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From Under Gogol's Nose
Published by Scotus Press, 2004.
Paul Durcan once aptly described Jack Harte's stories as 'at
once pure symbolism and pure realism'. This selection of
stories demonstrates Harte's extraordinary versatility
as he himself sets out to explore the possibilities of
the form. In the prefatory section, his 'Storyman'
rejects definition of the form, declaring, 'a short
story is a short story. Let's see what it can do. Let's
see what we can do with it. Let it sprout wings and fly.
Let it veer deliriously from one extreme to another. Let
it skim so close to the discursive essay that it almost,
but not quite, becomes one. Let it veer so close to the
poem that it is preserved from absorption only by its
narrative soul.' The ensuing stories are written in the
spirit of this declaration.
From the reviews of From Under Gogol's Nose
Harte is a genuine master, moving from tales that recall
Aesop and La Fontaine to the Latin American surrealists.
While asking us to “eat the fruit of the tree of
imagination”, Harte demonstrates how the story may reach
into the deepest fortresses of the human soul. Here is an
Ancient Mariner taking the reader by the ear and leading him
into strange territories where he suddenly recognises
himself and is astounded. We are all called to be witnesses
– to love, pain, the horrors of war, the failure of the
imagination.
There are stories here that are set to be
classics, like ‘Murphy in the Underworld’, ‘Queen B’, and ‘A
Message to Sparta’, and there are stories whose lyrical
pitch and rhythm approach the condition of song, such as
‘Turfman’ and ‘Birds’. An essential collection for anyone
still touched by the Irish short story.
Marvellous opening material on the state of
the short story in prospect and retrospect …. Wonderful
stuff.
Jack Harte has been delighting readers for a
couple of decades with his unique brand of symbolism and
mischief. His imagination is wild, but tethered in a taut
diction to give it credibility. A story that begins with the
words, “It came as a pleasant surprise to Murphy to find
that he could leave Hades at all,” could be deemed to be
sailing very close to wind, but he pulls it off.
Harte’s stories in their matter-of-fact
referencing of the preternatural and supernatural, and in
their blending of the fantastic and the mundane may be seen
as affiliates of Magic Realism. However, Harte instinctively
resists definition and its concomitant limitation. In an
entirely entertaining and provocative prefatory piece, ‘The
Storyman Interview’, Harte speaks of the straitjacket of
Cork Realism on Irish story writing …. His use of language
is inventive, and often startlingly illuminating of an
individual character or situation.
If you do one thing this week - Ponder
‘Painter’, one of the short stories in the excellent
collection, entitled ‘From Under Gogol’s Nose’, by Jack
Harte, the inspirational founder of the Irish Writers’
Centre.
In ‘Birds’, a unique adaptation of the myth of
Mad Sweeney, Harte is at his most iconoclastic, investing
the yarn with poetic form. Fearless artificer. Forever
pushing the boundaries. In his blending of the magic of myth
with realism he has fashioned a fiction that is truly
magical. Sound plotting, cracking dialogue, and credible
characterisations do the rest.
Each story is a powerful evocative voyage
which forces the reader to contemplate his/her unique
response.
Harte is an excellent storyteller. His stories
are wonderfully varied. Deep emotion, wisdom, and irony, all
feature strongly. ‘A Message to Sparta’ is as eloquent an
expression of opposition to war as you’ll find. …. ‘Gelding’
opens with “You asked me whether sexuality is a bridge or a
barrier between men and women.” The story that follows is
truly shocking. This collection will make new converts to
the genre.
The form is so near the poem that it
revitalises not only the prose form, but also the narrative
poem format, indeed fusing the two until it could be either.
The modern themes complement the ancient truths explored,
thus enhancing the reader's enjoyment … In this work Harte
explores the possibilities of the short story form with more
confidence and more success than most living writers. It is
still the hardest form to conquer, but Harte is clearly a
master of it.
- The Black Mountain Review
In the introductory Preface section Harte
teases out the short story form, stressing that he believes
in the infinite possibility of the form. He expects the
short story to challenge his imagination and to savour the
sense of wonder with the tools that every good writer
employs: subtlety of language, psychological insight, sharp
characterization, novel plots, a sense of symbol, and a
mystery that yields itself up to clearer definition only
through exploration and effort. Harte sets himself a
demanding headline but he achieves it with disarming
ease.
Available online from the Scotus Press
www.scotuspress.com
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