How We Mortals Blame the Gods
If the characters of James Joyce’s Ulysses were alive today, who might they be?
Irish author, Máirín Mc Sweeney’s
début novel which is a shadowing of James Joyce’s Ulysses set 100 years to the day, June 16th
2004, after Joyces masterpiece. It contemporizes similar issues such as religion, gender equality,
and identity in modern Ireland.
A secondary aim of the novel is to bring new readers to Ulysses which is Máirín’s favourite book of
all time and a constant inspiration for her writing. The language is gritty, base, and exciting, while
showcasing all the complexities of Dublin life
at the height of the Celtic Tiger in 2004.
The tense drama is told through the eyes of
four narrators (three of whom are shadowing
characters from Ulysses). Omar Wilde, a
half-Egyptian/half-Irish journalist struggling
with an ailing marriage; Flora Wilde, his
headstrong Polish wife, haunted by the loss
of their stillborn child; Kieran Lynch, a young
actor playing the character of Stephen
Dedalus on the streets of Dublin that day;
and Bláithín O’Leary, an emotionally fragile
young actress and drug addict who is
dragged into a political scandal involving a
cabinet minister who happens to be her
father.
Their complicated inter-relationships plays out over this one day in Dublin, BLOOMSDAY June 16th,
2004. In the background, the brother of Kieran’s friend, a troubled boy, is about to walk into the
Bloomsday Centenary Concert, which is packed full of dignitaries, and blow himself up. Inside the
concert hall, the lives of these four unsuspecting people spin towards each other. Will they survive,
and will it change their lives forever?
Máirín Mc Sweeney grew up in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. With her family she moved to
Dublin at age 14 and fell in love with the city which would become the subject of her debut novel
How We Mortals Blame The Gods. She has had many varied careers from running her own interior
architecture business, working on humanitarian projects in Gautemala and South Africa, to more
recently becoming a teacher of English Literature in Geneva, Switzerland. She earned an MA in
Creative Writing in the University of Cape Town, South Africa. An avid traveller, she currently lives
on Lake Annecy in France.
