Michael O'Leary
Author
Language
English
Description
"The history of small, private presses in this country is also (largely) the history of our literature." (Michael Gifkins' 1990 'Bookmarks', New Zealand Listener). This quote graphically states the case for the important place small press publishing has in the literary culture of Aotearoa New Zealand. Expanding this further, it is true to say that without the existence of such presses many of our writers, both well-known and obscure, may never have...
Author
Language
English
Description
A novel that explores the effect of modern technology on the individual. It looks at the generation of the 1930s Nazis whose mantra was 'All You Need is Hate' and contrasts it with the 1960s 'All You Need is Love' of The Beatles. Magic Alex fifty years later in the 2000s sits in his Cell Phone cell in a mental hospital and contemplates the modern generation where there's so much communication there's no communication. Another DADA/Surrealist view...
Author
Language
English
Description
During the writing of his autobiography, Die Bibel (published in 2016 by Steele/Roberts), Michael O'Leary began a parallel fictional autobiography which he conceived as an 'apocrypha' of additional aspects to his intellectual & emotional life, combining myriad intertwingings of previous works to form a synthesis, a kind of Rainbows End of the Mind, as its characters & events ride a rollercoaster of the psyche, a tipi haere helter-skelter on what might...
Author
Language
English
Description
Straight is set in early 1980's Auckland and begins with Paul Calvert's return to that city after several years in the mysterious place called 'Dreamland'. Fighting off several flash-backs he discovers that reality can often be stranger than dreams. Along the way he discovers things about his past that he had no conception of and his whole life is brought into existential question. Was his own birth due to an SS experiment during World War Two to...
Author
Language
English
Description
"After doing my research, soliciting and collecting all the articles, I started to think of a way to put together a book on the Earl. I had several ideas: one was doing a kind of 'rock star' presentation of the Earl as the best way to bring out his unique personality and qualities as an artist, writer, performer and bookshop proprietor as well as highlighting the wide range of interests throughout his life. Secondly, there was a desire to put together...
Author
Language
English
Description
In this eye-opening and provocative book, Michael O'Leary and Warren Valdmanis take a groundbreaking journey to the beating heart of our economy, where they reveal why capitalism is failing our country, explore the flaws that make our current solutions insufficient, and propose an ambitious and compelling vision to rebuild our corporations around a deeper purpose.
Capitalism is broken, but the tools we are relying on to fix it-corporate social responsibility,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Based on Dr O'Leary's PhD thesis 'Social and Literary Constraints on Women Writers in New Zealand: 1945-1970' this books explores and exposes the sexist mores of the NZ literary establishment, both publishers and writers, from the end of World War 2 up to the feminists movements of the late 1960s and 1970s.Responses to Michael O'Leary's Wednesday's WomenMichael O'Leary's book makes a unique contribution to knowledge about women writers in New Zealand...
Author
Language
English
Description
The Irish Annals of New Zealand is essentially a Joycean tour-de-force through New Zealand's history from the Irish rather than the usual English point of view. However, as well as historical facts the novel incorporates many other linguistic and language conceits and concepts. The story begins with the main character falling from a train, having opened the wrong door because he is drunk. He lies dying alone in the falling snow of the central North...
Author
Language
English
Description
Excerpt from Introduction by Iain Sharp: "Irishness, Maoritanga, proudly held working-class values, rock 'n' roll, buses, trains, ferries, Baudelaire – you'll find them all in this book. Moods vary from poem to poem, as you would expect from a lifetime's work. Inevitably, there are moments of sadness and a deep anger at social inequities underlies some of the satire. Yet what strikes me most when I leaf through Michael's collected poems is how often...
Author
Language
English
Description
The stories in this haunting collection are as ancient and modern, powerful and fantastical, ambiguous and ambivalent as the ghosts they feature. Here you will find tales of headless horses riding moonbeams, an entrance to another world on Marrowbones Hill, drowned sailors and ghost ships, and a girl riding pillion on a motorbike driven by her dead boyfriend - all told in the distinct voice of noted storyteller Michael O'Leary who, for years, has...
Author
Language
English
Description
First published in 1987 this novel has acquired something of a cult status among both cricket fans and those interested in experimental prose and bohemian lifestyles.It is set in Auckland in the 1980s and is a mixture of stream of conscious internal dialogue between the main character, PSM, and himself. Externally, it follows the fortunes of the NZ cricket team at Eden Park playing against the world famous 'Out of It' eleven which includes Oscar Wilde,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Michael O'Leary tells the story of factory worker Patrick Mika Fitzgerald, who after several years of working at the same job and looking after his ailing mother, is freed from these ties by death and redundancy. He embarks on an existential train journey in pursuit of a woman he has dreamed of meeting. When reality and dreams colide his world is turned into a previously unknown state of moral real dilema.Responses to Michael O'Leary's novel Unlevel...