Valley of the Squinting Windows
Brinsley MacNamara
 It told a story of rural life, the power of gossip, 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. The stir created by the book caused the author's schoolmaster father, James, to be boycotted, and eventually he had to emigrate; the author himself never returned to the area. The novel resulted in a high-profile court case by those who thought that they had been described. Hostility against the book led to its burning. MacNamara's novel has been reprinted several times, particularly when interest in the topic re-emerges. 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 personal matters.