Whoredom In Kimmage: The Private Lives of Irish Women

by Rosemary Mahoney

Book Overview

Written with the art of a skilled fiction writer whose ear for Irish bluster is pitch-perfect, Whoredom in Kimmage tells the tale of contemporary Irish women through a series of brilliantly animated... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385474504
• ISBN13: 9780385474504
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Anchor
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

Precious Early 90s Irish Time Capsule, Planted by an Irish-American Woman

Being neither Irish, nor a woman, I read this book because I had thoroughly enjoyed two of Rosemary Mahoney's other books, Early Arrival of Dreams and A Singular Pilgrim. She has an incredible talent for vividly describing people and their idiosyncrasies. While she has more in common with the Irish than the Chinese and the pilgrims she meets in her other travels, her observations about Ireland and the Irish make it seem like an equally fascinating, equally foreign land. While Rosemary does paint pictures of people that are tend to be more critical, she is equally critical of herself, and at this stage of her life, quite unsure of whom she is. If you are someone who enjoys visiting new places not just for the scenery but for the people, then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Not many of us will be able to live out of the country long enough to know specific individuals with such depth as described here. I appreciate that she shares her subjective perspective with us; it makes me love the world in which we live and wish that I could have such experiences myself! Both Whoredom in Kimmage and Early Arrival of Dreams give you a rare view into the people of Ireland and China from an American's perspective. The fact that both countries have changed so much in the last decade makes these books so much more precious and enjoyable to read. Highly recommended.

Some of the reviews seem to be missing the point

How can anyone spend a couple of years abroad, anywhere, and expect to portray an accurate historical account of the status of women in that country, let alone the entire people? She can't. So why are the reviewers expecting this book to be that impossible thing and to be unequivocally historically complete? This is an autobiography of the author's experience in Ireland, not a history of Ireland. This is Ms. Mahoney's journey, not Ireland's. Take it for what you will beyond that, because it is a compelling read with wonderfully imagined and experienced events. She is honest with her material while drawing out the poetic charm of her travels. She tracks several key political movements, such as the attempts to legalize a woman's right to seek counseling on abortion, through their late-80s specific events and leaders and in relation to the deeper built-in oppressions of Irish-Christian dogma. She does not come out and condemn anyone or anything, but leaves those opinions to the reader. She paints a picture of a country that is quite progressive in many ways, even electing their first woman president, but silently the culture continues to oppress women in ways that are not befitting a 20th (now 21st) century world. Too bad so many individuals misinterpret her work: If the people of Corofin and Dublin truly were "having their fun" with Ms. Mahoney by avoiding being honest with her in the hopes of making a fool out of her, frankly, they deserve to be caricatured. What a wonderful lesson in humility - a detail that speaks more about the state of a handful of men and women than any idealized cultural representation could have. When you have a guest to your house, do you mock them and make them out to be fools or do you welcome them and their cultural differences? I guess in some places, the tradition is to scare the outsider away rather than include them in the larger world picture. Maith go leor, a Rosemary! Is iontach ?

I was blown away by this book!

I had no idea what to expect of this book when I picked it up, but a friend of mine recommended it, and after about ten pages I was hooked. Written from a first-person perspective by an American writer living in Ireland, it offers a most engaging voice and a vivid view of modern Ireland. The writer spent half a year living in Dublin and another half year living in rural Ireland in a Norman castle in the small village of Corofin. Having lived in Ireland for nearly ten years I was awestruck by the accuracy and intimacy of her portrayal of Irish life, her very engaging sense of humor, and her great talent as a writer. Line for line this book is absolutely beautiful. Her affectionate characterizations and stories of the people she met in Ireland fairly lift off the page. Her ear for dialogue is superb. There is a great deal of information here about Irish society, including interviews with the President of Ireland, and with other prominent Irish people, but the real draw of this wonderful book is the manner in which the writer has chosen to tell the story of this small country entering into the modern world. I laughed out loud at so many descriptions and scenes, conversations in a the pub, mishaps, local oddballs, lifestyle and beliefs of the Irish people. I didn't want the book to end. It's the kind of book you read and wish you knew the person who wrote it. There's a vividness to Mahoney's writing that I have not seen matched in many works of non-fiction. Above all, what distinguishes this work most is the clear respect and love the writer has for the people she has chosen to study and portray in it. There's a deep humaneness and sympathy to her approach to Ireland and its people, even though she offers criticisms and skepticism. I was entertained, moved, and enchanted by the stories she tells and don't know why I hadn't heard of it before now. The truths put forth in this book are sometimes a but upsetting, but they are exactly that: truths. And they are truths that needed to be told. I loved it.

Irish Pub Tales... of Women, of a Place so Real

I've never been to Ireland, but after reading Rosemary Mahoney's splendidly eclectic tour of Irish women and Irish minds, I feel like I've had the next best experience to an extended stay on the Emerald Isle. Do not be fooled by the title, this book is not a narrowly conceived analysis of gender relations. Pay attention to the words "world of" because that is what Mahoney brings to life on every page of this highly readable work. Wow, does this author ever have the gift for developing sharply focused images that emit raw energy. She speaks with women, about their paradoxical relations with men, but also takes the risk of the literary "side trip," thus creating one of the most vivid sensations of "place" that you will find on the printed page. This is also a book of pubs, of warm and pungent Guiness poured by bartenders whose youth still haunts them, standing on stone floors worn down by storytellers and lovers of ages past. It's about foreboding castles and achingly beautiful landscapes. It's about women, where women can and always should struggle and perhaps prevail -- in the swirling context that bespeaks the joy and sorrow of life, of Ireland. Once reading this book, you may very well feel that you have to make the trip yourself, or even perhaps, that you already HAVE.

A personal, rather than academic inquiry--wildly readable.

I read this in preparation for a trip to Ireland--in fact, ended up reading it instead of the dry-as-dust "traveler's history" I had first purchased. The author doesn't presume to make an academic study of women in Ireland, instead she chronicles, in minute but far from boring detail, her ten-months' sojourn to the Republic, split between Dublin and a small town in western Clare. Each chapter focuses on a particular experience: interviewing a famous/notorious pro-choice advocate in Dublin, taking visitors home after an evening at the pub in Corofin, and the like. The account of her brief volunteer work with Sister Keating and the Dublin slum girls is a perfect unmade bed-- equal parts poignant, barbaric, and startlingly funny. Whenever there is a choice between giving you the broad sweep of events on the one hand and the weird, unpredictable, and telling detail on the other, she chooses the detail. And, within the confines of that, she is brilliant.