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Revision as of 13:36, 9 April 2018
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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=New Ways to Kill Your Mother
|author=Colm Toibin
|publisher=Penguin
|date=March 2013
|summary=Biographical essays unpicking complex family relationships of Irish and other writers. Stamina needed.
|cover=0141041765
|aznuk=0141041765
|aznus=0141041765
}}
Colm Tóibín has created a series of biographical essays, amassed in authoritative detail. They presumably started life as comparative lectures for fortunate students at universities in the USA and UK where Toibin has held tenure. The first chapter describes the phenomenon of motherless children as a plot driver in novels by Jane Austen and Henry James. Irish readers may be particularly interested in the earlier half which includes chapters on Brian Moore, Sebastian Barry and Roddy Doyle.
I didn’t find the book ''teasing, wonderfully funny'' as the Guardian reviewer promised; in fact, it didn’t really appeal at a first reading. My literary muscles are currently way out of condition for coping with this sort of book. That isn’t meant as a criticism of a great writer, but a comment on the unsuitability of my choice.
You can’t judge a book by its cover, so they say. Particularly not by its title. Colm Tóibín has published two previous books of short stories, as well as seven novels, so an eye-catching title like ‘New 'New Ways to Kill Your Mother’ Mother' with a funky cover sounded to me like a entertaining book of short stories. A fair assumption, perhaps, but way off beam. I suspect the book I meant to read was his short story collection, [[The Empty Family by Colm Toibin]].
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending this book.
A much better starting place for this masterly writer would be his fictional biography of Henry James [[, ''The Master by Colm Tóibín]] '' which was Booker Prize short-listed. Hand on heart, I sprinted through the whole book in a couple of days. Unless you generally marathon run with FR Leavis, I have to respectfully suggest that you should handle ‘‘New ''New Ways to Kill Your Mother’’ Mother'' slowly and with care.
If you, too, are a general reader looking for American short stories, you might like to try [[The Last Bachelor by Jay McInerney]].
{{amazontext|amazon=0141041765}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=83516710141041765}}
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