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Edited by: Sarah Champion and Donal Scannell
Publisher: Sceptre
ISBN: 0340712694
Formats: UK and Commonwealth mass market paperback (300 pages)
Release date: 21 January 1999
Pronunciation: she-nan-i~gan
Function: noun Etymology: origin unknown
1 : high-spirited or mischievous activity - usually used in plural...
Shenanigans is a collection of darkly humorous tales from the wrong side of midnight, penned by nineteen young Irish writers who shun Ireland's traditional literary topics in favour of the surreal and the deviant.
Irish writing has just skipped back to the future. The new generation showcased in Shenanigans don't wallow in slums or moan about emigration. The new school has learnt more from the bizarre, sometimes sadistic, humour of Joyce and Beckett than the intervening doom merchants who built careers on painting Ireland as a land of woe. There are alien abductions, lunatic politicians, gay clubs and gangsters rather than famine, drunken priests and vengeful farmers.
Shenanigans features contributions from established writers Bridget O'Connor and Colum McCann plus prize-winning novelists Mike McCormack, Lana Citron, Joe Ambrose and Emer Martin. There are also many fiction debuts including those from Dublin playwright Nick Kelly; DEX.3 57, a former Mountjoy inmate writing about his experiences; and four cutting-edge young Belfast writers, Colin Carberry, Jo Baker, Gavin Patrick Carville and comedian Colin Murphy. Most of the contributors to Shenanigans are under thirty. All the stories are set after dark in contemporary Ireland. Challenging the complacency of Irish literary stereotypes, Shenanigans is a vivid portrait of Ireland in the 90s.
Contents
Bridget O'Connor 'The Alien Invasion'
Mike McCormack 'The Stained Glass Violations'
Julian Gough 'The Best Tipperary Has to Offer'
Jo Baker 'A Small Cut'
Emer Martin 'The Pooka at Five Happiness'
Colin Carberry 'Digging a Hole'
Helena Mulkerns 'Surabaya Johnny'
Caspar Walsh 'N 52'
Olaf Tyaransen 'Goldfish'
Joe Ambrose 'I Hate You and I Hate Your Jesus'
Dex.357 'Canal Bank Walk'
Lana Citron 'The Craic Run'
Imelda O'Reilly 'Stovepipe'
Robert Cremins 'The Mile High Club'
P-P Hartnett 'God Loves You'
Colum McCann 'As if there were Trees'
Gavin Patrick Carville 'Hanratty's Time Capsule'
Nicholas Kelly 'The Continuing Adventures of Gurdy O'Grady'
Colin Murphy 'Red Isuzu'
Press
The Literary Club, Hot Press, 1998
A Hard Life but Irish Eyes are Smiling, The Straits Times (Singapore), September 1999
Amazon.co.uk, January 1999
Translations
Shenanigans has been translated into Hungarian!
Other Anthologies
Sarah Champion also edited the Disco Biscuits, Disco 2000 and Fortune Hotel anthologies.