Really? i haven't read Barry yet but that's an awfully strong claim. Putting aside the Brits and Yanks, he's better than his countryman William Trevor?

I'll have to give the guy a spin but the crit's claims seems a bit over-the-top.

Dear Mr. Barra,

I gather that someone else has already raised an eyebrow over your claim that Sebastian Barry is the most accomplished writer of prose in the English language.

That's a rather startling claim. Not even just the most accomplished novelist? Presumably,a fan could mount an argument defending the latter.

As for "Sebastian Barry's achievement is unlike that of any other modern Western writer, a tapestry of interrelated works in different mediums woven from strands of his past and that of his country."?......I'm assuming that, by "his achievment", you're referring to the entire body of Barry's work rather than just this latest novel. Even so.....what about, for starters, Yeats (who as you'll know, wrote in a variety of forms other than poetry)? By Modern, do you mean something like "post-1945"?

"any other modern western writer"???

In any case, thanks for your review (which made me just order the book, actually)....but I've got to say that, insofar as you've described the novel, I find myself wondering if I'[m the only person who recalls William Trevor's novel "Fools of Fortune". (lotsa black&tans, multiple narrative voices, a chronology stretching over 100 years, and even...let's see?...a central female character who's judged insane?).

Thus...Mr. Barry's latest novel doesn't, from what I've just learned of it, sound even particularly original. Not that mere inventiveness is everything.

Oh well....thank you for the review. I didn't know the book existed, and now I've bought it. If nothing else, it and your review should bring me to the happy pass at which I can finally tell myself that I need never read anything again (except perhaps some poetry), since I've now had the very best.

Sincerely,

David Terry

www.davidterryart.com

why don't you read the novel before picking apart the review?

Sheesh.

Q: "why don't you read the novel before picking apart the review?"

A: Because even if, after reading the novel, I absolutely love it, I'd still be wary of agreeing with (much less making) the claim that Barry is "the best prose writer in the English language" (among some other, equally overblown claims).

The review reminded me of a passage in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in which Brodie asks her girls "Who was the GREATEST renaissance artist?". One unfortunate girl ventures "Michelangelo?", and Miss Brodie replies "No! Leonardo is my favorite."

---david terry

... ever read the masterful literary giant, Harry Stephen Keeler.