Paperbacks Tom Widger

Selected recordings 2000-2010

The woman who thought too much: a memoir

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Selected recordings 2000-2010 By Olaf Tyaransen, Hot Press, 233pps

LETTERS, short stories, interviews; literary selections of any sort are, at best, patchy affairs. Such is the case here. Inevitably, readers will first go to the contents to hear what their favourite writer, singer, comedian, actor has to say. This reviewer went straight to hear what one of Ireland's most provocative playwrights had to say. The answer is that very little emerged from Martin McDonagh. Similarly, in his interview, JP Donleavy begins by recalling how Brendan Behan made uninvited suggestions as to how Donleavy's debut novel The Ginger Man could be improved. That story has been kicking around now for at least 45 years. More successful is the interview with Johnny Adair, retired UFF thug. Better by far is the freewheeling encounter between Sinead O'Connor and Shane MacGowan. Patchy.

The Woman Who Thought Too Much: A Memoir by Joanne Limburg, Atlantic £9 321pps

READERS can laugh at Limburg's misfortune because she has the wonderful ability to laugh at herself. The lady's misfortune is an obsessive-compulsive disorder. In her scaldingly honest memoir, she writes about her negative fears. How she feared men. Had a relationship, resulting in a pregnancy but lost the child (which we won't laugh at). And of course she blamed herself. She did eventually have children, but that only meant crossing the street with a child was even more dangerous. On holiday, she becomes constipated because she cannot relax on an unfamiliar toilet seat. She comes across as a bit of a weirdo, but a very likeable one.