A Monk Swimming by Malachy McCourt

‘A Monk Swimming’ contains the candid memoirs of wild Irish rover of NYC, Malachy McCourt, younger bro of the must published Frank McCourt, of ‘Angela’s Ashes’ fame. Malachy focuses mostly on his formative years in the Big Apple, which include his extensive exploration of the cities bars and pubs, his fleeting foray into the world of acting, travels around the world and an unhappy and unsuccessful marriage. The main strengths of the book are its honesty, clarity of detail and that McCourt writes well, bringing to life the various colourful characters and all the highs and lows that come with the combination of copious amounts of alcohol and an erratic temperament. Indeed, at times McCourt’s constant drinking and womanizing are in danger of becoming tiresome to the reader, but McCourt has a certain charm of prose that keeps each chapter in his adventures interesting and strangely compelling. McCourt wrote ‘A Monk Swimming’ when he was approaching his seventies, no mean feat for a man who should have died years ago with a failed liver or a frazzled brain due to several years of a hard drinking lifestyle. His poor upbringing in Limerick and his Irish Catholic roots are two threads that runs through the memoirs, both of which he regards with some bitterness and distain. A better family background and a kindlier experience of Catholicism would probably have produced a much more stable and happy man and a very different type of memoir. Apparently Malachy wrote a sequel to ‘A Monk Swimming’, hopefully with less drinking and his character mellowing with age. Irreverent, entertaining and written with gusto. 7/10