A Pint of Plain - Softcover

Bill Barich

3.35

234 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408801418 ISBN 13: 9781408801413

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009

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A Pint of Plain is a quest to chronicle the state of the Irish pub today, and thereby to examine Irish culture at a time of great change. When the American writer Bill Barich moved to Dublin, he began searching for a traditional pub to serve as his local. Although he had no shortage of choices, he had trouble finding one that measured up to the archetypal ideal portrayed in Ireland's literature and such iconic movies as The Quiet Man. That suggested something deeper was at play - a shift in the country's values and identity. As Barich roamed from hectic urban pubs to their dwindling rural counterparts, he met an array of extraordinary characters whose lives are bound up in the trade. He blends the history of Guinness into his account, and also explores the impact of the firms that export 'authentic' Irish pubs around the world. A Pint of Plain will be irresistible to anyone who has been touched by Ireland and cares about its future.

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About the Author:

Bill Barich has written for The New Yorker and other publications for many years. He is the author of the classic Laughing in the Hills, as well as Crazy for Rivers, Carson Valley, and most recently A Fine Place to Daydream: Racehorses, Romance, and the Irish. He lives in Dublin.

From Booklist:

Shhhhhh. . . . Don’t tell, but this is really a book about globalization, not about “yer only man” (i.e., the well-pulled pint of porter). With “Oirish” pubs cropping up in every burg and burb, what has happened to the originals? American emigrant Barich starts looking around his new neighborhood in Dublin for the pub of his dreams, where the pints are frothy and the conversation lofty. He finds the locals, both the pubs and their patrons, displaced by glamorous versions of themselves, and he discovers that he has unwittingly become part of a global plot to replace the real with the faux. He finally does find a few remaining magical places (once he gets out of Dublin, which for some readers will not be soon enough), but they are hanging-on-by-the-thumbnails operations in danger of going poof or pouf. Most browsers will pick this up because they want to read about Irish pubs, but they will get much, much more than they expected. An excellent, however sneaky, addition to the literature of globalization. --Patricia Monaghan

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