Julius Winsome

Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan
purchased from Kennys Bookshop
Description from Goodreads:
Living alone with his dog in the remote cabin in the woods, Julius Winsome is not unlike the barren winter lands that he inhabits: remote, vacant, inscrutable. But when his dog Hobbes is killed by hunters, their carelessness—or is it cruelty?—sets Julius's precarious mindset on end.
He is at once more alone than he has ever been; he was at first with his father, until he died; then with Claire, until she disappeared with another man into a more normal life in town; and then with Hobbes, who eased the sorrow of Claire's departure. Now Hobbes is gone.
Julius is left with what his father left behind: the cabin that he was raised in; a lifetime of books, lining every wall of his home, which have been Julius's lifelong friends and confidantes; and his great-grandfather's rifle from World War I, which Julius had been trained to shoot with uncanny skill and with the utmost reluctance. But with the death of his dog, Julius's reluctance has reached its end. More and more, simply and furtively, it is revenge that is creeping into his mind.
Fresh snow is on the ground as the hunters lumber into his sights. They're well within the old gun's range. They pause, and they're locked into the crosshairs. Julius's finger traces the trigger. Will he pull it? And what will that accomplish? What if he simply has nothing left to lose?

My take:
This was an amazing book. It is very compelling and beautiful while be extremely disturbing as well. And yet it was strangely tranquil for all that. I loved the descriptions of Julius's life in his isolated cabin in the Maine woods surrounded by his father's books.  There is so much that is attractive to the avid reader about his life. The isolation, the quiet, all the books, the freedom to live as he chooses without outside distractions. However, Julius lives in a precarious mental state. The death of his dog Hobbes at the hand of a hunter, sends him on a path of revenge and extreme violence. The book is beautifully written, stark and haunting. I read this in one sitting because it was just so compelling.

Some of my favorite passages from the book:

People  defeat the winter by reading out the nights, spinning pages a hundred times faster than a day turns, small cogs revolving a larger one through all those months. The winter is fifty books long and fixes you to silence like a pinned insect. . .

. . . If that were the case, whether Hobbes had ever been in my life, or I in his, mattered little to the world or anyone in it, only to me now. You attach yourself and suffer when you don't have it anymore. But he made my days shorter when I had no one else, his friendship present even when no gain occurred.

A Second Life

A Second Life by Dermot Bolger
purchased from Kennys Bookshop
Description from Goodreads:
Following a car crash, for several seconds, Dublin photographer Sean Blake is clinically dead. When he plummets back to life, it is into a world which, for him, has profoundly changed. This is not the first time that he has been given a second life. At the age of six weeks he was taken from his mother, when as a young girl in rural Ireland, she was forced to give up her baby for adoption. Beginning the quest for his own identity, Sean determines to find his natural mother. This leads him on a strange and absorbing journey. Bolger exposes a dark wound from Ireland's history to explore how we must not only reclaim the past but try to redeem it. As Sean closes in on the truth of his birth, A Second Life builds with a resonance that is both through-provoking and utterly moving.

My Take:
Until I read this book, I was not very aware of this particular aspect of Irish history.  I think I was vaguely aware of the fact that there were homes run by nuns for unwed mothers and that the children were taken from the young mothers and given out for adoption.  I am sure this was entirely due to other books I have read.  After reading A Second Life, I plan to do further reading and to see the movie The Magdalene Sisters which attempts to shed light on these "fallen" women and their lives within the "laundries".

A Second Life examines the aftermath of Sean Blake's near death experience and his coming to grips with having been adopted. The other narrative in the novel is that of his birth mother - who never forgot her son and was always hoping he would try to find her.  Being forced to give up her baby had a devastating effect on her life and she never really recovered. This is a heart breaking story, but it was a fascinating read.

Fool's Sanctuary

Fool's Sanctuary by Jennifer Johnston
book purchased from Kennys Bookshop
Summary from back of book:
The Great War is over; but the war in Ireland is only just beginning, as the IRA and the Black and Tans move on to the attack. It all seems very remote to Miranda Martin, during that miraculous Indian summer.

