Eavan Boland Critical Essay | Critical Review by Jan Garden Castro

SOURCE: "Mad Ireland Hurts Her Too," in Nation, June 6, 1994, pp. 798-802.

In the following review, Castro states that "the real beauty of reading the poems [in In a Time of Violence lies in discovering the difficulty in each and the delicacy with which Boland dismantles icons associated with Irish tradition and culture."]

In a Time of Violence, Eavan Boland's seventh poetry book, held third place on the Irish Times best-seller list in mid-April, in the "non-fiction" paperback category. Although it was replaced a week later by Darina Allen's Simply Delicious: Versatile Vegetables, it is significant that a poetry collection should join other top-selling, socially conscious books in Ireland: Thomas Keneally's Schindler's List, Zlata Filipovic's diary and Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. The serendipitous upsurge for poetry seemed tied to Boland's appearance on the leading TV late show and her headliner status in the...
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