COME BACK TO ERIN

I suppose Sean O'Faolain's market is inevitably a limited one, although this novel, his first in several years, has greater external incident than previous ones. He represents those qualities of Irish literature at its best, realism alternating with mysticism, the ever present spiritual undercurrent, and the crude but rich prose style. The theme of the book is exile, the strong, ineradicable feeling for Ireland which is in every Irishman, a subtle, personal sense of the country. Two brothers are the main characters, -- St. John, who goes to America, makes money, disintegrates, taking refuge from his sense of exile in liquor; Frankie, eternal rebel, hounded by the police, seeking refuge with St. John in America. An elusive book, perceptive, with sustainedly beautiful writing.