A Monk Swimming
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| Author | Malachy McCourt |
|---|---|
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Memoir |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1998 |
A Monk Swimming (1998) is a memoir by Malachy McCourt. It is about McCourt's life in Limerick, Ireland and what he left behind when he came to America. The book recounts the journey and the many obstacles that McCourt had to overcome. After first working as a longshorman laborer, he was able to open a successful Manhattan tavern frequented by entertainment celebrities, and appeared on television talk shows, although neglecting his wife and child.
This Memoir picks up roughly where Frank McCourt, the author's older brother left off at the end of his Pulitzer Prize winning Angela's Ashes. This book was written and published before the elder McCourt published his own sequels, 'Tis & Teacher Man.
Malachy McCourt's account of his early years in New York City and its surrounding areas lends a different, if not all together more brusk, account of the McCourt Brothers respective returns to their native United States.
Some notable sections include:
- A chance meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of England at a footbal club reception for the couple.
- A "summer of content" spent living, drinking and carrying on with married women in Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island at night while selling The Bible door-to-door accross the Great South Bay in Bay Shore, Long Island during the day. As a result of this dichotomy, the reader sees the already weakened facade of his faith come roaring down in the Bible-tossing incident spurred by his boss' intrusion upon one of Malachy's beach bungalow bedroom dates.
- The disavowment of the Ancient Order of Hibernians as 'Irelands most mediocre sons' (paraphrase). This seems to be tied to their banning of homosexual groups from marching in the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade.
A Monk Swimming is similar to the memoir Angela's Ashes (1996) by his older brother Frank McCourt.
The title is a mondegreen of "amongst women" - a phrase from the Catholic rosary prayer, Hail Mary.
The book is dedicated to New York City politician, humanitarian, and fellow Irishman Paul O'Dwyer who at the time of first publication had recently passed away. McCourt and O'Dwyer had been close friends and politically like-minded.
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