I LOVE Edna O’Brien (she died last July, aged 93) - I’ve read six of her books - and I absolutely LOVED this documentary film of her life by director Sinéad O’Shea.
Her real-life story is/was absolutely fascinating. As a young woman in rural Ireland, O’Brien ran away with writer Ernest Gébler and their unmarried relationship so outraged people that they fled to England (where they got married and had two children). O’Brien’s first novel, ‘The Country Girls’, was incredibly successful – although it infuriated Irish religious opinion. Gébler (who appears to have been something of a monster!) was massively envious (and abusive) and also made O’Brien sign over her royalty cheques to him (he allowed her small amounts of ‘housekeeping’ money)!! Finally, she refused, walked away and, ultimately, they divorced – with both children adamant that they wanted to live with Edna (resulting in Gébler targeting his sons!).
O’Brien’s successful writing continued (enabling her to buy a smart Chelsea townhouse) and, during the 1960s/70s, Edna had fashionable parties and various affairs with rich and famous men from the world of politics, the arts and entertainment.
The film includes readings from her diaries and insightful and touching interviews with her sons Carlo and Sasha Gébler. It also includes generous and good-humoured interviews with O’Brien over a number of years, but I particularly loved the extended interview with her just before her death in 2024.
It’s a thoroughly enjoyable, beautiful and engaging study.
I absolutely loved it.
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