Benedict Kiely Summary

In the following essay, Eckley offers a thematic and stylistic overview of Kiely's short fiction. Sean McMahon, when he commented on Kiely's fiction for Eire-Ireland, described it as ... Read more

In the following laudatory review of The State of Ireland, Moynahan contends that “this richly varied and beautifully produced collection puts Benedict Kiely in the front rank of modern short-s... Read more

In the following interview, initially published in the spring of 1987 by the Irish Literary Supplement, Kiely discusses his Irish upbringing, his creative process, and influences on his writing. I ... Read more

In the following essay, O'Grady finds parallels between the fiction of Kiely and William Carleton. “He wrote good stories and he wrote very inferior stories,” Benedict Kiely de... Read more

Critical Essay by Anatole Broyard People, landscape, song, sex, religion and violence—this is what Ireland seems to be made of in "The State of Ireland," a novella and 17 stories... Read more

Critical Essay by Guy Davenport [The first meaning of "The State of Ireland"] is that it's a place where stories are still told, deliciously and by masters of the art, of whom Be... Read more

Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement A Ball of Malt and Madame Butterfly is uniformly excellent. Mr. Kiely's style is bawdy and hilarious. He writes with spacious confidence and, it... Read more

Critical Essay by Tom Paulin Benedict Kiely's novella deals with the sinister politics of Ulster. His title, Proxopera, derives from the terrorist tactic of having bombs delivered by proxy... Read more

Critical Essay by Mary Kenny Benedict Kiely [is] an Ulster scholar, novelist, storyteller, talker, walker, bard,…: he knows Ireland from the stones up. And in his book about his travels around... Read more

Critical Essay by Douglas Sealy ["A Cow in the House"] contains the stories of a man talking easily, of a man whose memories crowd in on him, some merry, some melancholy, but all demand... Read more