Small town Irish lad meets the American Wild West!
There has never been a novel quite like this before. It takes 'Irish Literature' to terra incognita...
Description on Amazon:
This is Martin Connolly's first full-length novel. And it’s a dilly. ‘The Conjuring Cowboy’ is an essentially -if not quite wholly- true chronicle of one man’s struggle to make the transition between education and employment. Many step happily from class- or lecture-room to office, but some find themselves content to wander about a bit before taking on life’s responsibilities. This chronicle/novel follows one particular soul of the latter type, who, one fateful day, finds an advertisement in the paper which piques his curiosity: ‘MAGICIAN WANTED. NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED’. Coming face to face with the author of this curious notice -and then chewing the fat with him over a few drams- marks the beginning of both a remarkable journey and an even more remarkable transformation. (Or vice-versa.) Before long, this recently graduated chap will find himself spectacularly transitioned from late 1980s small town North Ireland to late eighteen hundreds small town America. He will also find himself in possession of powers beyond his imagination, and, dangerously -even ridiculously- beyond his own control… The reader may take all this with a pinch of salt, of course, but be prepared for a journey into the Wild, Wild West, where guns shoot deadly, unfunny bullets, and the towels that hang beneath the saloon counter are splattered with all manner of unmentionable… stuff. There’s a lot of drinking in this novel, and a lot of gunplay, too. This novel goes to the very heart of the American Wild West, and to the heart of a man who never felt very serious about taking anything very seriously. Talking of ‘hearts’, be prepared for a bit of romance, too, all played out against a backdrop of stringy, twangy, bluesy, and not always quite perfectly executed, music… The original manuscript goes back to the very same period the novel begins in. It lay for decades in the dust until one fateful day of its own when it was re-discovered, dusted off (literally), and worked upon in order to bring out the essential reality of everything that happened. Read it carefully: you may see familiar figures throughout… ‘The Conjuring Cowboy’ boldly takes the Irish novel into territory it has likely never entered before. Can this fellow survive? Can Irish literature? ‘The Conjuring Cowboy’ is Martin Connolly’s third book through Snowchild Press.
Description on Amazon:
This is Martin Connolly's first full-length novel. And it’s a dilly. ‘The Conjuring Cowboy’ is an essentially -if not quite wholly- true chronicle of one man’s struggle to make the transition between education and employment. Many step happily from class- or lecture-room to office, but some find themselves content to wander about a bit before taking on life’s responsibilities. This chronicle/novel follows one particular soul of the latter type, who, one fateful day, finds an advertisement in the paper which piques his curiosity: ‘MAGICIAN WANTED. NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED’. Coming face to face with the author of this curious notice -and then chewing the fat with him over a few drams- marks the beginning of both a remarkable journey and an even more remarkable transformation. (Or vice-versa.) Before long, this recently graduated chap will find himself spectacularly transitioned from late 1980s small town North Ireland to late eighteen hundreds small town America. He will also find himself in possession of powers beyond his imagination, and, dangerously -even ridiculously- beyond his own control… The reader may take all this with a pinch of salt, of course, but be prepared for a journey into the Wild, Wild West, where guns shoot deadly, unfunny bullets, and the towels that hang beneath the saloon counter are splattered with all manner of unmentionable… stuff. There’s a lot of drinking in this novel, and a lot of gunplay, too. This novel goes to the very heart of the American Wild West, and to the heart of a man who never felt very serious about taking anything very seriously. Talking of ‘hearts’, be prepared for a bit of romance, too, all played out against a backdrop of stringy, twangy, bluesy, and not always quite perfectly executed, music… The original manuscript goes back to the very same period the novel begins in. It lay for decades in the dust until one fateful day of its own when it was re-discovered, dusted off (literally), and worked upon in order to bring out the essential reality of everything that happened. Read it carefully: you may see familiar figures throughout… ‘The Conjuring Cowboy’ boldly takes the Irish novel into territory it has likely never entered before. Can this fellow survive? Can Irish literature? ‘The Conjuring Cowboy’ is Martin Connolly’s third book through Snowchild Press.
This book is recommended for people who have a sense of humour. It might also appeal to readers who like their historical detail done right. Elements of the nineteenth century adventure novel crossed with twentieth century explorations of alternative reality... Robert Louis Stevenson meets Flann O'Brien, perhaps... As a novel, it is something new, that's for sure. From Martin Connolly: 'This writing project took over me. I was a captive to the madness of this muse. I followed its every whim and repeated request. Writing this novel consumed me. But, I was very glad to be the helpless scrivener victim of its wanton authoritarianism. Or something like that!'
Testimonials:
From Academy Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University Morris Beja (former President of the International James Joyce Foundation):
"I thoroughly enjoyed The Conjuring Cowboy!
This novel is different and original, and courageously reflective and discursive, including the narrator’s “dreaded . . . linguistic tendency” for repetition, even as, obviously, the narrative doesn’t lack incident. Far from it! The incidents are examples of, I guess you’d call it all, magic realism, with, as in the best magical realism, more than a psychological hint hovering over everything. “The feeling that everyone had abandoned their normalcy because of me entered my head”—and the reader’s as well. Your hero and heroine, “funnily enough,” watch old Westerns: so has their creator (as has this reader, anyway, also watched “John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott”). As you’d realize, I enjoyed the final evocation of Rhumboldt, even with the altered spelling.
Congratulations on your achievement!"
"I thoroughly enjoyed The Conjuring Cowboy!
This novel is different and original, and courageously reflective and discursive, including the narrator’s “dreaded . . . linguistic tendency” for repetition, even as, obviously, the narrative doesn’t lack incident. Far from it! The incidents are examples of, I guess you’d call it all, magic realism, with, as in the best magical realism, more than a psychological hint hovering over everything. “The feeling that everyone had abandoned their normalcy because of me entered my head”—and the reader’s as well. Your hero and heroine, “funnily enough,” watch old Westerns: so has their creator (as has this reader, anyway, also watched “John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott”). As you’d realize, I enjoyed the final evocation of Rhumboldt, even with the altered spelling.
Congratulations on your achievement!"