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A Family of His Own A Life of Edwin OConnor

By
TOM DEIGNAN,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 4:18 PM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:38 PM

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Providence College Professor of English Charles F. Duffy was planning to teach some Irish American fiction in one of his Modern Irish Literature classes. "Figuring Edwin O'Connor would loom large...I reread 'The Last Hurrah,'" Duffy writes, "and then looked around for a biography of the author. To my surprise, no such book existed." Duffy has changed that with his exemplary "A Family of His Own: A Life of Edwin O'Connor." Beginning with O'Connor's middle-class youth in a Rhode Island split between Irish and French Canadian Catholics, Duffy follows O'Connor to Notre Dame and the Coast Guard during World War II. Then there are years in radio (with little writing success) and Boston, which O'Connor would use as the (unnamed) setting for "The Last Hurrah," published in 1956. Suddenly, O'Connor gained fame with his insightful novel about a machine mayor making one last run for office. (Spencer Tracy's movie portrayal brought even more acclaim to the novel.) Six years later, O'Connor won the Pulitzer Prize for The Edge of Sadness, about a melancholy priest in a gritty parish. Duffy interviewed O'Connor's family and friends, and also looks closely at places close to O'Connor's heart: Rhode Island, Notre Dame and Boston, as well as Dublin. Perhaps most insightful is Duffy's exploration of O'Connor's many unpublished works. Overall, this is a revealing look at an important Irish-American writer. ($49.95 / 464 pages / Catholic University of America Press)

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