Tales from the Poorhouse

Download or read book Tales from the Poorhouse written by Eugene McCabe and published by Gallery Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book consists of a remarkable suite of four monologues: "The Orphan", "The Master", "The Landlord", and "The Mother". They place in counterpoint, the stories of a mother and her daughter, a landlord, and the Master of a workhouse in mid-19th century Ireland. In the immediate aftermath of the "hard hunger", and against the backdrop of other miseries -- an American Wake, poverty, deaths in childbearing -- Eugene McCabe relates memories, confessions, and apologies. Through nimble shifts of time, perspective, and voices, he reveals why he is celebrated as a chronicler of complex historical predicaments and the details of social nuance. In this memorable fiction, his imagination and narrative artistry are at their most vital.