This is a collection of essays by the Irish author Colm Tóibín. His The Master won the Dublin Literary Award in 2006 and is an ambitious attempt to get inside the enigmatic mind of Henry James. More recently he has attempted the same trick in The Magician, but this time with Thomas Mann. Tóibín is clearly fascinated by what the Japanese call tatemae and honne – façade and truth. His best work is about enigmatic men whose surface conceals more than it tells.
Part One consists of essays with a personal focus – his experience of testicular cancer; the intersection between his writing and his family and their houses; his involvement in legal cases related to his writing. Part Two contains essays he has published on various aspects of the Catholic Church – its response to sexual abuse by priests; the hypocrisy of its official position on homosexuality; the current Pope, and the fate of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
Tóibín is a regular on the celebrity writer circuit and usually delivers the goods. If you have seen one of his interviews on YouTube you know what to expect – plenty of genteel Irish charm, combined with a head not out of place on an unsuccessful boxer, and a fluent exposition of the subject under consideration.
A Guest at the Feast is like the interviews – it gives you insights into his approach to writing and his novelist’s eye for the telling detail, as well as the perspective of a gay man who grew up in a country that was still profoundly Catholic. If you are a fan of Tóibín you will find this a worthwhile alternative to those YouTube interviews.
Reviewed by Grant Hansen
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