Rudi
In the Shadow of Knulp
1st Edition
Published on 14. February 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-3-939483-21-2 (ISBN)
Description
Rudi is a loner with a secret, a tramp, who in his youth was once a promising scholar in love with and mesmerised by 'the sumptuous, voluptuous Isabel'. But everything was spoilt and fell apart and in despair he considered ending his life but for something he once read, that, "it is nobler and finer to be felled by life than by one's own hand." And so for decades, restless and homeless, he goes through the motions until, one day, a young friend, Rebecca, attempts to prise from him the story of his life.
Danny Morrison, long an admirer of Hermann Hesse (the quote above is from Steppenwolf), first came across Hesse's 'Three Tales from the Life of Knulp' while he was serving an eight-year prison sentence. He has now adapted and transferred this powerful and moving story to twentieth-century Ireland.
Danny Morrison, long an admirer of Hermann Hesse (the quote above is from Steppenwolf), first came across Hesse's 'Three Tales from the Life of Knulp' while he was serving an eight-year prison sentence. He has now adapted and transferred this powerful and moving story to twentieth-century Ireland.
Reviews / Votes
There's much to admire. Besides the Orwellian-clear writing there's the landscape through which Rudi moves, recreated with the vividness of a Thomas Hardy novel, where the countryside becomes less a backdrop and more a part of the character. The frost on a tree-branch, the movement of a head, the flight of a bird; and at the centre of everything this lonely, almost saintly figure of Rudi, thoughtful, sad, struggling to make sense of his own life and of those around him.Sectarianism and the Troubles are in the novel too, but they take a back seat. Rudi himself has been brought up a Protestant but that too is largely irrelevant. When Rudi thinks of the futility of violence and hatred, there's a temptation to wonder "Is this the author or the character we're listening to?" Avoid the temptation - Rudi is Morrison's creation; this is not an autobiography.For a number of reasons I had to read this novel on an ipad, something I normally find difficult. Not this time. Love, revenge, the passage of time, goodness, coarseness, the ache in every human being about the road they've taken and how it might have been otherwise - it's all presented in a disciplined, exact way. And the novel ends with a twist I'll bet you won't see coming.I've read most of Danny Morrison's work. This novel is easily his best - so far.Jude CollinsMore details
Persons
Danny Morrison was born in West Belfast in 1953. He always wanted to be a writer but the conflict in his country forced him to devote his youth to the advocacy of civil rights and the cause of Irish independence. From his teens on, he became a prolific pamphleteer, an IRA activist, an elected politician, and an internationally-recognised spokesperson on the behalf of Irish republicanism.
He has written several works, including the novels - West Belfast (1989), On the Back of the Swallow (1994) and The Wrong Man (1997), which was later adapted as a play, performed to critical acclaim in Belfast, Dublin, London and Edinburgh (2005). His literary development and support of peace, reconciliation and compromise, were prominent features of his prison letters, Then The Walls Came Down (1999). His memoir All the Dead Voices (2002) represented a crucible of his philosophical thoughts on the meaning of life, family and home, the title borrowed from Beckett's Waiting For Godot.
Long an admirer of German culture, and especially its literature, his new novel, Rudi - In the Shadow of Knulp is, he says, his "proudest work to date and my acknowledgement to the humanism and idealism of Hermann Hesse."
Danny Morrison is the chairperson of Féile an Phobail (Festival of the People) in Belfast and the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, named after the hunger striker and MP who died opposing British rule in Ireland.
He has written several works, including the novels - West Belfast (1989), On the Back of the Swallow (1994) and The Wrong Man (1997), which was later adapted as a play, performed to critical acclaim in Belfast, Dublin, London and Edinburgh (2005). His literary development and support of peace, reconciliation and compromise, were prominent features of his prison letters, Then The Walls Came Down (1999). His memoir All the Dead Voices (2002) represented a crucible of his philosophical thoughts on the meaning of life, family and home, the title borrowed from Beckett's Waiting For Godot.
Long an admirer of German culture, and especially its literature, his new novel, Rudi - In the Shadow of Knulp is, he says, his "proudest work to date and my acknowledgement to the humanism and idealism of Hermann Hesse."
Danny Morrison is the chairperson of Féile an Phobail (Festival of the People) in Belfast and the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, named after the hunger striker and MP who died opposing British rule in Ireland.