Country Girl

Edna O’Brien’s 2012 autobiography Country Girl is a blunt, gripping, lyrical and non-self-pitying depiction of her early life in the west of Ireland. It exposes the stultifying conformity imposed by the Catholic Church, family and community which I experienced myself. She rebelled as she sought freedom and self-expression from a domineering mother and drunken father. Edna’s escape to Dublin, London and New York as well as her exile from Ireland reflects an individual addicted to drugs and alcohol who seeks acknowledgement, liberty and success through many failed relationships. Edna’s autobiography resonates with many of my own experiences of the 1960’s.… show more.

Because her prose reads like poetry and her life story is the stuff of legend. Beautiful, talented, and prone to falling into bed with unattainable married men, O’Brien has had a lifetime of passion, love, and excruciating sadness. As a young woman she earned instant fame for her first novel, The Country Girls—and she paid dearly for it. Daring to write about sex in her native Ireland, her book was burned and she was exiled from her homeland. Eventually acclaimed as a grande dame of literature, O’Brien writes of the glittering brand names she has known and loved, but… show more.