From Publishers Weekly
Healy addresses the antipathies of contemporary Ireland-the whole island, both Ulster and the Republic of Ireland-with dogged intensity and honesty. Effectively the story of the breakup of the relationship between Catholic playwright Jack Ferris and Protestant actress Catherine Adams, the novel opens in Donegal, in the west of Ireland, as Jack slowly realizes that a combination of cultural misunderstandings and his own alcoholism have driven his lover from him. Forced to come to terms with his loss, he determines to recreate Catherine in his imagination, and the novel delves into the past to examine the social and psychological landscape of the fractured world to which they both belong. Protestant and Catholic Ireland are drawn together in the complex person of Jonathan Adams, Catherine's father, a stern Northern Protestant policeman equally attracted to and repelled by the Catholic South. Towards the end of his life, Jonathan finds himself spending more time in his holiday home in a relatively unsophisticated Southern community; but, after years of summerlong visits there, he remains an outsider-unable even to master the rudiments of casual greeting and conversation. Jonathan's difficulties are mirrored by Jack's later attempts to maintain a normal life as a playwright in violence-torn Belfast, where he has moved with Catherine, and where he begins to understand that he, too, is fundamentally an outsider. This long, resolutely bleak story (the title derives from the Greek word for "tragedy") evokes both the bitterness and the wistfulness of people caught in the center of Ireland's religious divide. Although the prose is occasionally less than beautiful, Healy's complex characterizations and powerful narrative drive make this a consistently gripping and ultimately moving novel. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In this story of a doomed love affair, novelist-playwright-poet Healy humanizes the strife in modern Ireland, vividly illustrating the atmosphere of fear and the pain caused to persons on all sides of the conflict. There are strains in the relationship between actress Catherine Adams, a Protestant from the north, and playwright Jack Ferris, a Catholic from the south; the role he writes for her in his new play releases her from him, and the drinking they share eventually drives them apart. Jack's boozy grieving in the first section of the book is excessive and overlong. But persistent readers will reach the splendidly told story of Catherine's family, featuring her father, a failed preacher turned constable, who is tragically caught in Ireland's troubles. With its finely drawn and complex characters, this is a memorable portrayal of a country and its people by one of its notable writers. Michele Leber


Book Description
An Irish playwright reimagines his estranged lover’s past in this “rare and powerful book”(E. Annie Proulx) whose “melancholy beauty resonates with the deepest truths” (Boston Globe).

ANNOTATION

Set in the west of Ireland, this story of a love and its sundering "demands to be savored, eaten, slept with" (Patrick McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy). Playwright Jack Ferris has iron in his soul but booze in his veins. When his actress love Catherine leaves him, Jack attempts to recreate her and their affair in his imagination--with tragic results.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Set in the west of Ireland, this is the story of a love and its sundering. The novel opens at a moment of crisis in the life of playwright Jack Ferris, when misunderstandings, alcohol, and despair have driven his lover, Catherine, away. In an attempt to come to terms with his loss, Jack determines to recreate Catherine in his imagination. But the story he must tell acknowledges that the imagination is not a safe place. Very soon two worlds come vividly to life: one Presbyterian, the other Catholic; both rooted in opposites, yet each fascinated by the other. The cast includes families on both sides of the religious divide as the epic narrative roams heartbreakingly across the elemental Irish landscape and history. Both a celebration of love and a lament for its loss, A Goat's Song is a novel of rich characterization and great formal beauty, which achieves the redemptive power of tragedy.

FROM THE CRITICS

Boston Globe

Its melancholy beauty resonates with the deepest truths.

Sunday Independent

One of the most powerful Irish novels of recent times.

Publishers Weekly

Healy addresses the antipathies of contemporary Ireland-the whole island, both Ulster and the Republic of Ireland-with dogged intensity and honesty. Effectively the story of the breakup of the relationship between Catholic playwright Jack Ferris and Protestant actress Catherine Adams, the novel opens in Donegal, in the west of Ireland, as Jack slowly realizes that a combination of cultural misunderstandings and his own alcoholism have driven his lover from him. Forced to come to terms with his loss, he determines to recreate Catherine in his imagination, and the novel delves into the past to examine the social and psychological landscape of the fractured world to which they both belong. Protestant and Catholic Ireland are drawn together in the complex person of Jonathan Adams, Catherine's father, a stern Northern Protestant policeman equally attracted to and repelled by the Catholic South. Towards the end of his life, Jonathan finds himself spending more time in his holiday home in a relatively unsophisticated Southern community; but, after years of summerlong visits there, he remains an outsider-unable even to master the rudiments of casual greeting and conversation. Jonathan's difficulties are mirrored by Jack's later attempts to maintain a normal life as a playwright in violence-torn Belfast, where he has moved with Catherine, and where he begins to understand that he, too, is fundamentally an outsider. This long, resolutely bleak story (the title derives from the Greek word for ``tragedy'') evokes both the bitterness and the wistfulness of people caught in the center of Ireland's religious divide. Although the prose is occasionally less than beautiful, Healy's complex characterizations and powerful narrative drive make this a consistently gripping and ultimately moving novel. (Nov.)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

A rare and powerful book....At the end, intellectually aroused, emotionally wrenched, stunned with the imagery of place and drink and crumpled hopes, I was literally shaking. — E. Annie Proulx