Plastic Paddy

As Saint Patrick's Day is coming, I thought I would give you a quick reading suggestion that would be fitting for the day. It is not a novel, but a short story from The Martini Shot by George Pelecanos.The story is called, as you guessed it, Plastic Paddy. Grosso modo, it is about a small time criminal and overall loser who claims to have Irish blood and decides to totally embrace it: he changes his name from Tool to O'Toole, starts listening to Irish music, to go to Irish bars, he adopts the most superficial aspects of Irish culture, or what people think of Irish culture. In other words, he becomes a Plastic Paddy. I don't want to give anything away, but this is (among other things) a brilliant exploration about identity and how much of it is a construction. I recommend to read Plastic Paddy for this occasion because all lovers of Ireland, and I include myself in the lot, are to a degree Plastic Paddies. What makes O'Toole a pathetic, maybe even a tragic character, is that he is completely unconscious of it. So we can reflect on this (and in the meantime get a kick out of Pelecanos' writing). The other stories in the book are great too, but save this one for Saint Patrick's Day.