AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Irish writer Edna O'Brien died Saturday at the age of 93 after a long illness. O'Brien sparked controversy in Ireland for the way she wrote about women's lives and relationships, as NPR's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento reports.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: This is how "The Country Girls" begins.
EDNA O BRIEN: (Reading) I wakened quickly and sat up in bed abruptly. It is only when I am anxious that I waken easily.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's Edna O'Brien reciting the opening words to her first novel during an interview with NPR in 1999. She said that book, first published in 1960, took her only a matter of weeks to write. "The Country Girls" follows two young women from the Irish countryside as they travel to Dublin and begin their adult lives. But O'Brien's honest portrayal of female friendship, sex and romance shocked Irish society and the Catholic Church, which led to "The Country Girls" being ridiculed, banned and even burned throughout the country.
MAUREEN O CONNOR: It became then this kind of sensation in its condemnation. And then it was censored. And the next several books that she produced were also censored. And she became this persona non grata in Irish culture for decades.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's Maureen O'Connor, who teaches English at University College Cork and is the author of "Edna O'Brien And The Art Of Fiction." She says O'Brien wrote beautifully about youthful joy and dependence and the natural world. But she became infamous for...
O CONNOR: Sending bulletins from the front lines about what was actually happening in women's lives and the reality of day-to-day life, which included a lot of heartache, a lot of abuse, limitations, depression, mental illness - I mean, all these things that she very unflinchingly portrayed about her characters.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Edna O'Brien was born in a rural town in County Clare, Ireland, in 1930. She often described her upbringing and religious schooling as difficult and lonely. She moved to Dublin and worked at a pharmacy before marrying and moving to London. There, O'Brien became a polarizing cultural force who went on to publish dozens of books and short story collections. Here she is speaking with NPR in 1999.
O BRIEN: I was always mad about words. Words were my great companions and challenge and intoxication and education. I couldn't imagine a world without words.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Over time, Edna O'Brien's contributions to literature were embraced in Ireland. She received numerous honors, including an Irish PEN Award and a David Cohen Prize. As she told NPR in 2019, her main inspiration stayed the same, from "The Country Girls" to "Saints And Sinners" to her last novel, "Girl."
O BRIEN: I've always written about girls and women, both as victims and as fighters combined, that duality. They've been through hell, and somehow, they come through.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Maureen O'Connor says Edna O'Brien changed Irish literature and literature about women in general forever. Today, writers like Anne Enright, Sally Rooney and Caoilinn Hughes carry that torch forward.
O CONNOR: She kept going, and she never bowed her head. And she didn't do it just for herself, but I think for all of us, men and women, to stand up for ourselves and keep going.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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