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No News at Throat Lake by Lawrence Donegan
Copyright 2000 Simon & Schuster
Lawrence Donegan’s No News at Throat Lake is a refreshing twist on the many ‘bought a villa in Europe, and had adventure with quirky locals on an unlimited budget,’ travel memoirs that have graced bookstore shelves in recent years.
No News at Throat Lake is Donegan’s account of his year spent in Donegal, Ireland. The house he lives in is a down at the heels, mildew and rat infested cottage in a country where it rains ten out of every eleven days. And yet, the unique charms of a small Irish village are evident on every page.
During his sojourn in Creeslough (Gaelic for Throat Lake), Donegan dabbles in local cattle farming, which he dubs ‘Quentin Tarantino’s All Creatures Great and Small’. Finding farming a bit too bloody for his tastes, he lands a job writing at the local paper- the Tirconnail Tribune, where there is libel aplenty and an editor who takes pride in the fact that he ‘never apologizes’ for anything that appears in his paper.
There are plenty of quirky locals as well, many found on the football pitch when Mr. Donegan joins the local Gaelic football team- his dreams of glory on the field, which never quite materialize, provide a winsome thread throughout the book.
In Creeslough Donegan has a brush with fame in the form of Meryl Streep, goes on pilgrimage to Knock with a busful of pious women, finds out the true story of Bernard Lafferty- Doris Duke’s infamous butler and a native son of Creeslough- and discovers that he is related to the Donegal Donegans- ‘the worst family in Donegal’ according to local lore.
It is also the story of a big city hack’s love affair with a small town paper, as he writes stories that range from covering Newt Gingrich’s visit to Donegal ‘in search of his Irish roots’ to a poignant meeting with the ‘last Donegan in Letterkenny’ in a rundown caravan.
No News at Throat Lake is a funny, angry, sad and bittersweet account of life in an Irish village in the late 20th century. It is also Donegan’s love song, equal parts sharp observances and wistful musings, to a small corner of the world that is both wildly beautiful and wonderfully human.
Lawrence Donegan was born in Scotland in 1961. He has been, in previous incarnations, a popstar, a journalist for the Guardian and is the acclaimed author of ‘Maybe It Should Have Been a Three Iron’, which was named the best book of the year by the US Golf Association.
Book review written by Cindy Brandner author of
Exit Unicorns
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