In origin, “glee” is related to both light (gleam) and music.
This Is Happiness is spiced with both such elements of glee: light and reels of music. A soggy Irish village suddenly experiences days of sunlight (“It’s roasting!”), and a sound-starved, saddened 17-year-old suddenly hears the bellow of concertina and screech of fiddle at the center of lively pubs. Second, the word “glee” appears only once in the novel, in a description of a character named Ganga: “Staying true to form and the Fahean way, my grandparents had made no comment, but I knew, inside, Ganga was all bubbles of glee he slipped me a ten-shilling note,
Jack with video artist Anna Georgia… “To represent somebody else’s life and sensibility through the camera is a most delicate, absorbing and rewarding challenge.” Photo: Martin Ollman.
TUGGERANONG Arts Centre has come up with a mighty exhibition of more than 70 paintings by one of the true eccentrics of our region – 91-year-old Jack Featherstone.
An extraordinary assemblage of works painted between 1958 and 2020, it’s been curated by the centre’s Karena Keys and covers everything from the evacuation at Gallipoli and the Battle of Stalingrad to bucolic scenes of life in the Bungendore and Braidwood area.
Included are paintings from Featherstone’s “David” series, painted during a research trip to NT and WA in 1958, when he travelled in an old VW as part of a dental research trip with his local tracker, David.
CLARE County Library has announced details of ‘Clare Reads’, a new initiative that encourages reading for pleasure. Clare Reads aims to encourage everyone in Clare to read a designated book connected with the county during the month of February. This is a new project for Clare County Library and is part of both the ‘Ireland Reads’ and ‘Keep Well’ campaigns. The designated book is This Is Happiness by Niall Williams.
Helen Walsh, Clare County Librarian, said, “On behalf of Clare County Library service, I am delighted to have the opportunity of promoting this wonderful book by Niall Williams. The title alone is enough to spur anyone to open the first page and read. The narrative is centred around an older man looking back on his life in a small village somewhere in the west of Ireland. It covers the period of electrification, which must have been such an uplifting experience for small communities. It is often difficult to get a book with universal appeal but Niall is
Clare County Library has announced details of ‘Clare Reads’, a new initiative that encourages reading for pleasure.
Clare Reads aims to encourage everyone in Clare to read a designated book connected with the county during the month of February. This is a new project for Clare County Library and is part of both the ‘Ireland Reads’ and ‘Keep Well’ campaigns. The designated book is This Is Happiness by Niall Williams.
Helen Walsh, Clare County Librarian, said: “On behalf of Clare County Library service, I am delighted to have the opportunity of promoting this wonderful book by Niall Williams. The title alone is enough to spur anyone to open the first page and read. The narrative is centred around an older man looking back on his life in a small village somewhere in the west of Ireland. It covers the period of electrification, which must have been such an uplifting experience for small communities.