Walking with Ghosts

In Byrne’s second memoir, after (Pictures in My Head), a world-weary elder statesman of the stage and screen comes to grips with a lifelong search for belonging, and presents a breathtaking jumble of memories, dreams, and tributes to his childhood and family. Visiting the Dublin village where he grew up, he reflects on his early years as a lonely child who didn’t fit in. He sought “refuge in imagination” and left home at 11 to join a seminary to become a priest. Byrne describes the trauma of being molested during his training; he was eventually expelled from the seminary for “incessant breaking of rules” and “disrespect for authority” and became a plumber’s apprentice before discovering his passion for the stage. He writes lyrically about Catholic rituals, his first love, and even his ominous taste for alcohol, and describes tales of celebrity interactions (he went horseback riding with a woman he later learned was Ava Gardner and went drinking with Richard Burton) with humor and self-deprecation. Particularly heartbreaking is his account (both witnessed and imagined) of his beloved sister’s mental illness.