Profile of Colm Toibin on Famous Like Me

Colm Tóibín (b. 1955 in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford) is an Irish novelist.

(it's pronounced like "toe-bean", if that were a word).

Life

Tóibín was educated at University College Dublin, graduating in 1975. Immediately after graduation, he left for Barcelona. His first novel, The South (1990), was partly inspired by his time in the Spanish city, as was, more directly, his non-fiction Homage to Barcelona (1990).

After returning to Ireland in 1978, he began studying for a Masters. He never handed in his thesis and left academia, at least partly, for a career in journalism. The early 1980s were an especially bright period in Irish journalism and the heyday of the monthly news magazine Magill. Tóibín became editor of that magazine in 1982, remaining in the position until 1985.

The Heather Blazing (1992), his second novel, was followed by The Story of the Night (1996) and The Blackwater Lightship (1999). His fifth novel, The Master (2004), was a fictional account of portions in the life of author Henry James.

He is the author of other non-fiction books: Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border(1994, reprinted from the 1987 original edition) and The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe (1994). He has written a play that was staged in Dublin in August 2004, Beauty in a Broken Place.

He has continued to work as a journalist, both in Ireland and abroad. He has also achieved a reputation as a literary critic: he has edited a book on Paul Durcan, The Kilfenora Teaboy (1997); The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (1999); and has written The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English since 1950 (1999), with Carmen Callil; a collection of essays, Love in A Dark Time: Gay lives from Wilde to Almodóvar (2002); and a study on Lady Gregory, Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (2002).

He's a member of Aosdána.

Themes

His work seem to explore several main lines: The depiction of Irish society, living abroad, the process of creativity and the preservation of a personal identity, focusing specially in homosexual identities but also in front of loss.

The 'Wexford' novels: The Heather Blazing and The Blackwater Lightship use the town of Enniscorthy where he was born as narrative material, together with the history of Ireland and the death of his father when Colm was very young. An autobiographical account and reflection on this episode can be found in the non-fiction book, The Sign of the Cross.

Living abroad novels: two other novels, The Story of the Night and The Master revolve around characters who have to deal with a homosexual identity and take place outside Ireland for the most part, with a character having to cope with ideas of living abroad.

His first novel, The South, seems to have ingredients of both lines of work. It can be read together with The Heather Blazing as a diptych of Protestant and Catholic heritages in County Wexford, or it can be grouped with the "living abroad" novels.

A third topic that link The South and The Heather Blazing is that of creation. Of painting in the first case and of the careful wording of a judge's verdict in the second. This third thematic line culminated in the study of identity and creativity that is The Master, precedeed by a non-fiction book in the same subject, Love in A Dark Time.

Awards

(See more under each book)

• The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize and the 2001 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
• The Master was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize, won the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year and was listed by The New York Times as one of the ten most notable books of 2004.

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