Her father, hoping to forget his dead wife, thinks of nothing but his trees; Miranda thinks of the future, a future which must surely include Cathal, who brings news from Dublin. Everything seems calm and serene.

But then Andrew, her officer brother, comes home, bringing his eccentric, likeable friend Harry, and as the Indian summer fades, the scent is set for tragedy.

My take:
For such a short novel, it is quite powerful. The beginning of Fool's Sanctuary takes place much after the main action of the novel. It is retold in the flashbacks of a seemingly very old and frail Miranda Martin.  The novel begins:

There are no new days ahead of me.
Is this what they meant by limbo?
Waiting time, floating time, time for snatching at the comfortable and uncomfortable
moments of the past.

It is so sad and sort of ethereal. In the flashbacks to that fateful summer that changed all their lives forever, Miranda seemed to be so sheltered from what was going on in the world and in Ireland all round her.  She and her father seemed to inhabit a quiet oasis in the midst of turmoil. Unfortunately, such a state cannot exist indefinitely. 

There is much left unsaid and the reader must gather it as the story unfolds.  Her father seems to be trying to cope with his wife's death by plunging himself into his work. He is a sharp contrast to his son, Andrew, who finds his father's work and his way of life contemptible. Andrew is full of anger and violence -at whom he is angry is somewhat in doubt. He seems to be angry with everyone.

Like most Irish novels, Fool's Sanctuary is quite sad. It is quite effective at shining a light on a time in Irish history that many in America are only vaguely aware if they are aware of it at all.

In My Mailbox

Welcome to my In My Mailbox this week. This is a lovely meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

I received my latest book parcel from Kennys Bookshop in Galway, Ireland over the weekend and I wanted to share. All books were purchased by me but chosen by Des Kenny.

Fool's Sanctuary by Jennifer Johnston
from the back cover:
The Great War is over; but the war in Ireland is only just beginning, as the IRA and the Black and Tans move on to the attack. It all seems very remote to Miranda Martin, during that miraculous Indian summer. Her father, hoping to forget his dead wife, thinks of nothing but his trees; Miranda thinks of the future, a future which must surely include Cathal, who brings news from Dublin. Everything seems calm and serene.

But then Andrew, her officer brother, comes home bringing his eccentric, likeable friend Harry, and as the Indian summer fades, the scene is set for tragedy.



Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
summary from Goodreads:
Claire Keegan’s brilliant debut collection, Antarctica, was a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year, and earned her resounding accolades on both sides of the Atlantic. Now she has delivered her next, much-anticipated book, Walk the Blue Fields, an unforgettable array of quietly wrenching stories about despair and desire in the timeless world of modern-day Ireland. In the never-before-published story “The Long and Painful Death,” a writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich Boll’s old cottage has her peace interrupted by an unwelcome intruder, whose ulterior motives only emerge as the night progresses. In the title story, a priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage and, during the ceremony and the festivities that follow, battles his memories of a love affair with the bride that led him to question all to which he has dedicated his life; later that night, he finds an unlikely answer in the magical healing powers of a seer.
A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals eking out their futures, Walk the Blue Fields is a breathtaking collection from one of Ireland’s greatest talents, and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart

Lights in the Distance by Susan Millar DuMars
A collection of short stories.

The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman by Flann O'Brien
from Goodreads:
"Along with Joyce and Beckett, [Flann O'Brien] constitutes our trinity of great Irish writers. And who is funnier?"
- Edna O'Brien

The cream of Flann O'Brien's comic tour-de-force, the Keats and Chapman stories began in O'Brien's column in the Irish Times. He called them "studies in literary pathology" -- monstrously tall tales that explore the very limits of the shaggy dog story. As one critic wrote, they will accumulate the fantasy to the point of sadism, and then cash home with the flat, desolating pun.

