HONOR MOLLOY
Playwright | Novelist | Salonnière
SMARTY GIRL: DUBLIN SAVAGE
.jpg)
From the Publisher: (Simon & Schuster/Gemma)
An autobiographical novel set in 1960s Ireland, this irresistible story follows the rise and fall of the O’Feeney family, seen through the eyes of a precocious little girl. More savage than civilized, Noleen is a rare character from a Dublin long forgotten, where Nelson’s Pillar still stands in O’Connell Street (but not for long) and where untamed musicians gather in the O’Feeneys’ kitchen to raise a jar and the roof. Noleen’s father, a successful actor and scoundrel king of the city, does his best to destroy his family, while her mother tries to save it. Noleen schemes to make it through each Dublin day, cadging sweets and growing tough in the midst of chaos. In the end, however, nothing, not even a fierce girl’s powerful imagination can hold the family together and keep them, safe as geese in the sky, in their home on Tolka Row.
Smarty Girl is a wild child’s journey through a world alternately tender and brutal, humorous and heartbreaking, told in language as musical and vibrant as Dublin itself. Honor Molloy’s mother Yvonne is an American theatre director who sailed to Ireland in 1953 to study in Trinity College. Her father John was a seventh generation Dubliner and a local legend for his work on stage, in films and on television. Dedicated to capturing and preserving the Dublin vernacular, they worked together for fifteen years producing plays, radio, television shows …and six children. The life they led together---and the reasons that life had to end---provides the inspiration for their Smarty Girl.
"If James Joyce had been a woman and remembered a more contemporary Dublin childhood, he might be someone like Honor Molloy-- Her lyrical prose and earthy recollections sing to Joyce's rhythm and a beat all her own...A modern classic from a writer with a unique voice- the daughter of a wild Irish drunken actor and his tormented American wife, Honor's alter ego, Noleen, suffers a brutal childhood worthy of Angela's Ashes, but survives by her wit and powers of poetic observation."
-Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements
"Honor Molloy makes a most memorable debut with this fiercely funny portrait of the artist as a young girl. Along with being a smarty girl, Noleen O'Feeney is irreverent, sarcastic, resilient, engaging, entertaining, and wise beyond her years. I didn't want this book to end. Bravo, Ms. Molloy! Encore!"
-Peter Quinn, author of Banished Children of Eve
“As the daughter of one of Dublin’s most well know and well-loved actors, Honor Molloy introduces us to the mythical era in Dublin’s history where drama and storytelling took precedence over the often harsh reality of life in 1960’s Ireland. In rich, evocative language, Honor’s unique voice lends a child’s authenticity to her family’s tragic yet, ultimately, heartwarming story. Her lyrical writing is worthy of her father’s comedic dramatic style making their memoir both moving and informative. A real piece of Dublin history.”
-Kate Kerigan, author of Ellis Island
“I have seen and heard many perform their written work over the last forty years, but it is easy to say that Honor Molloy, on the page or in person, is one of the very best I have ever experienced. She is, in fact, beyond recommendation. Her writing and performances should be mandatory events for civilized people.”
-Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News
“Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage is a lighthouse intelligence that doesn't miss a stitch... The richness of the telling and the lessons of it can be weighed in every line. Many Irish books will be released this year, but few will be this candid or this complete.”
-Cahir O’Doherty, The Irish Voice
“Reading Honor Molloy’s Smarty Girl is like taking a bath in language. Little Noleen O’Feeney’s world is threaded into existence by her parents’ words, throwing a scrim of delight over the reality of a poor, 1960s Bohemian Dublin existence. The beauty of the language, of the dialogue – seeing the worlds being created – is intoxicating. We’re drawn into Noleen’s delight, until we, like her, realize that those words, that scrim, can be the death of you… But what I admire most is that – as beautiful, entertaining, funny and sad the book is – it is also a profound consideration of what those gorgeous words do and have done.”
-Michelle Woods, New York Irish Arts
“The names have been changed, but Molloy makes no secret: this was her childhood, her past. Her father was John Molloy, a fixture in 1960s Dublin, known for his great skill as an entertainer and, later, his alcoholism. Her mother was an American girl who fell in love with him, nurtured his craft, and then ultimately had to decide between him and taking the family to safety in America. What Molloy does in remembering this journey is brave and honest, and the child-like spirit and voice she so skillfully captures are truly remarkable.”
-Shelia Lanagan, Irish America
“Smarty Girl is a fascinating and brilliantly fictionalised account of Molloy’s tumultuous childhood in Dublin, where she was born and lived for the first eight years of her life... By turns hilarious and heart wrenching, Smarty Girl tells a boisterous story with humour and skill, playing with the conventions of fiction and memoir to get at the essence of a life lived during a time now gone. Anyone with an interest in Dublin history and a cracking good tale should get their hands on a copy of this book.”
-Caitriona Devery March, Writing.ie
“As magical as a fairy tale and just as grim, Honor Molloy’s Smarty Girl pierces the heart with its pure Irish song. In this autobiographical novel, the voice is all: Molloy’s Dublin vernacular is a verbal kaleidoscope of fractured words and malapropisms.”
-Claure Dunsford, Brown Alumni Magazine
“Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage is all at once a documentary investigation, a fictionalized rendering of a childhood and a faithful recreation of 1960s Dublin… A laugh-out-loud, rollicking good read.”
-Ray O'Hanlon, The Irish Echo
