"James Connolly is a poet of courage and craft. He tells secrets. He tells the truth. He is the most honest man in the village. With clarity and integrity, he speaks of alcoholism, madness, suicide, abuse, fallen priests, and grandfathers and revolutionaries. Above all, he writes about the rituals of death, for he is intimate with these rituals. James Connolly grew up in a family of undertakers; his narratives about this way of life and death are, in a word, unforgettable, a muted cry of pain and compassion for both the living and the dead. Six Feet Under this isn't. It is, however, poetry....
"James Connolly is a poet of courage and craft. He tells secrets. He tells the truth. He is the most honest man in the village. With clarity and integ...