"The Brother" is another of O'Brien's funniest creations. He is the archetypal Dublin man -- an authority on every one of mankind's ills, from the common cold to the court case. Forget the experts, The Brother knows best.

"The best comic writer I can think of."
- S. J. Perelman

Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan
summary from Goodreads:
Living alone with his dog in the remote cabin in the woods, Julius Winsome is not unlike the barren winter lands that he inhabits: remote, vacant, inscrutable. But when his dog Hobbes is killed by hunters, their carelessness—or is it cruelty?—sets Julius's precarious mindset on end.
He is at once more alone than he has ever been; he was at first with his father, until he died; then with Claire, until she disappeared with another man into a more normal life in town; and then with Hobbes, who eased the sorrow of Claire's departure. Now Hobbes is gone.
Julius is left with what his father left behind: the cabin that he was raised in; a lifetime of books, lining every wall of his home, which have been Julius's lifelong friends and confidantes; and his great-grandfather's rifle from World War I, which Julius had been trained to shoot with uncanny skill and with the utmost reluctance. But with the death of his dog, Julius's reluctance has reached its end. More and more, simply and furtively, it is revenge that is creeping into his mind.
Fresh snow is on the ground as the hunters lumber into his sights. They're well within the old gun's range. They pause, and they're locked into the crosshairs. Julius's finger traces the trigger. Will he pull it? And what will that accomplish? What if he simply has nothing left to lose?

Old Swords and Other Stories by Desmond Hogan
description from Goodreads:
These eleven stories by Desmond Hogan, his first publication since Larks' Eggs: New and Selected Stories (2005), collect newly minted shards of experience focused on the lives of the dreamers and marginalized who populate his imagined worlds. They range in time and place from France, Germany and Italy in the nineteenth century to Ireland of the 1950s and the present day. Their concerns are fragility and identity expressed through the outer semblances of dress and deportment, and inner realities of involuntary memory and the retrieval of shared pasts. Close observation of nature combines with psychological unveilings, much of it in the form of erotic reverie. This bricolage of melded history and a fragmented modernism renders truth-to-experience like no other contemporary voice.

This author's linguistic resourcefulness is unique to Irish letters, and each new gathering enlarges upon his reputation as one of Ireland's most fearless and invigorating writers, who, in the words of film-maker Neil Jordan, "remakes the world every time he puts pen to paper'"

The River Field by John MacKenna
from the back cover:
This magnificent collection of short stories by one of Ireland's finest writers is set over the centuries and bound by one connecting factor - a field near the author's beloved Castledermot, Co. Kildare. Each story showcases MacKenna's incredible gift of capturing a moment, an emotion, a time in sensuous yet stark language.

Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien
description from Goodreads:
When Anthony Considine creeps into Mellick town with a stolen horse in 1789, it sets the destiny of his family for decades to come. By the 1850s, through thrift and hard work, his son Honest John has made the Considines a leading Mellick family. In turn, his son Anthony builds a fine house in the country for his wife and children—most especially for his adored son Dennis. Little does he know that when Dennis grows up he will threaten the toil of generations with his love for a peasant girl. A stirring family saga of divided loyalties and individual freedom; of matches made and lost; and of the constraints of religion and family pride

A Donegal Trilogy by Little John Nee
from back cover:
This book contains three plays by Little John Nee: the Derry Boat, Rural Electric and The Mental. John is a writer, performer, songwriter and storyteller. Raised in Glasgow until the age of 12, he then returned with his family to his parents' native Donegal. John's work is rooted in the stories of the ordinary people of Ireland, and in particular his home county of Donegal, that most Scottish of Irish counties. His work though is not ordinary. It is lyrical, moving and precise: each word, each song, each note each gesture plays its part in crafting his stories. Audiences everywhere identify with those stories for their simplicity and humanity in telling the experience of the ordinary man.

