‘Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story’ Review: Well-Timed Doc Reads Between the Lines of the Late Novelist’s Life

‘Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story’ Review: Well-Timed Doc Reads Between the Lines of the Late Novelist’s Life

“I pursued the glitz for a while. And I don’t regret it. But I know it wasn’t the real thing. It wasn’t the real thing.” This sentiment, which could almost be poetry or song lyrics, is spoken by Edna O’Brien in one of the final interviews she gave, which appears toward the end of director Sinéad O’Shea’s engaging documentary. “Glitz” is if anything an understatement: The film opens with something of a roll-call of O’Brien’s famous friends, showi…

TIFF Docs: Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story by Sinéad O’Shea - Business Doc Europe

The late Irish novelist Edna O’Brien is the subject of Sinéad O’Shea’s new film, which world-premieres September 8 in TIFF Docs. Ridiculed for decades by the literati of Ireland (and parts of the UK) both for her explicit depiction of female sexuality in her home country and her alleged libertine lifestyle, O’Brien was, nevertheless, feted across the rest of the world, especially the US, for her deep lyricism, her intellectual vigour and her pro…