Description
A hard-edged mixture of hilarious and heartbreaking memories, Tully's autobiographical 1928 book digs deep into the soil of his native Ohio to show what life was like in the late nineteenth century for a poor Irish-American family. Within the covers of this acclaimed work, we meet the author's father, also named Jim Tully, "a gorilla built" ditchdigger whose stooped shoulders carry "the inherited burdens of a thousand dead Irish peasants." We meet his mother, Biddy, a "woman of imagination" who "had all the moods of April." We meet his uncle, ruthless John Lawler, who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to fifteen years in the Ohio penitentiary for stealing horses. And we meet his grandfather, Old Hughie Tully, "born with the gift of words"--"capable of turning death into an Irish wake and pouring liquor down the throat of the corpse." Old Hughie, "never without a tale to tell," emerges as the most vividly drawn character in a book packed with unforgettable characters. Tully's most deeply personal book, Shanty Irish had a profound impact on readers and other leading American writers of the 1920s. "Shanty Irish is a chunk of real life," wrote Upton Sinclair. "It made me feel human and humble, which is good for anybody." H. L. Mencken said, "In Shanty Irish, it seems to me, he has gone far beyond any of his work of the past. The book is not only brilliantly realistic; it also has fine poetic quality." Indeed, a book soaked in mud and whiskey, Shanty Irish is at turns brutal, sentimental, ironic, lyrical, humorous, and tragic.
