Like other great authors (such as frank mccourt himself, also an Irishman with whom colm tóibín shares landscapes of memory turned into literature), tóibín makes his narrative on many occasions between his world and the fiction raised.
knowing the author, the intentionality of his work is better deciphered, the focus on personal aspects of his protagonists or on scenarios of his own life.
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but the grace is in making that, of the personal, a universal space. and tóibín manages to extrapolate everything towards what is most entirely human. because in the exceptional, in the strange, in the wide open soul is where we end up identifying ourselves more than with supposed normalities or mediocrities.
here in colm tóibín’s bibliography we find varied themes and jumps between fiction and non-fiction. In his more than ten novels we enjoy always innovative approaches between recurring scenarios, in some cases metaliterary in search of the transcript of every writer immersed in oceans of words…, always one of those authors who transcends literature to another level.
top 3 books recommended by colm tóibín
the house of names
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the oresteia has that immortal point of work. Its immaculate conservation from ancient Greece to the present day, make it a link with the origin of our civilization, a channel of communication with that world where it all began.
and as the Latin quote says: “nihil novum sub sole”, the interpretation of this book the house of names, by colm tóibín, reminds us precisely that, that there is nothing new under Sun. The theater through which the characters of Aeschylus’ Oresteia passed is still the same today. because, quoting terence on this occasion: homo sum; humani nihil a me fucking alienum. in other words, nothing human is not alien.
From the first human to the one who says the last goodbye, we will have been the same, the same emotions, the same pains and passions, the same ambition, the same hatred and an identical love as the only will capable of linking everything. In practical terms, it is always risky to visit a classic and remove a bit of patina so that it fits well in the current time. only profuse knowledge of the intention behind a classic work of this depth allows for this magical translation of the author’s feelings and intentions.
but there is no doubt that colm toíbín gets it. press the key manages to choose the most profound character in the play: cletemnestra, the woman and mother full of rancor and in need of finalist justice. Getting to penetrate the psyche of this millennial female character gives this interpretation the label of a masterpiece. as a result, we found a plot with which to cultivate ourselves while reliving the history of our oldest ancestors, that history that was wonderfully engraved in the legends and myths that the Oresteia brought to our days.
brooklyn
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The Irish found their promised land in New York and made this city a colony with their idiosyncrasy imported and maintained to this day in constant miscegenation.
There’s something romantic about the Irish-made-American thing from the 19th century onwards. and that awakens captivating images that fly over the sordid reality of a city already overpopulated in those years and with a very feared suburban life. this novel takes place much later, in the middle of the xxx century, but it maintains that taste between the romantic, the melancholic and an aura of the unexpected that moves the life of eilis lacey, determined to make a new life in brooklyn of her native deep ireland .
with the temperance, virtuosity and psychological acumen of the contemporary master that he is, colm tóibín, one of the best Irish writers of our day, has constructed a shocking story about destiny whose diaphanous surface hides a background where lies an inexhaustible complexity. Little by little, Eilis makes her way through Brooklyn and, despite nostalgia and the rigors of exile, she even finds a first love and the promise of a new life. Unexpectedly, however, tragic news from Ireland forces him to return and face what he has fled from.
mary’s testament
When jj benitez finally presented us with his work in the “trojan horse” series, we discovered that possible parallel world around the existence of jesus christ.
Fictions aside, the mere fact of being in those days of such a transcendental character was a great incentive that, thanks to the documentation and setting, was a success even beyond the plot itself. this time it is colm tóibín who delves into maria, the mother of god, in her days after losing her son in such a regrettable way. nothing to do with the great fictions, quite the opposite. we approach the mother in search of answers to find some peace.
the pain of the loss of maria becomes in the catholic imaginary paradigm of our existence, an example towards resilience. From there tóibín traces that essential tear of our destiny as a species aware of our essential limitation: time. In this overwhelming story, Colm Tóibín gives voice to María, a heartbroken woman who, after the violent death of Jesus, recalls the strange and turbulent events that have befallen her. Here the speaker is neither a virgin nor a goddess, but a Jewish mother, a citizen of one end of the Roman Empire where Hellenic rites are still promoted, convinced that her son has allowed herself to be corrupted by nefarious political influences. p>
alone and exiled, nostalgic for her husband and for a time of calm and security that was suddenly destroyed by jesus’ involvement in riots, apparent miraculous healings and conspiracies that ended with the crucifixion of the man in her womb , Maria remembers and speaks. With extraordinary virtuosity and admirable dramatic capacity, Colm Tóibín composes throughout these pages a true contemporary stabat mater, full of light and pain, a lament that comes from tradition and continues to this day.
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