Ferdia Lennon is the author of Glorious Exploits. His short stories have appeared in publications such as The Irish Times and The Stinging Fly.and he also received Literature Bursary Awards from the Arts Council Ireland. His novel blends history and comedy as readers are taken back to the Peloponnesian War.
Debutiful caught up with the author to ask our recurring A Life of Books questionnaire so readers can get to know him better.
Is there a book or series that, when you think back, helped define your childhood?
Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince and Other Tales. A book of fairy tales which, as you would expect from Wilde, are beautifully written but also deeply strange and often quite sad. None of them have what you would call a fairy tale ending. Reading Wilde, I realised that children, and readers in general, are not so much after a happy ending as one that is emotionally resonant and feels true.
Would you want any children in your life (yours or relatives’) to read those too? Or, what’s your philosophy on what children read?
Absolutely, I have already bought a copy for my son, though he’s only twenty months old now, so they’ll have to wait a while. I’d like, as much as possible, to instill a love of reading and books in my son. The most important part of that will be just seeing what kind of books and stories he is drawn to and letting him find his own way. Reading is always best when it’s fun and reflects the child’s genuine interests.
I discovered some of my favorite writers in high school. What writers did you discover then? Either ones that were assigned for class or ones you found on your own.
I do think that there is something about coming across books at that impressionable age, which mean that they leave a more indelible mark. Often, the writers who end up being most important to you are just those you happened to discover at that time. For me, these were writers like Joyce, Dostoevsky, and the Brontës whose books we had around the house and which I picked up and fell in love with in that intense adolescent way. When I first started writing, I would type out passages of Joyce’s short story Araby, trying to figure out how he had written something so brilliant.
Are there any books that you read while writing your debut that helped shape the direction you took your own book?
Hilary Mantel was important. I loved the oblique approach she took in Wolf Hall, making the familiar unfamiliar by reframing a story which had been retold endlessly — Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and marriage to Anne Boylen — by telling it from the perspective of the perennial “villain” Cromwell. For me, in Glorious Exploits, I wanted to take ancient Greece, with all its familiar myths and famous historical characters, and shift the focus onto the ordinary people. Aristophanes’ comedies showed me what I already suspected, which is that the ancient Greeks were much more ribald, sweary and raucous than we typically imagine, and if I was going to capture that, the book would have to be very different from other novels set in the period.
What is a book you’ve read that you thought, Damn, I wish that was mine?
It’s a funny one as what you write is so personal to you that another writer’s voice can only be like someone else’s clothes, which don’t quite fit. Having said that, Perfume by Patrick Suskind is one of those books that I am always in awe of. Such a brilliantly idiosyncratic and specific idea that shouldn’t work but does. A dark marvel of a novel.
What have you been reading lately that you can recommend to Debutiful readers?
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy was a recent highlight for me.
And, finally, I have to ask… I’m sorry. What’s next? But wait! Only use three words.
Medieval Gothic Mystery