Song for a Raggy Boy: A Cork Boyhood
In
Song for a Raggy Boy we encounter Patrick as he endures three years in a reformatory run by a mixture of sadistic, kind and ineffectual brothers for an unspecified crime. The cruelties inflicted on the boys by their superiors, the cruelties the boys inflict on each other, and the seeming helplessness of those who would have made a difference are tellingly portrayed. Once again the author seems to have achieved the art of distancing himself from the action so that he is able to view objectively the efforts of the lay teacher, William Franklin, and the Superior, Father Damian, to bring some humanity to bear on the lives of the boys in their care.
Raven Arts Press 1991
Translated into: Italian, Danish
Rights contact:
Jonathan Williams Literary Agency
Rosney Mews
Upper Glenageary Road
Glenageary
Co. Dublin
Ireland
View more books translated into:
Italian,
Danish
