O'Neill, Joseph

(Irish, 1964– )

O'Neill was born in Cork and educated in the Netherlands and England. He works as a barrister. The Breezes (1995) is a tragicomic novel about the desperate bad luck of the Breeze family (which embraces not only the mother being killed by lightning, but also redundancy, car accident, death of a friend, burglary) and their inadequate mechanisms for coping with it (insurance, security systems, lucky underpants, shaky religious beliefs, management maxims). The ear for dialogue is exact, the comic timing good, and the ludicrous triumph of hope against all the odds makes this a very satisfying read.

Nigel Williams, David Flusfeder  JR