Smarty Girl

"Honor Molloy makes a most memorable debut with this fiercely funny portrait of the artist as a young girl. Along with being a smarty girl, Noleen O''Feeney is irreverent, sarcastic, resilient, engaging, entertaining, and wise beyond her years. I didn''t want this book to end. Bravo, Ms. Molloy! Encore!"ΓÇòPeter Quinn, Banished Children of Eve and Looking for Jimmy "I have seen and heard many perform their written work over the last forty years, but it is easy to say that Honor Molloy, on the page or in person, is one of the very best I have ever experienced."-Stanley Crouch, fiction and non-fiction writer, critic, syndicated columnistAn autobiographical novel set in 1960s Ireland, this irresistible debut follows the rise and fall of the O''Feeney family, as seen through the eyes of a precocious little girl. More savage than civilized, Noleen is a rare character from a Dublin long forgotten, where Nelson''s Pillar still stands in O''Connell StreetΓÇòbut not for longΓÇòand where untamed musicians gather in the O''Feeneys'' kitchen to raise a jar and the roof. Noleen''s father, a successful actor and scoundrel king of the city, does his best to destroy his family, while her mother tries to save it. Noleen schemes to make it through each Dublin day, cadging sweets and growing tough in the midst of chaos. Can a fierce girl''s powerful imagination hold her family together, safe as geese in the sky, in their home on Tolka Row? "As the daughter of one of Dublin''s most well-known and well-loved actors, Honor Molloy introduces us to the mythical era in Dublin''s history where drama and storytelling took precedence over the often harsh reality of life in 1960s Ireland."-Kate Kerrigan, Ellis IslandHonor Molloy holds an MFA from Brown University and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard as well as a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Born in Dublin, Honor Molloy lives in Brooklyn.