Breakfast on Pluto

Last updated

Breakfast on Pluto
PatrickMcCabe BreakfastOnPluto.jpg
First edition cover
Author Patrick McCabe
Language English
Genre Novel
Publisher Picador
Publication date
25 May 1998
Publication place Ireland
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages208 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN 0-330-35293-8 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC 39284951
LC Class ACQUISITION IN PROCESS (COPIED)

Breakfast on Pluto is a 1998 novel by Patrick McCabe. The book was shortlisted for the 1998 Booker Prize, and was adapted for the screen by McCabe and Neil Jordan; Jordan directed the 2005 film. The author derived the novel's title from the 1969 hit record Breakfast On Pluto by Don Partridge.

Contents

Plot summary

Set in 1960s to 1970s, the novel tells of Patrick "Pussy" Braden's escape from the fictional Irish town of Tyreelin and a drunk foster mother, to find herself and the biological mother who gave her away. Bad luck surrounds her until she finds temporary contentment with a married politician who acts as a sugar daddy. The latter is killed by either the IRA or the Ulster Defence Volunteers, leaving Braden alone once again. She moves to London, becomes a prostitute in Piccadilly Circus, and later is arrested on suspicion of an IRA bombing, only to be released a few days later. She later embarks on a search to find her mother.

Reception

Upon release, Breakfast on Pluto was generally well-received among British press. [1] [2]

Film adaptation

Director Neil Jordan's 2005 film adaptation of the same name starred Cillian Murphy in the central role. In the film, the main character is called "Kitten", not "Pussy", and there are other significant differences between the two versions of the characters, a central one being that the hypersexual Pussy is depicted explicitly as having sex with many male and female characters throughout the novel, while on screen Kitten is not shown even kissing another character on the lips.

Pussy's politician lover in the novel becomes a glam rock musician played by Gavin Friday with whom Kitten may or may not have had a sexual relationship, and Pussy's lover Bertie Wooster becomes magician Bertie Vaughan (Stephen Rea), with whom Kitten has an unrequited flirtation. Liam Neeson plays the priest that Braden believes is her biological father, a character renamed Father Liam, although a number of reviews erroneously call him Father Bernard, as in the book.

Cillian Murphy won an IFTA Award (2007) for Best Actor and was nominated for Golden Globe (2006) as Best Actor in Musical or Comedy for his performance. Patrick McCabe and Neil Jordan won the IFTA for Best Script, and Jordan also won Best Director. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Rea</span> Northern Irish actor (born 1942)

Stephen Rea is an Irish actor of stage and screen. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a member of Dublin's Focus Theatre, and came to the attention of film audiences as one of the close collaborators of director Neil Jordan. He is an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee, a two-time BAFTA Award winner, and a three-time Irish Film and Television (IFTA) Award winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Jordan</span> Irish filmmaker and fiction writer

Neil Patrick Jordan is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. He first achieved recognition for his short story collection, Night in Tunisia, which won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. After a stint working at RTÉ, he made his directorial debut with the 1982 film Angel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cillian Murphy</span> Irish actor (born 1976)

Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor. His works encompass both stage and screen, and his accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award.

Events from the year 1998 in Ireland.

Patrick McCabe is an Irish writer. Known for his mostly dark and violent novels set in contemporary—often small-town—Ireland, McCabe has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, for The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both of which have been made into films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gavin Friday</span> Musical artist

Gavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes.

<i>The Butcher Boy</i> (novel) 1992 novel by Patrick McCabe

The Butcher Boy is a 1992 novel by Patrick McCabe.

<i>Mondo Desperado</i>

Mondo Desperado (1999) is a book by Irish writer Patrick McCabe. The novel bills as a short story collection by a fictitious author, Phildy Hackball, a resident "homeboy" from the small town of Barntrosna.

The 2nd St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards were given on January 8, 2006.

<i>Breakfast on Pluto</i> (film) 2005 film by Neil Jordan

Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 comedy-drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan. It is based on the 1998 novel of the same name, written by Patrick McCabe, as adapted by Jordan and McCabe. The film stars Cillian Murphy as a transgender woman foundling searching for love and for her long-lost mother, in small town Ireland and London in the 1970s.

<i>The Butcher Boy</i> (1997 film) 1997 Irish film

The Butcher Boy is a 1997 Irish black comedy film directed by Neil Jordan. The film was based on Patrick McCabe’s 1992 novel of the same name and McCabe co-wrote the screenplay with Jordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eva Birthistle</span> Irish actress and writer

Eva Birthistle is an Irish actress and writer. She is best known for her roles in Bad Sisters and Ae Fond Kiss..., and also starred in The Last Kingdom between 2015 and 2022. She won the London Film Critics Circle British or Irish Actress of the Year Award in 2004, and has twice won the IFTA Best Actress in a Leading Role (Film) award.

Zonad is a comedy film by John and Kieran Carney that premiered in July 2009 at the Galway Film Fleadh. The film went to general release in Ireland March 19, 2010.

The 8th Irish Film & Television Awards were held on 12 February 2011 in the Convention Centre, Dublin.

<i>Peaky Blinders</i> (TV series) British period crime drama TV series (2013–2022)

Peaky Blinders is a British period crime drama television series created by Steven Knight. Set in Birmingham, it follows the exploits of the Peaky Blinders crime gang in the direct aftermath of the First World War. The fictional gang is loosely based on a real urban youth gang who were active in the city from the 1880s to the 1920s.

Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh is an Irish costume designer. Much of her career has been in Irish and British-Irish productions, such as Michael Collins (1996), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Ondine (2009), The Guard (2011), Calvary (2014), The Rhythm Section (2020), Foundation (2021), and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). She has been nominated eleven times for Best Costume Design from the Irish Film & Television Academy, winning for The Rhythm Section. Other nominations include Emmy, Critics Choice, and Satellite Awards. Eimer was elected to AMPAS in 2020.

The 14th IFTA Film & Drama Awards took place at the Mansion House on 8 April 2017 in Dublin, honouring Irish film and television drama released in 2016. Deirdre O'Kane hosted the film awards ceremony.

Cettin also known as Saint Cettin of Oran or Cethach, Cetagh and Cethagh was a disciple of Saint Patrick. He helped St. Patrick in evangelizing in Ireland. St. Patrick consecrated him as an auxiliary bishop of Oran. He is believed to have died in 5th century. His feast day is 16 June. His shrine at Oran, County Roscommon was a well known place of pilgrimage, and survived until the end of the eighteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth McCabe</span> Irish actress

Ruth McCabe is an Irish stage, screen and voice actress known from Clones, County Monaghan. She is known for starring as Kay Curley in Stephen Frears'The Snapper, Christy Brown's paramour Mary in My Left Foot, and Wyn Ryan, sister of Dr. Sam Ryan, in three seasons of Silent Witness. She originated the role of Kay McCoy, proprietor of McCoy's bar in RTÉ's soap opera Fair City.

The 20th Irish Film & Television Academy Awards, also called the IFTA Film & Drama Awards 2024 or the 21st Anniversary IFTA Awards, took place on 20 April 2024. The ceremony was hosted by Baz Ashmawy at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre. It honoured Irish films and television drama released between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023. The nominations were announced on 14 March 2024. The Rising Star nominees were announced on 9 April 2024.

References

  1. "Books of the moment: What the papers said". The Daily Telegraph. 6 June 1998. p. 72. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  2. "Books of the moment: What the papers said". The Daily Telegraph. 24 October 1998. p. 78. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  3. "Entertainment News | Breaking News | Celebrity Gossip - MSN Entertainment UK". Archived from the original on 17 February 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2007.