JG Farrell: The Making of a Writer

Contents

Acknowledgements xiii Foreword xix Prologue xxiii Part One 1 At the Centre of a Vast Empire 3 2 The Vanished Comfort and Security of Earlier Days 1935–1947 14 3 Run Very Fast, Very Fast Indeed 1947–1952 26 4 The Yearning, the Boredom, the Heartache 1952–1955 42 5 A Ballistic Missile 1955–1956 55 6 In Human Affairs, Things Tend Inevitably to Go Wrong 1956–1957 68 7 The Beauty of the Cold Season 1957–1958 85 8 Water Becoming Hard Ice 1959–1960 104 9 This Is the Kind of Life I Want 1960–1962 119 10 The Slow, Dangerous Ascent 1962–1963 138 11 A Sea of Dark Feathers 1964–1965 161 12 A Nebulous Desire for Escape 1965–1966 176 13 The Extreme Outer Edge of Endeavour 1966–1967 193 14 A Traveller through Unmapped Country 1967–1968 213 Part Two 15 Out into the Open Sea 1969–1970 231 16 A Foot Wedged in the Door of Eternity 1971 255 17 In the Right Place at the Right Time 1973–1974 277 18 At Large in the Minefields 1975–1978 302 19 A Tiny Bit World-Weary 1978–1979 334 20 A Place to Breathe 1979 357 Contents xi Epilogue 374 ‘The World of J.G. Farrell’ by Derek Mahon 381 Notes and References 383 Index xii Contents ...