From the Sin-e Cafe to the Black Hills : Notes on the New Irish

by WALL EAMONN

• ISBN13: 9780299167240
• ISBN10: 0299167240
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

Eamonn Wall arrived in the United States in the 1980s as part of a wave of young, educated immigrants who became known as the "New Irish". In this book he comments on his own experiences and those of his generation, who identify as much with contemporary immigrant America as they do with the long-settled Irish American community.

Wall's starting point is the now-closed Sin-e Cafe in New York's East Village, which was a hangout in the early 1990s for expatriate Irish musicians, actors, and writers. He comments on the poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs of both the New Irish and Americans of Irish heritage, locating them within a literary and historical context. But this is also a deeply personal book in which Wall wrestles with his own identity as an Irishman living in America, from the streets of Manhattan to the western hills of Nebraska.

Author Biography

Eamonn Wall has lived in New York City and Milwaukee and is now associate professor of English at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Exile, Attitude, and the Sin-e Cafe	3	(11)
Notes on the New Irish
The Long Journey Home to Brooklyn	14	(9)
Michael Stephen's Books of the Dead
Immigration, Technology, and Sense of Place	23	(7)
Reading Mary Gordon's Final Payments in America	30	(9)
Four Paintings	39	(7)
Danny Maloney
A Short Story
The Search for Majestic Shades	46	(12)
Contemporary American Poets Migrate to Ireland
Helena Mulkerns on the Lower East Side	58	(11)
Irish Voices, American Writing, and Green Cards	69	(12)
Roger Boylan in His Own Words	81	(10)
Q & A
``Even Better Than the Real Thing''	91	(12)
Brian Moore's The Great Victorian Collection
How Decent People Live	103	(6)
Thomas McGonigle's Going to Patchogue
The Black Hills, the Gorey Road, and Object Lessons	109	(18)
Works Cited	127	(8)
Index	135