I’m currently reading the brilliant memoir Are You Somebody? by Irish writer Nuala O’Faolain. In the book, O’Faolain beautifully discusses the challenges of growning up female in Dublin in the 50’s.
In April 2001, O’Faolain did a wonderful interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Aire. You can listen to it here.
How can you not love a woman who says…
There are lots of things you can put in a palisade around you, and plant like little seeds in your heart to sprout in your 60’s, 70’s and please god, 80’s, when really you can’t be hanging around looking for just passion to go back to the thing we began with.
Along the lines of six degrees of separation, the other night I was talking about O’Faolain with my friend Godfrey, who’s also from Dublin. “did you know she’s the one who got me started writing?” He asked me. He continued, “Nuala was into technology long before other writers in Ireland, and when The Irish Times started a technology section, she got me writing for it.”