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I received the following review of my short story collection, First Communion, in the Irish Voice.
A look at books - top Irish new releases in fiction and history
By
CAHIR O'DOHERTY,
Irish Voice Arts Editor
Published Thursday, March 22, 2012, 7:57 AM
Updated Thursday, March 22, 2012, 10:46 AM
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See more: Irish arts
"First Communion: A Collection Of Modern Irish Stories"
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First Communion: A Collection Of Modern Irish Stories
By Jack Scoltock
Against the sobering background of decades long civil strife, ordinary citizens of Derry had little choice but to press on and hope for better times. It’s doubtful that any writer knows Derry’s recent history – from the vernacular of its undaunted citizens to the private toll of the war on their individual lives – better than author Jack Scoltock.
In his vivid new collection of short stories Scoltock recreates the red-letter days of a northern childhood -- going fishing, swimming, boating and lamping.
The shocking savagery of that last pursuit, using flashlights to lure hypnotized rabbits from their borrows only to beat their brains out, is vividly recalled in a story that contemplates how fragile the little flame of life actually is in us all.
Scoltock captures the hopes and dreams of working class northerners, still characters rarely seen in modern collections, and at all times he does this in the twinkling dialect of his own city. Here is a pen that records all of human nature but gravitates habitually toward the good.
In his collection of 42 new stories he has crafted an up to the minute portrait of a city and its people.
Barking Rain, $12.95.
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I also placed three of my YA books on Kindle.
My daughter made the covers for two of them.
Kindest,
Jack
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