By Night Unstarred consists of two posthumous prose fragments by Patrick Kavanagh…. Subtitled "An Autobiographical Novel", it has been edited with an introduction, connecting passages and epilogue by Peter Kavanagh, whose role as his "brother's keeper" has many likenesses to that of Stanislas Joyce….

By Night Unstarred was begun in 1950. It was to follow two earlier autobiographical works, The Green Fool and Tarry Flynn, which had earned him some fame. There was also the notoriety occasioned by his long poem "The Great Hunger", whose evocations of masturbation ("the no-target gun fired") led to the banning of the Irish number of Horizon. For his new book, according to Peter Kavanagh, "he used the novel form—for him a tired and tedious vehicle". Hardly a recommendation, one might think. But, though obviously hell to meet, Patrick Kavanagh is one of those writers whom it is fascinating to read and to...