The Pilgrimage
Description
An erotic nightmare and classic of modern Irish literature.
Wealthy and devout, Michael and Julia Glynn are the envy of their neighbors and the model Irish Catholic couple, bearing Michael's increasingly painful and crippling arthritis with stoicism. In hope of a miracle, their priest suggests a family pilgrimage to Lourdes. Yet these pious holiday plans are thrown into doubt when anonymous, obscene letters begin to arrive, full of terrible accusations.
Banned in Ireland on its first publication in 1961, Broderick's debut arrived "like an incendiary device" (Sunday Independent). The Pilgrimage anticipated the deep shifts that would soon turn the country's theocratic society upside down. It is a darkly comic, blasphemous, and sexually charged chamber drama laying bare the hypocrisies of a small Irish town "as watchful as the jungle," and teetering on the brink of catastrophe. In the words of Colm Tóibín, in his foreword to this edition, The Pilgrimage "cleared a space in the jungle so that its wildness could be more easily seen."
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Person
John Broderick (1924-1989) was born in Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland and died in Bath, England. He worked as a journalist and was author of numerous novels including An Apology for Roses (1973), The Pride of Summer (1976), London Irish (1979) and The Trial of Father Dillingham (1982).
