The Emperor of Ice-Cream (novel)

The Emperor of Ice-Cream is a 1965 coming-of-age novel[1] by writer Brian Moore. Set in Belfast during the Second World War, it tells the story of 17-year-old Gavin Burke who, admitting “War was freedom, freedom from futures,” defies his Nationalist and Catholic family by volunteering as an air raid warden with the largely Protestant ARP.[1] The novel takes you through Gavin's journey as he realises that there are those on the other side of the city's bitter communal division whose friendships offer a wider horizon.

The Emperor of Ice-Cream
First edition
AuthorBrian Moore
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreBildungsroman
PublisherMcClelland and Stewart (Canada)
Viking Press (US)
Andre Deutsch (UK)
Publication date
1965
Pages250
OCLC368948
Preceded byAn Answer from Limbo (1962) 
Followed byI Am Mary Dunne (1968) 

Based in part on Moore's own wartime experiences,[2][3] he described it as the most autobiographical of his novels.[2] Moore left Belfast in 1943 to join the British Ministry of War Transport and worked himself for a period with the ARP in London.

The book is dedicated, as were all of Moore's subsequent novels, to his partner Jean,[4] who became his second wife two years after its publication. Its title is taken from Wallace Stevens' poem "The Emperor of Ice-Cream".

The book was dramatised by the Northern Irish actor, playwright and theatre director Bill Morrison; the play was performed at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1977.[5]

References
  1. Hicks, Patrick (July–December 1999). "History and Masculinity in Brian Moore's 'The Emperor of Ice-Cream'". The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. 25 (1/2): 400–413.
  2. Craig, Patricia (2002). Brian Moore: A Biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 0 7475 6844 8.
  3. O'Donoghue, Jo (1991). Brian Moore: A Critical Study. Montreal and Kingston: McGill University Press. pp. xii. ISBN 0-7735-0850-3.
  4. Craig, Patricia (2002). Brian Moore: A Biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 188. ISBN 0 7475 6844 8.
  5. Craig, Patricia (2002). Brian Moore: A Biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 231–232. ISBN 0 7475 6844 8.


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