After the Wake: Twenty-One Prose Works Including Previously Unpublished Material

These short sketches by Brendan Behan are indicative of his immense talent as an observer of character and culture. A rich variety of stories and story fragments, After The Wake, is immersed in Irish culture as lived by ordinary working class Dubliners. Behan writes with understanding and his prose is almost musical in it's tempo and pace. This collection is an important contribution to modern Irish literature and a fine way to be introduced to Brendan Behan for the uninitiated.

After The Wake is absolutely one of my favorite books; the stories are by turns poignant, hilarious, sad and knowing. This truly is Behan at his best, writing with the rhythmic language of the working class and with insight into human character few authors can equal. In addition, Behan's knack for setting a scene or introducting a character in very few words is in full flourish; I truly felt as if I KNEW the characters (their facial expressions, histories, bad luck - all of it) in a few short sentences. In short, After The Wake is excellent on all counts and is recommended not only as a stellar work of fiction, but also as a perfect introduction to the work of Brendan Behan.

Behan's collection of shorts, including the title story, evokes the richness of Irish language and humour that made Wilde, Shaw, and Behan such legends, without resorting to the didacticism of Swift and Beckett. By turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and downright scandalous, Behan's vigniettes never fail to give what Joyce's Dubliners only suggested: the warm-blooded humanity of Ireland, including its heartbreak and petty follies.