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Hood (novel)

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Hood
First edition (UK)
AuthorEmma Donoghue
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherHamish Hamilton (UK)
HarperCollins (US)
Publication date
1995
Publication placeIreland
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback)
Pages320 pp (hardback)
ISBN1555834531

Hood is the second novel written by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue, published in 1995. The book was the recipient of the 1997 Stonewall Book Award[1] and is heavily influenced by James Joyce's Ulysses.[2]

Publication History

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First published in the U.S. in 1995[3] and most recently published by HarperCollins in 2011.[4]

Plot Summary

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This novel takes place in the seven days after Pen O'Grady's lover, Cara Wall, has been killed in a car accident. The two had been together for thirteen years, after meeting as schoolgirls in a Catholic school in Dublin. The story combines flashbacks giving the history of Pen and Cara's complex and tumultuous relationship with details of the various ways Pen feels and responds to grief, the reactions of people who do or don't know the nature of the relationship, Pen's feelings about lesbians in Ireland, and several decisions to come out to those close to her.

Awards

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Stonewall Book Award 1997[5]

Reception

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Shortly after release, Hood was reviewed in the New York Times[6] and Boston Globe.[7] The New York Times called it "charming" and said Donoghue "dip[s] into the ordinary with control and the occasional sustaining descriptive flashes of a born writer".[6] Kirkus Reviews called it "profoundly moving," "an elegiac reconstruction of a long love affair," and a "spare, powerful narrative".[8]

Major Themes

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This novel is about a semi-closeted lesbian in Ireland. Scholarly writing about Hood has noted themes of Catholicism,[9] closets, and the home.[10]

References

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  1. ^ Emma Donoghue Biography - Awards Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ Smyth, Gerry. The Novel and The Nation: Studies in the New Irish Fiction. London: Pluto Press, 1997.
  3. ^ LC Catalog - No Connections Available. HarperCollins. 1995. ISBN 9780060171100 – via Library of Congress catalog.
  4. ^ HarperCollins https://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780062117106. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ "Stonewall Book Awards List". Stonewall Book Awards. 9 September 2009.
  6. ^ a b Lockerbie, Catherine (24 March 1996). "Death in Dublin". New York Times Book Review.
  7. ^ Graff, E.J. (17 March 1996). "Emma Donoghue: Love Mourned and Remembered". Boston Globe.
  8. ^ "HOOD by Emma Donoghue". Kirkus Reviews.
  9. ^ Kosta, Ukic (2014). "Irish Women's Fiction of the Twentieth Century: The Importance of Being Catholic". ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries. 11 (2): 1151–63. doi:10.4312/elope.11.2.51-63.
  10. ^ Young, Emma (2013). "No Place Like Home: Re-Writing 'Home' and Re-Locating Lesbianism in Emma Donoghue's Stir-Fry and Hood". Journal of International Women's Studies. 14 (4): 5–18.