KICKING THE BLACK MAMBA: Life, Alcohol and Death, by Robert Anthony Welch. Darton, Longman and Todd, 2012, 240 pp., ￡12.99 (paperback)
The late Bob Welch's many friends will read this heart-rending elegy for his son, Egan, with total absorption. Some in Japan may recall how during his second visit here, at a banquet of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures, he cried out, "I love this country!" They will find in this book a full expression of his unforgettable personality: the intense humanity, fascinating conversation, keen observation and judgment, abundant wit, irony and humor.
"This is not, emphatically not, a religious book," the author insists, yet it opens up many startling religious perspectives: "I was shown the actuality of Christ in what Egan went through; he was the means whereby the reality of love was revealed to me, in the fullest possible clarity of realisation." The Christian images are compounded with ancient Irish conceptions of "the otherworld." There are even preternatural events, as when the newborn child audibly says "hallo" to his father, prompting the mother to exclaim, "He's been here before."