The Fabulists

Description

Set in contemporary Dublin, this...is the story of Tess and Mungo, two ordinary people whose lives become intertwined after a chance meeting on a bridge. The relationship that develops extends the horizon of their lives on the dole, struggling with children, filled with sexual longing, and hungry for purpose. A novel about love and parenthood, desire and fraility, ""stunningly truthful and perfectly pitched."" - Colm Toibin. The Fabulists......Page 3 The Fabulists......Page 5 -One­-......Page 9 -Two­-......Page 18 -Three -......Page 27 -Four­-......Page 36 - Five -......Page 49 -Six-......Page 63 - Seven -......Page 84 - Eight -......Page 96 - Nine -......Page 117 - Ten -......Page 134 - Eleven -......Page 156 - Twelve -......Page 182 -Thirteen –......Page 195 - Fourteen -......Page 208 - Fifteen -......Page 231 http://www.philipcasey.com/fabulistsreviews.html......Page 248 An impressively mature and honest tale of extra-marital love and family obligation on the dole in contemporary Dublin, The Fabulists presents two of the most convincingly flesh-and-blood characters to turn up in an Irish novel for ages, and lays bare with haunting, microscopic precision their struggle to endure profound personal disappointments and grab one last chance at the could-have-been.......Page 249 You are walking down the street and the characters in the novel are so vivid that you almost find yourself saying, if you see something in the street, ’I wonder what would that guy in the novel think about that?’ It’s a love story set in contemporary Dublin and that’s a difficult thing to do because Dublin novelists sometimes tend to characterize Dublin as a gas place full of incredibly funny taxi drivers and bawdy nights in pubs and all the rest. But the Dublin that Philip Casey conjures up reminds me of Dermot Bolger’s Dublin in a way, it’s just so real and absolutely recognizable right from the first page.......Page 250 - Joseph O’Connor in an interview with Seamus Hosey for the RTÉ Radio programme Speaking Volumes. The transcript is published by Blackwater Press.......Page 251 Anthony Glavin, The Sunday Tribune......Page 252 In his first novel, The Fabulists, the Irish poet Philip Casey is ostensibly concerned with describing a love affair between Mungo and Tess, two unemployed and unhappily married Dubliners. But what makes this novel so remarkable and compelling is not so much his detailed tracing of their intense affair, but the way in which Casey succeeds in integrating the affair with their drab lives, their city, and their stifled imaginations, all three of which are transformed for brief periods by love.......Page 253 They fall in love - well, they’re going to have an affair - but what’s terrific about it is they tell each other stories, which are untrue. She supposedly spent some time in Berlin, and he supposedly in Barcelona, and they recount these stories to each other and both of them know that the other one has never been there. But in order to create some kind of wonderful thing out of what really could be a quite sordid sort of love affair, they tell each other these stories.......Page 254 (unatributed, but based on an interview with Shirley Kelley). Social realism - with a touch of magic. Books Ireland, October 1994.......Page 255 http://www.philipcasey.com/fabulistsreviews.html......Page 256 CREATIVE COMMONS LEGAL CODE......Page 257