GHOST LIGHT by Joseph O'Connor (fic)

John Millington Synge was and is one of Ireland's foremost playwrights.  Along with Yeats, he was a founder of the famous Abbey Theater in Dublin.  His most famous play, "Playboy of the Western World" was performed in 1907 and caused a furor at the time over its content and subject.  Molly Allgood whose stage name was Maire O'Neill, along with her sister Sara Allgood, became famous because of this production and others that followed.  "Ghost Light" is a fictionalized account of the love affair between Synge and Molly in the short time they had together.
Synge, a genius of a writer, fell in love with the much younger Molly who began acting at age 15.  Their romance was complicated by Synge's relationship with his overbearing and manipulative mother. He was brought up in a well-to-do, educated, Protestant family. His mother held the threat of his inheritance over him should he even think of marrying a Catholic actress who grew up in poverty.  Even at age 35, he was unable to emotionally separate from his mother.
Molly was the poor daughter of another strong-minded mother who loved in a crowded flat about the second hand shop that the family ran.  Seeing her older sisters success in the theater, she longed to act at an early age.  During his short life, she became muse to J M Singe and to Yeats as well.  When he received the Nobel Prize for literature, Yeats singled out the beautiful sisters, Molly and Sara, in his acceptance speech, as being an influence in the interpretation of his work.
"Ghost Light" is a love story that begins in 1952.  Having achieved great success on the stage in Ireland, England and America, she was now living out her last years in poverty in war scarred London. By then, not only was she destitute, but also an alcoholic.  The story is told through Molly's eyes as she relives her romance with Synge. After his mother's death, they became engaged, but it was cut short by his untimely death from Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 37.  The story is told in a stream of consciousness style which is not chronological.  O'Connor writes beautifully and lyrically.  Because he makes jumps in time and incidents, some may not find this novel an easy read.  I have to say, that after I became used to the rhythm and fell into the story, I did enjoy the novel.  The title refers to the custom of theaters which leaves one light always burning so past ghosts of the theater can perform.