(2 of 2)
Prospects, Author Tracy's Mind Yott, I've Said Nothing! is a kind of Fielding's Guide to the national mentality that can spawn a Tommy O'Driscoll. The salient points to remember about Ireland, according to Author Tracy, are 1) that its public attitudes never have any bearing on its private ones: "It is the land of Double Think and Double Speak" where ''words are used as . . . a device for concealment": 2) that the main concern of every Irishman is saving face, and 3) that no Irishman is truly happy except when he is "streeling" from bar to bar, going to a funeral or engaging in a national Fuss. Author Tracy has kicked up her own share of Fusses since she made Ireland her literary beat. She is doubtless viewed with mistrust by the large school of Irish writers who, in her phrase, "feel that it is a splendid thing to be a writer and that little or nothing is added to it by writing." She has been "affectionately described as a bitch" by at least one correspondent who had suffered an ill-defined grievance in one of her articles. Judging from past form, she fully expects her latest books to catch it from all corners of the "boggy little land." But among less partisan readers, they are sure to rank as two of the grandest japes of the season.
