Walking with Ghosts

Celebrity memoirs are not normally high on my reading list, but this one was recommended to me and I have been delighted with the discovery. The book isn't an autobiography, rather a random selection of vignettes and memories and in no particular chronological order.

It dips in and out of Byrne's rough Dublin childhood and early years of struggles; darts off to a Hollywood system that bemused and baffled him; alludes to serious episodes involving clerical abuse when he was in a seminary, yet skirts around utter condemnation, and is frank about his battles with alcoholism, his family's foibles and sister's mental health issues.

It has laugh-out-loud moments involving discovering God and religious education with the nuns (reminds me of that other irreverent Irishman, Dave Allen) and his early Hollywood fumbles in his first big blockbuster movie, including faking love-making to a pink pillow while dressed in a full suit of armour. Meeting his idols Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier have a poignancy all their own.

This extract celebrates Byrne's first stage appearance as a shepherd with cotton wool beard in a school nativity play:-

"Goose Gavin with jug-handle ears and a big, red face landed the role of St. Joseph. Burkey, who had fleas that jumped out from under his collar, was Mary, dressed in a blue curtain. The baby Jesus was a rubber doll. There were angels and wise men who came from the East with nice presents.
The Virgin Mary said to the wise men:
---- Youse shouldn't have gone to all that trouble, youse --
---- Not YOUSE!!! the nun shouted. Youse is what common people say. The holy family aren't from the tenements.

[further description and dialogue referencing the wise men, the twins who made up the donkey plus the angel, who is discreetly unnamed.]

I have bad news, the angel said and looked at me strangely. I glanced down and saw piss coming like a snake from the angel toward me, then flowing under my shepherd's sandals. There is an evil king  who's going to kill all the little babies in Israel, so baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph have to fly into Egypt. 
So, the holy family put the  rubber doll on the donkey's back and Goose Gavin said
---- Thanks for everything. Goodbye now."

Contrasted with these other frank excerpts:-

"I struggle with authenticity. Being truthful. Both to myself first and to other people.
Is it possible to be completely honest with myself? To admit my fears, my demons, prejudices, the petty envies, the unfulfilled desires? I want to live an authentic life. To take off the mask requires courage. I admit my fragility, my vulnerability and weakness."
​...

I am by nature an introvert. For a long time I was ashamed of this. As if it were somehow a moral failing ... I can be sociable too. But it drains me of energy and I have to find refuge in solitude again."

This is a short volume, less than 200 pages, but is packed with wit, humanity, lyricism, introspection, joy and loads of Irish charm. Gabriel Byrne might have never quite achieved superstar status, but will be a familiar face to many from stage, TV and film. When or if he retires from acting, he has all the makings of an excellent author.

Five stars.

booktopia

​amazon.com

amazon.co.uk (audio version)

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