Cracking writer’s fall from grace
The play is about Maeve Brennan, the glamorous New York-based Irish writer who was largely forgotten when she died in 1993. The witty Brennan, who wrote astute criticism and short stories for The New Yorker magazine, had her heyday in the 1950s and has been rediscovered, aided by Angela Bourke’s book Homesick at the New Yorker.
Brennan was the daughter of the first Irish ambassador to the US. She left Ireland at the age of 17, working at Harpers Bazaar before becoming one of The New Yorker’s leading writers. Some people say Brennan died homeless, after nervous breakdowns and dementia. She led a dazzling life before succumbing to her innate fragility, exacerbated by a chaotic lifestyle. It’s been said that Brennan inspired Truman Capote’s ditzy character Holly Golightly, in Breakfast at Tiffanys. But Donoghue says Brennan was more serious and substantial than Audrey Hepburn’s character in the film of the book.
