Novelist, poet, critic, and character-about-town, Patrick Kavanagh has been hailed in various literary circles as one of the best Irish writers of this century. Better known as a poet than as a novelist, Kavanagh has made important contributions to modern literature. His novel Tarry Flynn (1948), for example, a semiautobiographical look at rural life, is both an entertaining and authentic portrait of the Irish countryside. This book, like the best of Kavanagh's writing, demonstrates his talent for portraying the common man's daily triumphs and tragedies without sinking into either sentimentality or didacticism. Another of Kavanagh's literary strengths is his capacity to treat human problems in an Irish setting without reverting to the trite divisions of squire and peasant, a weakness typical of many Irish writers. Perhaps Kavanagh's most significant achievement, however, is his use of Irish locality as subject matter and metaphor. This accomplishment has become an important influence...