife (1977) aka The Death of an Irish Politician
2. McGarr and the Sienese Conspiracy (1977) aka The Death of an Irish Consul
3. McGarr and the Cliffs of Moher (1978) aka The Death of an Irish Lass
4. McGarr and the Dublin Horse Show (1979) aka The Death of an Irish Tradition
5. McGarr and the P.M. of Belgrave Square (1983)
6. McGarr and the Method of Descartes (1984)
7. McGarr and the Legacy of a Woman Scorned (1986)
8. The Death of A Joyce Scholar (1989)
9. The Death of Love (1992)
10. Death on A Cold, Wild River (1993)
11. The Death of An Ardent Bibliophile (1995)
12. The Death of An Irish Sea Wolf (1996)
13. The Death of An Irish Tinker (1997) aka Death of a Busker King
14. Death of An Irish Lover (2000)
15. Death of An Irish Sinner (2001)
16. Death in Dublin (2002)
October 5th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
“Death Of A Joyce Scholar” is by far Gill’s best in my estimation; and I speak as someone who–like McGarr at the beginning of the case–has never read all of “Ulysses”…
(I’ve still only read the beginning, the Nighttown section, and Molly Bloom’s soliloquy)
This one is one of favorite mystery novels, actually.
October 5th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Gill is the Irish Simenon, and like Simenon and Maigret, the mystery per-se is not always the main point of the story. Frankly I love Gill and McGarr uncritically and wish to hell the Brits would adapt these for television. The man can write. Other than Simenon he most reminds me of Freeling and maybe Hanning Maskel.
Rick
Death of a Joyce Scholar isn’t my favorite McGarr, but it’s a damn good one. I have read Ulysses several times, but I admit I’ve reread the opening, Nighttown section and Molly’s solioquy more often. If you can find it catch Joseph Strick’s film version of Ulysses for a great performance of the latter.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I was always surprised that “Gill” (real name Mark McGarrity), that seemingly so Irish a mystery writer was actually Irish-American, born in Mt. Holyoke MA and graduating with his Bachelor’s from Brown University.
The N.Y. Times obit quoted him as saying the McGarr books gave him the opportunity to keep returning to Eire to research the books.
He died from a fall trying to climb through an upstairs window because he found himself locked out after a late night out,
a death like something out of one his novels, and I’ve always–rightly or wrongly–assumed “he himself was a bit worse for the drink” when it happened…
October 6th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Gill died in 2002, so the list of books above is a complete one. If I were to go searching one out to read, I might go with “Joyce” first, then “Descartes.”
I might also decide on trying “Cliffs” again, but I imagine what will happen is that I’ll read the next one I happen to come across, whichever one it is.
My impression is that there’s more action in a McGarr story than in a Simenon or a Freeling, but I could easily be wrong about that. I’m sure you’re right, though, David, in saying that the mystery is only part of what Gill’s novels were about.