Yeats is Dead! — A Book Review
Yeats is Dead! is an unusually humorous novel that includes very different literary contributions by fifteen Irish writers. This novel is cleverly named after William Butler Yeats. Yeats was an established author to many literary works (mostly poems) such as The Celtic Twilight, Mythologies, When You Are Old, and The Mask (OnlineLiterature.com pgrph 3). James Joyce was also cleverly included in this novel by placing the memory of him throughout the chapters (first when there is a crumpled poster on Tommy Reynolds caravan wall) and also having a character named Dr. Jim Joyce. There are also references to Ulysses and Dubliners (other Joyce novels) throughout Yeats is Dead! . The character, Sister Dymphna Morkan,
“ is a very Joycean name. It appears in one of the stories Dubliners” (162).
To be more specific the story that “Morkan” appears in is titled, “The Dead” (183, Joyce). Oddly enough, Joyce outlived Yeats by two years being that Yeats died in 1939 and Joyce in 1941 (Britannica.com). This could be the reason for this possible “pun” (of sorts) for the title of this supposed manuscript that Joyce supposedly wrote titled: Yeats is Dead!.
Most of the settings in this novel take place in Dublin, Ireland. Ironically, Yeats and Joyce were both Dubliners as well (Online-Literature.com) (TheModernWorld.com). Even if the words “Dublin, Ireland” never graced a page, the reader still may be able to figure the geographic location by the Irish names of the characters like Dymphna, Jason Dunphy, Micky McManus, Gertie MacDowell, and Grainne O’Kelly.
One inclination that the setting had to be in Ireland was the proper names of the local authorities. The Garda was the proper name for the Irish police, or “coppers” if you will. Many other names of officials that are used are common to Irish authorities, like commissioner, assistant commissioner, minister, inspector, superintendent, Your Lordship, and barrister.
The slang cannot be ignored!
When the characters directly speak to each other, the accent is portrayed in writing. When the Assistant Commissioner tells Garda Greer to “thank the minister Laddie” (128) for his heroic efforts is a good example of a word (Laddie) that mostly only the Irish would say in casual conversation. Mrs. Roberts gets irate with her mother (Mrs. Bloom) and yells,
“Die, Mammy, yeh larruping mowldy bitch!” (131).
The word “Mammy” normally is not used in North America, but is “Mommy”. One particular character that comes to mind, is Lambert. Speaking in a Southside Dublin accent he says things like, “Fockin roight” and “Roight, say feta cheese, goys!” (153). A more amusing example is the Rasta Micky Mac as he is giving advice to Greer on how to approach his beloved. He accidentally slips out of his fake Rasta tongue into “Dublinese” and says,
“Yer chat-up lines must be arseways” (145).
Other words come to mind as well, such as Yank, gobshite, shite, and arse.
The actual manuscript was (in the end) admitted to be falsified rubbish. The novel tells the reader so as it says,
Especially when you knew, as Professor Durrus did, that James Joyce had never written anything called Yeats is Dead!
He raised a silent glass to his old friend Tommy Reynolds. The greatest joker he had ever known.
There was enough evidence throughout the novel to indicate that this information may have been a hoax, but due to the curious personalities of the characters the search for the manuscript continued. After all, it was “Curiosity That Killed the Cat” (phrases.org.uk)! There were many conclusions that several characters had come to about the manuscript. Gary thought them to be useless so he threw them away and later went back to the dump to retrieve them (after he found that it had value).
Y8S=+!
The equation, Y8S=+!, was thought to be a few different things. One theory is that it was symbols to resemble the words “Yeats is Dead”. Another theory was that it was meant for the aging of paper, which is why it was presumed that Mrs. Bloom and Mrs. Blixen were so interested (because of their fake literature sales). The most indifferent theory was that it was some kind of potion for an anti aging skin cream. When O’Kelly understood that it may be an anti-aging cream, her and Greer went back for it and O‘Kelly tested it on her face and beauty marks. Certainly, when the reader thought it might get a little less strange, O’Kelly and Greer took the cream to a different level-to say the least. Even worse, O’Kelly used the cream to ‘acquire’ the first half of the manuscript back from McManus. The weirdest thing is that people actually believed that this random person (Tommy) had actually made this wonder cream (whatever it’s use) in a frying pan. A frying pan? A frying pan!
This novel was definitely a competition between authors, to say the least. Every chapter was filled with more intriguing excitement as it came closer to the last page. It was almost as if the authors were trying to ‘out-do’ each other. In the end, the mystery was lost as it was overtaken by suspense, murder, adultery, and greed. Rather than focusing on what all the characters were supposed to do-the characters ended up with their heads in every one else’s business. Mrs. Bloom and Mrs. Blixen convinced coppers Roberts and Nestor to “rough up” Tommy Reynolds. They wanted to get the manuscript he supposedly had for their overseas illegal, fake, ‘first edition‘ book sales. The manuscript, to them, was a formula to age the paper that the copies would be printed on to make them authentic. Of course Nestor messed up, and shot Tommy by accident (after he already had a heart attack). This situation quickly became the cause for many effects during the rest of the novel.
Collectively-Nestor was shot for his mess-up, Dunphy Jr committed suicide, Dunphy Senior made Patsy (Mrs.Roberts) kill Andrew Andrews for Dunphy Jr’s suicide (after their sexual escapade), Patsy convinced Micky to kill Roberts (who was cheating with Sister Dymphna) for her own self esteem, O’Kelly was shot, Gary found love in Micky and in himself, Greer had a lot of firsts, Micky got a hand job with anti-aging cream, The Minister died of a “trapped fart”, Professor ‘Doonan’ found his clarity between a nun’s arse, and the people that survived still wanted a cut of money from the profits Doonan spoke of.
In conclusion, this novel was an interesting composition of creative minds illustrated by words on paper. It was hard to understand at times, but as the reader, I couldn’t look away for it pulled my eyes permanently into the novel.
The only mystery that comes to mind is, what would Joyce and Yeats think of this novel? Possibly Joyce would say, “Gobshite” and Yeats would add “Arseways”. Nevertheless, for me, this novel is highly recommended. It was entertaining, exciting, and humorous. The only caution though, should be that the reader must be at least 18! lol
Works Cited
Doyle, Roddy, et al. Yeats is Dead! Ed. Joseph O’Connor. Alfred A. Knoff, 2001.
“James Joyce.” The Modern World. 18 Mar. 2008. <http://www.themodernword.com/Joyce/joyce_biography.html>.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: New American Library, 2007.
“Q: When and where did James Joyce die?” Britannica. 19 Apr. 2008. <http://www.britannica.com/eb/question-306875/51/James-Joyce-died>.
“Q: When and where did William Butler Yeats die?” Britannica. 25 Apr. 2008. <http://www.britannica.com/eb/question-652421/51/William-Butler-Yeats-died>.
“William Butler Yeats.” Online-Literature. 8 Mar. 2008. <http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/>.
