A Monk Swimming - Malachy McCourt > Reviews > Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

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Advantages:	Funny in places, not too long, well written
Disadvantages:	Repeats itself, not as funny or clever as he thinks he is, riding the bandwagon of his brother's fame

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Malachy McCourt, younger brother to Frank, has had his life portrayed in parts by the bestselling biographies “Angela’s Ashes” and “Tis”. In this book, he takes the opportunity to tell his own story (or jump on the bandwagon of success that his brother has created, depending on your point of view), of emigration to New York after escaping a poverty stricken background in 1950s Limerick. Admittedly, I came to this book as a result of reading brother Frank’s work (both of which I have written ops about, hint, hint!), viewing it as something of a continuation, rather than a book in its own right. Given that the words “international bestseller” are emblazoned in red letters across the book (both front and back), I think I can safely assume that I am not the only person to have done this!

The ‘plot’ of “a monk swimming” is of course somewhat in parallel to “Tis”, seeing as it follows the same family, same time, and same city. It is therefore an autobiographical account of McCourt’s search for fame, fortune, fun and freedom in America, beginning at the age of twenty, having only recently arrived and found casual employment as a dock worker. Before too long though, Malachy’s life begins to diverge from that of his brother and takes a course of hedonism and heavy drinking, leading ultimately to the joint ownership of a successful Irish bar bearing his name. This is accompanied by forays into acting, a part in a critically acclaimed off Broadway production, appearances on “The Tonight Show” and all-round minor fame, which McCourt clearly revels in.

This success is inevitably short-lived though. The acting parts dry up, his share in Malachy’s bar is almost forcibly bought from him, and he becomes unable to support the wife and young family he had recently established. At his point, the author descends into further heavy drinking, fighting and infidelity, culminating ultimately in divorce, alcoholism (although he never actually admits this) and undertaking criminal activity to support himself and his whiskey habit. The book ends on a distinctly depressing note, with him meeting the father who abandoned the family some 25 years previously, only to be seeing an older version of himself.

The blurb on the back of “a monk swimming” describes the book as “the story of a life lived uproariously…..light hearted and immensely readable, outrageous and comic”. I find it hard to believe that these words are applied to such a text – while funny in places, I hardly find the subjects of constant drinking, divorce, bar fights and smuggling to be “light”. Indeed, many parts of the book were repetitive (there is really only so many times that drunkenness on this scale can be considered amusing), and the author to be somewhat arrogant, egotistical, hypocritical and loud mouthed. Many of the anecdotes were irrelevances, inserted merely for the benefit of a bit of name-dropping. I would have given up this book long before the end if it were not for the extremely poetic writing, not unlike the quality and style experienced in “Angela’s Ashes”.

Ultimately then, “a monk swimming” was better than “Tis”, if only for the fact it was shorter and did at times manage to get a few genuine laughs out of me. It is worth a look if you are a fan of brother Frank and have something of a curiosity for his younger brother and what happened to him, but otherwise I wouldn’t recommend bothering with it as a stand-alone book. (Oh, and in case you are wondering, the title comes from a misheard Catholic penance in McCourt’s youth. “Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with Thee; blessed art thou amongst women” was wrongly heard as “blessed art thou, a monk swimming”.)

©2001 s_roberts