Green Dreams: Essays Under the Influence of the Irish

Stephens, winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, ponders the truth in the stereotypes of the Irish as writers, fighters, and drinkers. The essays touch on boxing; gangsters; Irish authors such as Joyce, Beckett and Yeats; and the author's own experiences with alcoholism and recovery. Somehow W.C. Fields, Ernest Hemingway, Bill Griffith (the creator of Zippie the Pinhead), and James Cagney find their way into Stephens' terrain, making for an interesting journey through the author's personal landscape. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.