Five book recommendations from Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy has been captivating viewers for 20 years now. Born in Douglas in 1974, the actor’s rise to fame is quite unlike that of his peers, many of whom trained at RADA, Guildhall and the like. Murphy, in contrast, didn’t step into acting until he’d already dropped out of Cork University in his first year and spent some time weighing up the possibility of life in music.
After leaving university life behind and playing in various bands, Murphy managed to land the lead role in Corcadorca Theatre Company’s production of Disco Pigs. After a few years of treading the boards, he found his first film work when Disco Pigs was turned into a film in 2001. His breakthrough role, however, came with Danny Boyle’s low-budget 2002 horror 28 Days Later, which earned him Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards and Breakthrough Male Performance at the MTV Movie Awards.
The success of the role bought Murphy to the attention of Hollywood, and it wasn’t long before he was landing roles in big-budget studio productions like Cold Mountain, The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Batman Begins. At the same time, he continued to pursue smaller-scale arthouse and indie projects such as Breakfast on Pluto and The Wind That Shakes The Barley.
Here, Cillian Murphy recommends some of his favourite books, all of which would make a worthy addition to your autumn reading list.
Five book recommendations from Cillian Murphy:
The Old Man and The Sea – Ernest Hemingway (1952)
A book about ageing, art and – as is so often the case with Hemingway – manhood, The Old Man and The Sea was the author’s final work and was essential in his securing of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. The book tells the story of an elderly Cuban fisherman who, having spent many months catching little of worth from his tiny fishing vessel, seeks to land a giant marlin off the coast of Cuba.
“It’s always the beautiful simplicity of this story that transports me,” Murphy told New York bookstore One Grand. Not a word is wasted. For such a short novel, it kind of approaches perfection in storytelling for me. Hemingway apparently said of the novel that it was the ‘best I can write ever for all of my life.'”
The Ginger Man – J.P. Donleavy (1955)
Banned in both Ireland and the United States on publication in 1955, The Ginger Man by Irish-American writer J.P. Donleavy is a manic, pulsating swirl of a novel. Once you get used to Donleavy’s habit of switching tenses, his verbless sentences and modulations between third and first person, this classic post-war novel proves to be as humorous as it is revelatory.
“One of those books that you read as a young man and become intoxicated with, yet it is a book to be savoured over the course of a life,” Murphy said of the controversial novel. “It was written with great mischief and humour but full of empathy for the outsider struggling to imagine a purpose in this world. Donleavy is a writer who will be dearly missed.”
Grief is the Thing with Feathers – Max Porter (2015)
Like Donleavy, Max Porter knows how to play with form to stunning effect. His debut novel, Grief Is A Thing With Feathers, is the story of a father caring for his two boys after the death of his wife. Interestingly, it is told from three different perspectives: that of the father himself, his children and a crow who visits the grieving family.
Mentioning the book during his conversation with One Grand, Murphy dubbed it, “One of the most moving books I have read in recent years. It investigates a father’s suspended state of unexpected loss and grief with a gorgeously wry sense of humour. Captivating, poetic, and surprising.”
Appointment in Samarra – John O’Hara (1934)
Another book banned for its sexual content now: this 1934 novel tells the story of a wealthy car dealer who decides to self-destruct through a series of impulsive acts for a reason that is never fully specified. Over three days, he destroys his reputation, business, and relationship with his wife. Above it all, the desire for total self-annihilation circles like a hungry bird.
“This is a searing novel set in 1930s America, and the story unfolds in just over 36 hours,” Murphy said. “It is a book about sex, alcohol, class, and dreamers. Devastating in its conclusion, it completely drew me into the atmosphere and pressure of what it must have been like to alive in America at that time. All details are present—the cocktails, the cars, and in this book most overwhelmingly, the unhappiness.”
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi – Geoff Dyer (2009)
On the surface, this book about a middle-aged journalist travelling first to Venice to cover the annual Biennale and then to India seems like everything you’d want to avoid. But don’t be fooled. As self-deprecating as it is tender, Jeff In Venice, Death In Varanasi slowly transforms into an exploration of those lurking existential questions we all must one day confront.
“Geoff Dyer is an abundantly talented writer,” Cillian noted. “His books can sometimes defy classification, and this one is certainly a case-in-point. It is a book of thrillingly different halves, about middle-age, art and existence. And much more. I devoured it.”
