Tom McHale (novelist, born 1941)
Tom McHale | |
---|---|
Born | 1941 Avoca, Pennsylvania |
Died | March 30, 1982 Pembroke Pines, Florida |
Occupation | Novelist |
Genre | Satire, Black comedy |
Notable works | Principato, Farragan's Retreat |
Tom McHale (1941 – March 30, 1982) was an American novelist. His works include Principato, Farragan's Retreat (nominated for the National Book Award), Alinsky's Diamond, School Spirit, The Lady from Boston, and Dear Friends. He was born in Avoca, Pennsylvania, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa. He committed suicide in Florida in 1982.
Early life
Thomas "Tom" McHale was born in 1941 in
He worked as a caseworker for the Department of Public Assistance in Philadelphia for a brief period.[2]
He attended
He had planned to be a doctor and attended medical school but changed his mind and dropped out.[5]
Career
After the success of his first novel, Principato in 1972, McHale secured the position of writer-in-residence at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, a position he held until the end of his life.[2]
Shortly before his death he was offered a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania that was to commence in fall semester, September, 1983.[4]
McHale took an interest in writing early on, however, after attending a wedding in Israel in the late 1960s he decided to "give the writing monster inside me a chance and stayed there a year to see what I could do, to see if anything came up. I wrote a first novel. It was so bad that I tore it up into little pieces, took it out to the
In 1976, McHale noted that he "writes in longhand, then has his work transcribed by a typist he describes as 'marvelous', she actually knows the English language and corrects my spelling and punctuation."
McHale described his work;
Parts of all of my novels are funny. But there's a tragi-comic sense to all of them. You can't deny the comedy, but neither can you deny the tragedy. It's there.[5]
By 1972, Paramount pictures was very enthused about McHale's first novel, Farragan's Retreat. They even hired
Reception
Reviewers compared McHale's novels to those of
An article in Life Magazine in 1971 went on to say that "McHale writes as if born to the craft. He imagines and schemes like a beery poet. He sees, pokes, probes. He tells fabulous jokes---McHale's capacity to trigger emotions ranges from laughter to compassion to cold horror. Realism, pathos, mystery, Tom McHale is not another new writer. He is himself."[7]
By 1976, a review from Associated Press gave much credit to the novel School Spirit for grappling with "questions that men have long pondered, questions such as the sanctity of life, guilt, punishment, redemption, but instead of creating what should have been a heavy philosophic text, he successfully produced a comic novel that makes the reader think, even as he laughs."[8]
Not all reviews were favorable. In 1971 a scathing review of Farragan's Retreat noted that "this is an absurd book that started well. Now that this talented author has this novel out of his system, we can only hope that he'll live up to his potential."[9]
Personal life
McHale was married to Suzanne McHale and had homes in Kittery, Maine and Killington, Vermont.[2] McHale enjoyed working with masonry in his spare time. He started in his mid-twenties by building fieldstone walls and later built fireplaces. In 1976, he proudly talked about the home in Maine, 60 miles from Boston, that he was looking forward to the construction of that summer; "It'll give me a chance to do some physical work. Outside, I'll do the masonry work on the base of the house and inside, I'll do the fireplace."[5]
McHale committed suicide at age 40 at his sister’s home in Pembroke Pines, Florida.[10]
Bibliography
- Principato (1970) – The novel was "almost universally hailed as a remarkable debut effort." This is religious fiction and is a story about Angelo Principato, an Irish-Catholic girl named Cynthia Corrigan who is the daughter of a wealthy mortician.[2]
- Farragan's Retreat (1972) – The book received even more enthusiastic reviews than Principato [2] and was named a finalist for the National Book Award later that year.[1] Like his first novel, it was a story about Irish and Italian Catholics in Philadelphia.
- Alinsky's Diamond (1974) – Adeptly combined satire and comedy, by then a style very familiar to McHale. It is the story of Frances X. Murphy, an
- School Spirit (1976) – Explored the consequences of exposing a "long-buried secret" and was McHale's first suspense novel."[1]
- The Lady from Boston (1978) – Dealt with the manipulation and betrayal of a young man by a beautiful woman and was far more cynical and darker than previous works.[1]
- Dear Friends (1982) – His last written work was a deeply dark novel about a lawyer whose life unravels in a matter of days after witnessing two suicides and later discovering his firstborn child was fathered by another man.[1]
Unfinished works
- Elspath's War Canoe (1977) – A story about a young man who comes to Boston from Kansas City. He's determined to knock the world for a loop but he gets knocked instead.[5]
Awards
In 1974, McHale was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Fiction for Alinsky's Diamond.[1] He also received the Thomas More Association medal, an award given annually for the most distinguished contribution to Catholic Literature for his novel School Spirit in 1976.[11]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Kich, Martin. "Tom McHale". The Literary Encyclopedia - June 20, 2003. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ a b c d e f g St. Amand, Matthew. "Tom McHale - Principato". Matthew St. Amand - 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ New York, New York. March 1, 1971.
- ^ Miami, Florida.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Thomas, Phil (May 9, 1976). "From Book to Brick". The Citizen Auburn. Auburn, New York.
- ^ Kaplan, Lisa Faye (1982). "Ring Lardner, Jr". Herald Statesman. Yonkers, New York.
- New York, New York: Time Inc. Retrieved May 30, 2010.
- ^ "Book Reviews by AP". The Citizen; Associated Press. Auburn, New York. April 11, 1976.
- ^ "Book Reviews". The Citizen-Advertiser. Auburn, New York. February 27, 1971.
- ^ Grayson, Richard (24 May 2007). "Tom McHale, novelist". Edward Champion's Reluctant Habits - May 23, 2007. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ "Peeking into the past; 1977, 33 years ago". Pittston Dispatch. Pittston, Pennsylvania. March 1, 1971. Retrieved July 2, 2010.