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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
The Failing Heart
'Reading The Failing Heart is like taking a trip; part escape into another consciousness, part suffocating delusion. The story - or rather the scaffolding upon which Smith displays elegant philosophical architecture - follows a young scholar whose mother has just died. Estranged from his father after stealing his money, hounded by the ominous figure of his landlord, and oppressed with images of his ex-lover's impending labour, he wanders into an existential purgatory.
"All these open mouths, living or dead, they never shut up." Death is everywhere, through the needs and revulsions of the body, its smells, secretions, drives. The narrative circles in on itself in an ever-decreasing gyre, examining ancient and modern ideas about existence, subjecting philosophical scholarship itself to a sardonic inquiry using its own tools of scrutiny.
The writing is self-aware and wry, with rare flashes of humour amid a claustrophobic search for meaning and desire to confess. Time expands and contracts; it is unclear what is real, what is internalised: at the end of this brief novel there is the sensation of having witnessed the dark dream of a stranger.'
The Irish Times
"All these open mouths, living or dead, they never shut up." Death is everywhere, through the needs and revulsions of the body, its smells, secretions, drives. The narrative circles in on itself in an ever-decreasing gyre, examining ancient and modern ideas about existence, subjecting philosophical scholarship itself to a sardonic inquiry using its own tools of scrutiny.
The writing is self-aware and wry, with rare flashes of humour amid a claustrophobic search for meaning and desire to confess. Time expands and contracts; it is unclear what is real, what is internalised: at the end of this brief novel there is the sensation of having witnessed the dark dream of a stranger.'
The Irish Times
Book Details
- Publisher: Dedalus
- Publish Date: Sep 9th, 2020
- Pages: 156
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
- EAN: 9781910213919
- Categories: • Urban & Street Lit• Psychological• Literary
About the Author
Smith, Eoghan: - Eoghan Smith is an Irish writer, critic and academic. He completed a PhD at Maynooth University, and has taught English literature at universities and colleges in Dublin, Maynooth and Carlow since the mid-2000s. He is the author of a full length study of the novels of John Banville, and the co-editor of a collection of essays on Irish suburban literary and visual cultures. He has contributed numerous essays, articles and reviews on literature and visual culture to a variety of academic and literary publications. The Failing Heart is his first novel.
Praise for this book
"Brilliant! Dark and atmospheric. It's a compulsive account of how it feels to be tortured and mired in anxiety." -- Sue Leonard, The Irish Examiner
"Eoghan Smith is a stylist, and the lyricism of this narrative lifts the general air of gloom. I loved it!" -- Books Ireland
"I was exhausted after each chapter, but I devoured every single word of this truly exquisite debut." -- Dymphna Nugent, Waterford Star & News