A Guest at the Feast: Colm Toibin

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In this collection, Tóibín Colm writes about what matters to him - his life (survival of cancer and its treatment); the home and community in which he grew up, aspects of which appear in his novels; the Catholic church and religion more widely; being a homosexual man; being Irish and literature and art. The novel is happier in a secular space where people suffer from mortal ailments and failures, where their ambitions are material, their hopes palpable. Changing bread and wine into body and blood could be done in a novel, but it would be hard, and shouldn't be tried twice. ... Nevertheless, because I was born in Ireland and brought up Catholic, I have a serious difficulty when it comes to the creatio

In the penultimate essay of A Guest at the Feast, Colm Tóibín quotes Seamus Heaney on the Irish writer John McGahern: “[His] imagination is ruminant. It chews the cud of the past, digests and redigests it, interrogates it for its meaning, savours it for its bittersweet recurrence.” It is a striking quote, not just for its pinpoint reading of McGahern’s style, but for the fact that the same can be said of Tóibín’s writing. The Wexford author’s abiding interest in history, both personal and political, can be seen across his oeuvre. Strong's 1784: (held precious, hence) precious, honored, honorable in rank. From en and time; valued. Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’These essays, published over the course of more than 25 years, confirm his interest in religion and religiosity. “Religiosity” because he restlessly documents the hypocrisies and misdeeds of the Roman Catholic clergy. Yet he does so with the mingled perplexity and outrage of one who is steeped in Catholicism. “I was born in Ireland and brought up a Catholic.” Almost every one of these essays is shaped by one of these two facts, sometimes by both. The essays are very personal, even the ones on literature, and the role and history of the popes. All are carefully written, with an aim of bringing the reader in, informing the reader and leaving them with a lot to think about, smile about, or want to know more. Tóibín's style is deceptively light, with a bit of nostalgia, humor and self deprecating humor to hook readers. The breadth of subjects is quite expansive, and though the book is broken down by themes, there is a lot of ranging in ideas and subjects. And the king having entered in to see those reclining, he beheld a man there not being dressed in wedding clothes. In one of the essays in A Guest at the Feast, Colm Tóibín declares: “God represents a real problem for the novelist. The novel is happier in a secular space.” He is writing about Marilynne Robinson, a writer skilled, as he says, at “making religious thought easy” – easy for the reader, however unbelieving, to accept. It is a skill he admires. Yet his own novels hardly inhabit a “secular space”. Catholicism is a live presence in all the ones set in Ireland, while his interest in Christian myth even led him, in The Testament of Mary, to create the first-person narrative of Jesus’s mother as she nears death.

When you may be called by anyone to wedding feasts, you may not recline on the first couch, lest [one] more honorable than you may have been called by him, Pulpit Commentary Verses 8, 9. - When thou art hidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room. The pretensions and conceit of the Jewish doctors of the Law had been for a long period intolerable. We have repeated examples in the Talmud of the exaggerated estimate these, the scholars and doctors of the Law, formed of themselves, and of the respect they exacted from all classes of the community. One can well imagine the grave displeasure with which the Divine Teacher looked upon this unholy frame of mind, and upon the miserable petty struggles which constantly were resulting from it. The expositors of the Law of God, the religious guides of the people, were setting an example of self-seeking, were showing what was their estimate of a fitting reward, what was the crown of learning which they coveted - the first seats at a banquet, the title of respect and honour! How the Lord - the very essence of whose teaching was self-surrender and self-sacrifice - must have mourned over such pitiful exhibitions of weakness shown by the men who claimed to sit in Moses' seat! Lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place. As an instance of such unseemly contention, Dr. Farrar quotes from the Talmud how, "at a banquet of King Alexander Jannaeus, the rabbi Simeon ben Shetach, in spite of the presence of some great Persian satraps, had thrust himself at table between the king and queen, and when rebuked for his intrusion quoted in his defence Ecclus. 15:5, 'Exalt wisdom, and She... shall make thee sit among princes.'" In “Among the Flutterers” and “The Ferns Report,” Tóibín is unsparing in his criticism of the Irish Catholic church, an institution whose power, he says, “is slowly and subtly eroding, but it is still strong.” The latter piece is especially damning, detailing the findings of an investigation into sexual abuse involving, among others, several teachers Tóibín knew from his days at Catholic boarding school and the way public knowledge of their conduct was suppressed by church authorities for years. To Tóibín, “the level of abuse in Ferns and the church’s way of handling it seemed an almost intrinsic part of the church’s search for power.” When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast ( F) in the kingdom of God.” ( G)Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. The first essay is, perhaps obviously given its subject matter, more deeply personal than the others. It begins with an opening sentence designed to grab: 'It all started with my balls' and then takes us through the lighter stages of treatment for testicular cancer to the very dark places that engulfed him as treatment progressed, and finally to his return home after being discharged from hospital, apparently for the last time. Strong's 2564: (a) I call, summon, invite, (b) I call, name. Akin to the base of keleuo; to 'call'. And the King entered to see the guests and he saw a man there who was not wearing a wedding garment. But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes.

When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? This volume opens with his poignant journey through cancer treatment and a looming sense of mortality… A hallmark of Toíbín is his uncanny ability to deftly express the emotional undercurrent in his writing, be it loneliness, anger, or nostalgia.” —Bill Kelly, Booklist

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Throughout the collection, it is the droll, melancholy elegance of the prose that guarantees the reader’s enjoyment.” —John Mullan, The Guardian When thou mayest be called by any one to marriage-feasts, thou mayest not recline on the first couch, lest a more honourable than thou may have been called by him, When someone invites you to a wedding, don't take the place of honor. Maybe someone more important than you was invited. The Hui family – Angela and her two older brothers – lived above the shop in Beddau: “I was that kid you saw running around behind the counter with toys spread out.” She began helping out in the shop aged just 8, serving customers on top of a stool. In this heartfelt memoir, Hui admits that she has always found it difficult to talk about her experiences working in the family business: “all my life I’ve hated being East Asian, especially a Chinese takeaway kid”. But motivated in part by the terrible upsurge in racism towards the East and Southeast Asian community after the pandemic, Hui finds her voice in this wonderful book, which is filled with love and pride for her immigrant parents. But when the king came in to see the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed [appropriately] in wedding clothes,