Edna O’Brien, it’s fair to say, wasn’t one for small talk. At dinner in a friend’s house in the 90s, the talk quickly turned to the nature of happiness.“It’s’ a gift,” I ventured.“From the gods,” she agreed.And since one of her iconic Country Girl characters, in the last of that trilogy (Girls In Their Married Bliss), claimed that god hated women, it’s probably also fair to assume she didn’t find happiness easily. One extraordinary chapter in her life, on which I was to get an intimate glimpse, certainly bears this out.There are things in life that can only be confronted…

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