The Trick of the Ga Bolga

I picked up Patrick McGinley's Goosefoot off a used book rack years ago, never having heard of him, and was immediately hooked. It's incredible to me that these wicked little masterpieces of his aren't more acclaimed - they are far more than just cheap mystery novels, or "Irish" novels, or whatever else they have been confused with. They fit no genre except that of brilliant, tragic comedies. As for The Myth of the Ga Bolga, it's one of his best, the disturbing and insanely funny WWII-era tale of an Englishman who tries to start a potato farm in rural Ireland, and is mistaken for a hero by the locals - with bizarre consequences, escalating to accidental death, suicide, and murder. Also incredibly erotic bits of sex.

I can't say enough good things about this book (along with the other works of Patrick McGinley). The voice and perspective are like nothing else I've encountered--horror dances just outside (and occasionally breaks through) a fragile circle of humor. The summary of the book I give to friends is: "It's P.G.Wodehouse meets Carl Jung with knives drawn." I look forward to the day all of McGinley's works are reissued.

I hadn't heard of McGinley until I picked up this book on a discount table in Galway. It's an intriguing, powerful read, full of poetry and menace and dark humor. The ending is a little rushed and unprepared for my liking, but I suppose McGinley is sacrificing more conventional storytelling for the suddenness of myth, and I didn't object all that much to the surprising resolution. All in all, a good, engrossing novel.