Book details

He was always a great actor and talker. Words loved him. Now he's a great writer.' -Bono 'James X is like nothing we have seen before. Flynn's use of documents and the interplay between the printed file, his own memories, and the terrible truth that finally emerges creates a brilliantly original mix of theatre, performance art, documentary and direct human encounter. What Flynn wants to give us is a record not of his sufferings but of our collective cruelties and we are forced to take possession of a catalogue of crimes carried out in our name.' - Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times 'Riff after riff in this powerful one man show is incredibly vivid. Flynn frequently turns phrases into a kind of rapping rhyme. It has the strange double effect of a child trying to remember and a crazy person trying to blot things out.' - Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner 'The structure is like that of Christopher Unborn by Fuentes, an account of life literally from the womb, and of the tribulations that beset a child's passage through a country that is portrayed as grim, authoritarian and deeply prejudiced against him and his kind.' - Bruce Arnold, Irish Independent 'James X is relevant politically, socially, economically and spiritually, and not just in this country. The abuse is only a tiny part. I'm talking about a whole system. James X affects adults, it affects children, it affects all the social services in this country. I'm not doing this for my career, my ego or for theatrical reasons - I'm doing this because it's necessary. If anybody wants to figure out how it all happened, at least there will be one document out there that shows why it happened and what the character of James X did with it.' Gerard Mannix Flynn