Brendan Mathews Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Brendan Mathews is the writer of The World of Tomorrow, which was published by Little, Brown and co. Mathews was a Fulbright Scholar to Ireland, a place where he taught within the graduate creative program at the renowned University College Cork. Brendan Matthews’s fiction novel has been featured twice in Virginia Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, Cincinnati Review as well as several other publications in the United Kingdom and United States. Brendan Mathews is the recipient of several fellowships and grants from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council as well as Sewanee Writers Conference. Mathews was born and raised in upstate New York. He attended North Carolina University before joining University of Virginia for his master’s degree. Currently, Brendan Mathews resides with his wife and four children in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Brendan Mathews Best Books

The World of Tomorrow

The World of Tomorrow, the genial debut novel by Brendan Mathews, the critically acclaimed author has been set in the year 1939. From the look of things, World War II is unavoidable, an thus the story begins aboard the MV Britannic, as the characters travel from the Old World to the New World. Within the first class dining room, Mathews introduces the readers to Sir Angus MacFarquhar, whose character is much similar to Mr. Darcy. Sir Angus is busy entertaining a table that is full of Wealthy Americans with his humorous repartee. Sir Angus MacFarquhar’s real name is Francis Dempsey, who is neither a Scotsman nor an aristocrat. Sir Angus is an impetuous Irish jailbird, with a bag that is full of money, which he retrieved from the Irish Republic Army. The World of Tomorrow is a brilliantly written novel that has been filled with well stuffed characters coping up with different versions of themselves.

Francis is a purveyor of illegal racy books, lives a double life, which to according to him is a surefire method to attain social advancement. Apart from Michael, author Brendan Mathews introduces the readers to Michael, Francis’s younger brother, who happens to be a former seminarian. Michael became deaf and dumb after he was involved in an explosion that led to the death of several IRA soldiers. However, their death ensured that the money they had accumulated was up for grabs. According to Francis, life is divided into Before and After. The Schism in his identity is so acute such that he manages to come up, with a companion that he can talk to, a recently deceased poet, W.B Yeats. Some of the most pleasurable moments in the book is when Yeats and Michael bicker among themselves.

As Michael and Francis settle in, at the renowned Plaza Hotel and eventually reunite with Martin, their estranged brother who is now a Jazz musician, these three brothers meet with characters, who happen to be their exact opposite. A Jewish street photographer, one Lilly Bloch wonders whether she should return to Prague, which is now occupied by the Germans or pursue art, as a single woman in America. Another character that we get to meet is Tom Cronnin, a peaceful upstate farmer who finds himself taking up his old profession as a hitman, one last time. With that said, Brendan Mathews is a grifted prose stylist, who has the ability of breathing life to numerous diverse characters.

With that said, Brendan Mathews is a gifted prose stylist, who has the ability of breathing life into the numerous diverse characters. However, the book, just like the characters who populate the pages are riven by conflicting identities. For every craft that Mathews Brendan lavishes into these intricate backstories, the sensational plot, which binds these characters together, and a bigger scheme to kill a world leader, feels like a facial screen narrative that has been grafted into a novel. Despite the fact that there are several moving parts to this narrative, Mathews has done an excellent job of making all of them work together. The novel has rotating narrators with the second characters, getting a chapter or so. This is a novel that will undeniably put Brendan Mathews on the debut list of every reader. This novel proves the point of love, family and loyalty. It is definitely one of those books, which makes the readers stay for a while, and even want to talk to other readers, to see whether they actually got some of the scenes.

For a very long time, author Brendan Mathews has been following loose plot ends as well as eccentric minor characters; a doctor contractually obligated never to step out of his apartment, while at the same time sidelining characters such as Cronin and Lilly, some of the best drawn characters in the novel. As a matter of fact, Mathews appears to be highly interested in the Plaza’s amenities rather than the world’s fair of his book. In the World of Tomorrow, promises a feature where each and every citizen is promised a great home as well as a car. Brendan Mathews short fiction has graced numerous publications. Mathew gives the readers gristly rashes and gloopy eggs for breakfast. However, there are several instances where Brendan Mathews appears to lose interest in his own narrative.

If the milleu and period of this novel feels much familiar, then no need to worry because they are. Setting a novel in the year 1939 in New York city and then naming the novel after the main theme of the World’s Fair can either be a derivative or bold act considering the long shadows that were cast by E.L Doctorow. In the year 1985, Doctorow published an evocative bestselling novel, World’s Fair, where the same expo figures are common. However, these two books approach the 1939 Gotham in ways that are different from one another. Doctorow delivered first person narrative, which reads deeply felt as a memoir. His novel attains remarkable intimacy by presenting the city of New York, through a limited and expanding viewpoint of a child discovering the city and himself as well.

Mathews on the other hand prefers to use a panoramic lens, and in the process takes in great swath of New York City as well as a sprawling cast of characters. Overall, The World of Tomorrow is a brilliant book that any mystery love will definitely enjoy.