Too Smart to Be Sentimental

"Ebest and McInerney offer a collection of 12 critical and biographical essays on twentieth century Irish-American women writers. The volume is aimed at students and scholars of Irish studies and Irish American literature." -Book News

"This critical study of contemporary Irish American women writers, the first of its kind, offers a literary history of Irish America in the 20th century from a feminist perspective . . . the essays (with notes) cover 12 authors: Mary McCarthy, Maureen Howard, Maeve Brennan, Elizabeth Cullinan, Alice McDermott, Tess Gallagher, Joyce Carol Oates, Jean McGarry, Mary McGarry Morris, Eileen Myles, Mary Gordon, and Erin McGraw. . . . Editors Ebest and McInerney are among the authors of these scholarly and insightful essays." -Library Journal

"Ebest and McInerney offer a tidy reference comprising plot summaries, character analyses, and motifs of 12 contemporary US writers with Irish roots. . . . The anthology is heavily indebted to Charles Fanning's The Irish Voice in America and follows his typology of interactions among family, matriarchy, alcoholism, Catholicism, identity, and independence." -Choice

"The book is a collection of essays that introduce the works of 12 contemporary Irish-American women writers. Some of the writers, like Joyce Carol Oates and Alice McDermott, are well-known, while others, such as Elizabeth Cullinan, whose work is currently out of print, are equally deserving of recognition." -The Beverly Review

"These personal, thoughtful, and authoritative essays make an original contribution. They are of significance for scholars in several related disciplines: contemporary American fiction, Irish-American literature, sociology, ethnic studies, Irish studies, and women's studies." -Thomas A. Kuhlman, Creighton University

"This book gathers critical essays about Irish-American writers from Mary McCarthy to Erin McGraw. The essays that consider Mary Doyle Curran, Tess Gallagher, Eileen Myles, Mary McGarry Morris, Jean McGarvey, and Erin McGraw are valuable for their introductions to lesser-known writers or to writers who have achieved success but who are not necessarily known as Irish-American writers." -Maureen O. Murphy, Hofstra University