The Barrytown Trilogy

The publication of The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van signaled the emergence of a significant new voice in Irish fiction. The significance lay not only in the description of a particular milieu and the social reality evoked, but more particularly in the form of writing used to portray the lives of the fictional Barrytown characters. The book explores the dialectical relationship between the world of the Barrytown characters as mediated through filmed and televised experiences and the...