Streets of Galway come to life in Alan’s latest novel

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Alan McMonagle has a collection of notebooks from the Flying Tiger shop where he jots down ideas and observations that might be useful for future short stories, plays or novels. His brain never stops, so he needs lots. He laughs as he says he has a full shelf of beautifully bound notebooks gifted to him by friends and family but he feels they’re too good for daily use. The hardy small ones from the iconic Danish store fit his needs perfectly.

Chatting to Alan in a cosy corner of Tigh Neachtain on a dreary Friday, it’s clear he has lots of ideas for future projects, even as he prepares for the launch of his second novel, Laura Cassidy’s Walk of Fame. That will take place on Thursday, March 5, in Galway City Library.

While Alan’s acclaimed first novel, Ithaca, launched exactly three years ago, was set in the midlands during Ireland’s great recession, this one is located firmly in Galway, with familiar streets and iconic areas such as the Docks and the Claddagh featuring large.  Like the first, it’s published by UK publishing house Picador.

Its central character, Laura Cassidy, is in her twenties and like 11-year-old Jason, the hero of Ithaca, she’s lost a father. Except, unlike Jason’s, Laura’s father was a devoted one.

Laura lives in the Claddagh with her mother, Mary, and the novel opens as they await the return of her older sister Jennifer, who has been off ‘saving the world’, and is coming home with her little boy, Juan.

It’s a visit Laura isn’t looking forward to. It’s clear from the get-go that her world view is somewhat skewered as she dreams of becoming a celebrated screen actress whose name will be emblazoned on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Her love of films and acting has come from her father – they used to watch late-night movies together and he encouraged her to follow her dreams. Only things aren’t working out.

Laura witnessed her father’s death when she was a teen and “has become stuck in that moment”, explains Alan. “Grief, trauma and paralysis mark her from then on, her ambitions and dreams notwithstanding.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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