Donleavy wrote a book that was truly filthy and a case-study in toxic masculinity. JP Donleavy: The Ginger Man Lilliput, 1954 ★★★★★ Set in a damp, grotty and oppressive Dublin, this international bestseller is full of violence, sex and drinking. If you've ever debated your love life with friends in a small rented apartment, this is the book for you. It documents sex in a time when a condom was the 16th of an inch between a single woman and a "home for unwed mothers". Jaffe explored abortion, sexual assault in the work place and obsessive love. This book has been very influential – there are echoes of it in the film Working Girl and the TV series Sex and the City. A tale of three hard-working single girls trying to make it in New York.
Rona Jaffe: The Best of Everything Penguin Modern Classics, 1958 ★★★★☆ Don Draper read it in Mad Men, but Irish people couldn't buy this banned book until the late 1960s. This challenging subject matter and a step-by-step description of a DIY abortion ensured his book was banned in Ireland. Sex for Yates is an opportunity to explore the inherent violence of gendered social roles. Frank and April are the epitome of young middle-class suburbia but he shags a co-worker to distract himself from marital disharmony. Richard Yates: Revolutionary Road Vintage Classics, 1961 ★★★☆☆ An unflinching, clear-eyed account of a man trapped by conventional masculinity. Written when she was just 19 years old, Pamela Moore became an American literary sensation for this sensitive, candid book about the complications of sexual identity. It's a classic coming-of-age novel featuring a teenage girl and should be read alongside The Catcher in the Rye, which was also banned in Ireland. The main character, Courtney, parties too hard but this is not an ode to hedonism. Pamela Moore: Chocolates for Breakfast Harper Perennial, 1956 ★★★★☆ Escape to sun-drenched Hollywood in a book about a troubled teenage girl searching for love and sex. A short, punchy book that interrogates the lies around sexual identity in provincial Ireland. The pragmatic hypocrisy of the book's characters regarding faith and morality is wonderfully audacious. Broderick also explores Dublin's underground gay scene and how queer men lived double lives.
But she is not wearing knickers as she is planning a quickie with her husband's nephew. John Broderick: The Pilgrimage Lilliput Press, 1961 ★★★★☆ It opens with Julia, respectably dressed as the dutiful, obedient wife of an invalid, offering tea to the local priest.
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