Under the Eye of the Clock: A Memoir

Front Cover
Arcade Publishing, 2000 - 163 pages
Oxygen-deprived for two hours at birth, Christopher Nolan lived to write, at age twenty-one, the autobiography of his childhood, told as the story of Joseph Meehan. He wrote the book, using a "unicorn stick" attached to his head, letter by painful letter. The result is astonishingly lyrical, filled with powerful description, touching moments of triumph and humiliation, and, above all, disarming wit. It is, in the words of London's Daily Express, "a book of sheer wonder".

From inside the book

 

Selected pages

Contents

A Modicum of Aloe
1
Hell Guffawed
15
White Sheets of Life
25
The Stirring of the Muse
35
The EightLegged Pony
43
Knife Used
50
The Night That Was In It
60
An Eyeful of Derravaragh
68
Slavery was Abolished
103
The Cool Green Garden
106
head the ball
114
Is The Sound of Footsteps
123
A Dream Being Shattered
132
Kernelled Loneliness
142
Academics Thesaurus of Thoughts
149
His Human Wasteland
156

If He Could But Earth Himself
80
My Boyhood Epiphany
87
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Snippet view - 1989
Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Snippet view - 1988
Under The Eye Of The Clock
Christopher Nolan
No preview available - 2011
View all »

Common terms and phrases

able arms asked attention beautiful became body bowed boy's breath bring brother brought called carried cast chair chatted close cold corridor crippled decided disabled door dreams Dublin eyes face fashion fear feel fellow felt fingers friends gave gaze girls give glanced going hand happy head hear heard heart held hold hope Imagine joined Joseph Meehan kitchen knew laughed letter lifted light listened looked lovely Matthew meet mind mother Mount Temple mouth move needed never night nodded Nora normal passed Paul played pupils questions ready rest seat seemed sense showed silent sister sitting smiled someone sound stood story talk teacher tell thought told took tried trying turned typed voice waited wanted watched wheelchair wheeled wished wondered worried writing young Yvonne

About the author (2000)

Author Christopher Nolan was born in Ireland on September 6, 1965. Due to being deprived of oxygen at birth, he suffered from cerebral palsy and could only move his head and eyes. He used a pointer attached to his head to write his books. At the age of 15, he published his first book Dam-Burst of Dreams (1981). His other novels are The Banyan Tree (1999) and Under the Eye of the Clock, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1988. He also won the Medal of Excellence from the United Nation's Society of Writers, The Sunday Independent-Irish Life Arts Award for Literature and Ireland's Person of the Year Award in 1988. He died due to oxygen deprivation caused by ingestion of food into his airways on February 20, 2009 at the age of 43.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Under the Eye of the Clock
TitleUnder the Eye of the Clock: A Memoir
AuthorChristopher Nolan
PublisherArcade Publishing, 2000
ISBN1559705124, 9781559705127
Length163 pages
  
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