Brigitte and Other Stories is Mr. Quinn's first fiction collection published in America, and is a remarkable, melange, tableau of grit and beauty-a promising poetry of the street, of poverty, of the belly of Europe, of Life. The various stories are tests of courage and love. More, they are triumphs over, and capitulations to, friendship, frustration and dilemma. Many of these stories are set in Europe, their players uprooted guestworkers, who, strangers in their own homelands after years of exile, crave picket fences and children as they muse in their separate stupors. The reader of Mr Quinn is drawn into these dreams, touched by them. Mr Quinn's power lies not just in his power of showing how impossible these dreams are, but the poignancy in which these characters repudiate their own dreams, deny them, as they seemingly thrive in quiet alienation and desperate friendship, perhaps the only illusion in life that is real. Each of these stories is a gem, some rougher than others in texture, but all pure in execution and style. Each stands alone, but works better as a pebble on Mr Quinn's beach. Beckett himself would know this grey forgotten distant shore. Quinn is canny, gritty and a master craftsman.

I was first put onto Niall Quinn by a fellow novelist. From the opening lines of his first book, VOYOVIC, I was hooked and couldn't stop until I read all four of his published works. Then I went back and re-read them in sequence for the sheer joy of sensing the unfolding of a vibrant new writer. For make no mistake--these are unique tales spun by a master storyteller with a singular vision and a Gaelic wizardry with words. The dense texture of the syntax is reminiscent of Joyce and Conrad. Sentences resonate with the authority of one who's been there, done that. They mirror the author's adventures, leaving Ireland at 16 to ship out on the merchant navies of the world, jumping ship to work as an illegal in France, Germany, America, Brazil, the Caribbean, Bangladesh. He becomes modern existential man as an underground refugee worker--homeless, a permanent nomad in search of anchors, new roots. And with the rising tide of third-world migrants infiltrating the prosperous havens of Europe and America, we'll see his kind multiplying a million-fold! Some of the European press see Quinn as the spiritual successor to Kerouack and Burroughs. There's that, ofr course, but in the grimy underground of working Paris in THE CAFE CONG, I felt more the brooding gloom of a Dostoievski or Tolstoy on the eve of revolution. For this is around the time of the student uprisings. And the book is about the underbelly of the City of Lights where the can-can frivolity of the surface Folies never penetrates! The young workers and students are shadows in a nether world wishing to ignore them--invisible, like the unseen black man in America. This is a writer who confronts life's ambiguities head-on and doesn't cloak uncomfortable conclusions in mystical allusions. I found magic in all his books--VOYOVIC, STOLEN AIR, WELCOME TO GOMORRAH and most especially in THE CAFE CONG. Not the faux marvels of the dungeon-and-dragon genre so popular today but the genuine wizardry of finding purpose amidst the angst of modern metropolitan aimlessness. Do I recommend Niall Quinn and his four published books? With all the stars I'm allowed to affix! --Jack Lange, author of SEARCH FOR THE DRAGON

Voyovic was Mr. Quinn's first publication of fiction. It is a collection, a melange, a tableau of grit and beauty-a promising poetry of the street, of poverty, of the belly of Europe, of Life. The various stories are tests of courage and love. More, they are triumphs over, and capitulations to, friendship, frustration and dilemma. Many of these stories are set in Europe, their players uprooted guestworkers, who, strangers in their own homelands after years of exile, crave picket fences and children as they muse in their separate stupors. The reader of Mr Quinn is drawn into these dreams, touched by them. Mr Quinn's power is not just his power of showing how impossible these dreams are. Rather it is showing that his characters simply do not want them, but can only thrive in quiet, hopeless alienation and desperate friendship, perhaps the only illusion in life that is real. Each of these stories is a gem, some rougher than others in texture, but all pure in execution and style. Each stands alone, but works better as a pebble on Mr Quinn's beach. Beckett himself would know this grey forgotten distant shore. Quinn is canny, gritty and a master craftsman.

A simple love story, sowed at a Brazilian dock side surrounded with it's deceit and treachery, grew into a matured romance which eventually blossomed into true and realistic love filled with all it's doubts and jealousy of a normal healthy pair of human beings.

This simple love story was made complicated by the highly intellectual and somewhat spiritual gift of the narrator to disconnect him self from the human race. Thus allowing him to grasp the true disintegration of humanity. He projects the world (several countries named) as one, where intellect, ignorance and deceit know no class.

A not too detailed story though detailed enough. Commanding a good sense of humour and constant intrigue. From a suicidal plot in the mining district of Yorkshire to traveling with suitcases packed by someone issuing false documents!

At times the reader is faced with folds of stories with parables within, (a few of which I have picked out for my children as bed time tales!) keeping the reader awake. Needless to say, this is no bedtime book.

Mind you, feminist readers will have to bear up with the bit of woman bashing done in the first few pages by the narrator/main character. Be tolerant, skip a few pages if necessary but don't miss a great book! He is just a hurt individual, hurt by women, by society and it's treacherous promises. All this, left him a broken man feeling sorry for and ashamed of himself. In the end he truly did love and respect at least two of the women surrounding him. He even succumbed to a dog!

Actually, if I had the authority I would most definitely recommend this book as reading material to GCSE level students of Britain, Ireland and Brazil. It is a book which creates questions hence the ability to provoke unending discussions on topics of educational value: From poverty to ethics among others. Then again, educational authority will not approve the promotion of falsifying passports!

Quite deserving of a sequel however!