Valley of the Squinting Windows was a novel by Brinsley MacNamara which was set in the village of Delvin, County Westmeath, Ireland. The novel itself never stated that it was set in Delvin, - it was set in "Garradrimna" a fictitious town - and McNamara insisted it could of been any village in Ireland, but the geographical details in the novel set it firmly in the village.
The novel itself would have been unremarkable except for the tale of Irish life that it told at the time of its release in 1918, the immediate scandal and the ensuing ramifications. The novel centered around rural life and the power of gossip, and public perception which people attempted to present of the family and individual and of an inward looking society, similar to the Keeping up with the Joneses theme. Such was the stir created by the novel that the author's father, a schoolmaster, was boycotted and eventually had to leave the area and emigrate, the author himself never returned to the area. The novel also resulted in a high profile court case by those who thought that they had been described and there was such bad feeling in the area against the novel that it was publicly burned.
The book has been reprinted several times since the original, particularly when interest in the topic re-emerges. The term "valley of the squinting windows" has become a colloquial term, particularly in Ireland, for a society obsessed with providing neighbours and peers with a good perception of one's own personal matters.
Editions in print
Editions not in print
