Paul Murray (Lee Pellegrini)
Like most any author, Paul Murray is grateful for the praise he鈥檚 received for his work. He only wishes it would come earlier in the process.
鈥淎s a writer, the time you really want affirmation is in the middle of things, when you鈥檙e trying to put the book together and you鈥檙e struggling and you鈥檙e on the point of losing faith. That鈥檚 when you could really use someone giving you a round of applause and a bottle of champagne,鈥� quipped Murray, who is the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College this semester, in an interview earlier this month at his Connolly House office.
A Dublin native, Murray has written three acclaimed novels: An Evening of Long Goodbyes, shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Irish Book Award; the bestseller Skippy Dies, shortlisted for various honors including the National Book Critics鈥� Circle Award and named one of Time magazine鈥檚 Best Books of 2010; and The Mark and the Void, which won the Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and made Time鈥檚 Best Books of 2015 list. Banshee Press has described his work as 鈥渦rbane, dense, funny, brainy, [and] unpretentious.鈥�
Murray will read from his forthcoming novel, The Bee Sting, and share his thoughts about the creative process when he presents 鈥淗ow to Write a Novel,鈥� the fall Burns Scholar Lecture, on November 9 at 5:30 p.m. in the Burns Library Thompson Room. The event, preceded by a 4:30 p.m. reception, is free and open to the public.
A collaboration between the Center for Irish Programs and University Libraries, the Burns Scholar program brings outstanding academics, writers, journalists, librarians, and other notable figures to the University to teach courses, offer public lectures, and work with the resources of the Burns Library in their ongoing research, writing, and creative endeavors related to Irish history, art, and culture.
“It's easy to feel isolated when you鈥檙e working on a book. So to be among students who are excited about writing feels very energizing.”
Murray is teaching a writing workshop in fiction for 51茶馆 undergraduates, covering character development, point of view, voice, setting, imagery, sentence design, plot, pacing, and the use of time in a narrative. Students in the class commit to intensive writing, both in class and out, and full participation in the workshop editing process.
听鈥淎s a writer, it鈥檚 easy to feel isolated when you鈥檙e working on a book,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o to be among students who are excited about writing feels very energizing. I was concerned whether undergraduates might need more infrastructure, but broadly speaking, they鈥檙e quite sophisticated. Some have been writing a long time, some are just trying it out. I talk to them about their lives, I hear their stories, and some of these are crazy or agonizing. There鈥檚 so much going on behind ordinary facades. Writing can be a way for them to make sense of what they鈥檝e experienced.鈥�
Along those lines, The Mark and the Void can be viewed as Murray鈥檚 effort at processing the 鈥淐eltic Tiger,鈥� Ireland鈥檚 boom-and-bust period from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s. As a self-confessed 鈥渃ontrarian,鈥� Murray鈥攖hen in his early 20s鈥攐bserved the Celtic Tiger鈥檚 onset with skepticism and a certain distaste. The transition in Ireland was certainly profound, he recalled: Where in pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland, talented, educated young people typically pined for their green cards so they could seek better prospects abroad, now many of them found lucrative jobs with tech companies in Ireland, enabling them to accumulate property and other trappings of wealth.
鈥淪omething about it creeped me out,鈥� said Murray. 鈥淭here was an ambient negativity about it all: People got rich but also materialistic; no show-offery was too much. It all seemed so empty.鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 all bad, he added. The Celtic Tiger seemed to spark a diversity in ideas and social mores in Ireland, and general optimism: 鈥淓ven after the crash, there was a sense that 鈥榯hings could be done.鈥欌��
But the revelations of (at best) unethical behavior within the financial industry, with little or no repercussions for those exhibiting it, left a sour taste in many mouths. After owning more property overseas per capita than any other country, as Murray notes, suddenly Ireland owned less of its own property per capita than any other nation. He found himself compelled to learn more about the practices and policies that led to this reversal of fortune, and his self-education informs The Mark and the Void鈥攆ull of peculiar characters and improbable events revolving around a Dublin investment bank that survived the 2008 global market crash.
鈥淏eing a writer is a good job for a contrarian: You can鈥檛 be fired from it,鈥� said Murray, who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in English and philosophy at Trinity College and a master鈥檚 degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. 鈥淚 always wrote. As a kid, it was comics, later it was songs and film scripts. But writing fiction felt like the only thing I could do where I had complete control. I was lucky in that I met people on the way who pointed me in one direction or another.鈥�
One such person was Joseph Nugent, a professor of the practice in English and member of the Irish Studies faculty, who attended Murray鈥檚 reading of Skippy Dies in an Irish bookstore, which led to a conversation between the two鈥攁nd, a few years later, an invitation for Murray to speak at 51茶馆 (he also has appeared on 鈥淭he Irish Influence,鈥� a webinar series launched by Nugent and Boston College Ireland Academic Director Michael Cronin).
And now, Murray is set to join the list of distinguished personalities鈥攁mong them Mary McAleese, Maurice Harmon, Paul Bew, Margaret Kelleher, Diarmaid Ferriter, Kevin Barry, Nuala N铆 听Dhomhnaill, and Guy Beiner, now the Sullivan Professor and director of 51茶馆鈥檚 Center for Irish Programs鈥攚ho have presented the Burns Lecture.
鈥淣o, I鈥檓 not really going to tell people how to write a novel,鈥� laughed Murray. 鈥淲hat I want to talk about are the special twists of fate that can occur in our lives, and where they can take us. I鈥檝e had more than a few of these myself, and I鈥檇 say on the whole it鈥檚 worked out pretty well.鈥�
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Sean Smith | University Communications | November 2022