Without My Cloak

I recently found a list of the winners of the Hawthornden prize, which is awarded annually to an English writer "for the best work of imaginative literature." This book, by Kate O'Brien (1897-1974), won the prize for 1931. Since most of the Hawthornden prizewinners I have read (only 9 so far) have been good reading, I decided to read this. On balance it tells an interesting story and holds one's attention well. It is laid in Ireland of the 1870s and concerns an upper-class Irish Catholic family, the "proper" members of which are portrayed in a somewhat unfavorable light. The "rebel" members of the family get most of the attention in the book, as I suppose one would expect in a novel. I do not regret reading the book, and would read more by Kate O'Brien if I ran across such.