Selfish Man

Like what preceded it in the form of ''Millennial Projections'' (1982), this collection of short prose is also comprised of sixteen stories, and again it is an intensely philosophical and ideological project that is, however, more self-consciously avant-garde and determined to allow subjectivity, whether in first-person narrative or thought processes, its share of the narrative limelight. This is especially so of the title piece, ''A Selfish Man'' (who is, of course, self-ish in the best sense of the word) but it''s also characteristic, on a completely different structural basis, of the last piece, ''Twelve Thinkers'', who have more in common with one another than might at first seem to be the case, despite their different occupations! The cover features a self-photo of John O''Loughlin in somewhat ''Steppenwolfian'' mode taken in Salthill, Galway, in 2010.