A Hyphenated Childhood

“I shall begin well before the beginning. And end after the end. That is how it should be. And most of it will be lies, fabrications, inexactitudes, approximations, near misses, botched hits...”

Ralph Cusack published only one novel in his lifetime: Cadenza, a meandering, autofictional journey through one man’s memory often compared to the work of Joyce and Beckett. A Hyphenated Childhood, Cusack’s previously unpublished and unfinished memoir, paints a rich portrait of the young life that influenced that novel. In charismatic, evocative prose, Cusack imagines the plight of his mother’s pregnancy, unfolds dreamlike descriptions of the foggy hills of the countryside where he grew up, reflects upon the aftermath of the fight for Irish independence, and recalls summiting Mount Vesuvius on a family trip to Italy.

Though unfinished—hyphenated—this portrait of an early twentieth-century Irish childhood stands as a remarkable tribute to the talent of one of the first writers to ever be published by Dalkey Archive Press.

Ralph Cusack (1912-1965) was born in Dublin. He trained as a painter and was a founding member of the committee of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. Cusack eventually settled in the south of France to grow jasmine for the manufacture of perfume. Cadenza was his first and only novel to be published in his lifetime.