Mary Leland on some recent Irish novels

The Professor Of Poetry

Professor Elizabeth Stone is the celebrated author of “The Dissident Corpus: John Milton and the Poetics of Difference” and if that introduction to the heroine of Grace McLeen’s second novel doesn’t put you off then the slow rekindling of her love for another professor of poetry may be your reward.

Spurred by the news that her brain tumour has disappeared after treatment, Elizabeth finds a new topic of academic study in the aural music of TS Eliot’s poetry. The research necessary for this new essay brings her back to the university of her undergraduate days. McLeen has laden her narrative with so much introspection and such dense metaphorical weight that the reader can lose all patience with poor Elizabeth.