A Second Life by Dermot Bolger
description from Goodreads:
Following a car crash, for several seconds, Dublin photographer Sean Blake is clinically dead. When he plummets back to life, it is into a world which, for him, has profoundly changed. This is not the first time that he has been given a second life. At the age of six weeks he was taken from his mother, when as a young girl in rural Ireland, she was forced to give up her baby for adoption. Beginning the quest for his own identity, Sean determines to find his natural mother. This leads him on a strange and absorbing journey. Bolger exposes a dark wound from Ireland's history to explore how we must not only reclaim the past but try to redeem it. As Sean closes in on the truth of his birth, A Second Life builds with a resonance that is both through-provoking and utterly moving.

Crannog 25 - a collection of fiction and poetry

Dance Lessons

Dance Lessons by Aine Greaney
digital galley provided by NetGalley
expected publication date: March 30, 2011
Description from publisher website:
A year after her husband’s death in a sailing accident off Martha’s Vineyard, Ellen Boisvert bumps into an old friend. In this chance encounter, she discovers that her immigrant husband of almost fifteen years was not an orphan after all. Instead, his aged mother Jo is alive and residing on the family’s isolated farm in the west of Ireland.


Faced with news of her mother-in-law incarnate, the thirty-nine-year-old American prep school teacher decides to travel to Ireland to investigate the truth about her husband Fintan and why he kept his family’s existence a secret for so many years.

Between Jo’s hilltop farm and the lakeside village of Gowna, Ellen begins to uncover the mysteries of her Irish husband’s past and the cruelties and isolation of his rural childhood. Ellen also stumbles upon Fintan’s long-ago romance with a local village woman, with whom he had a daughter, Cat. Cat is now fourteen and living with her mother in London. As Ellen reconciles her troubled relationship with Fintan, she discovers a way to heal the wounds of the past.

Deeply rooted in the Irish landscape and sensibility, Dance Lessons is a powerful story of loss, regret, and transformation.

My take:
This was one of the toughest reviews to write. I really loved the book, but I found it difficult to get my thoughts on paper. I had no expectations when I started reading this book, but I was quickly caught up in the stories of Ellen, Jo and Cat. I found the story to be intriguing and haunting.


Ellen is trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life after the sudden death of her Irish born husband when she finds out that her mother-in-law isn’t dead as her husband told her. She feels that she should try to find some answers about why he had lied about his mother being dead and just maybe, she might find some answers about her husband’s seemingly deep rooted anger and possibly what might have played a part in their marriage falling apart. Because the story unfolds so gradually, I got completely wrapped up in the drama of their lives and couldn’t stop reading. Without giving away too many plot points, the story tells of difficult situations that may not have been – no, they just weren’t handled very well and the lack of open discussion about feelings and life situations only leads to even more pent up resentments and strained relationships. Ellen finds the answers she seeks and in the process, I thought she learned some important things about her husband, his life and family, about people in general and about herself.

While I would have loved more detail at the end of the book, I also feel that it fits with the story overall and it works. This story has really stayed with me and continues to occupy my thoughts.

I also loved the wonderful descriptions of rural Ireland, the isolated farm and the locals that inhabit the small town that Jo lives in. I would most definitely recommend this book.

You

You by Nuala Ni Chonchuir
purchased from Kennys Bookshop
Description from publisher website:
Debut novel from established short-story writer and poet about a 10-year-old girl who lives with her separated mother and two brothers. Set against the semi-urban backdrop of the River Liffey in 1980, the story unfolds through the narrator’s observations and interactions, and her naïve interpretations of adult conversations and behaviour. Heartbreaking at times, but also optimistic, humorous and enchanting.

My take:
This book was sent to me by Des Kenny in my latest parcel through Kennys bookclub*. I had no expectations about the book except that it must be good because all the books Des sends are good. This book was rather unusual -- I have never read another book written quite like this one.  Rather than try to explain, let me demonstrate by quoting the first few lines of the book:

Your ma used up all the juice again. Last week you asked could she get two cartons of orange from now on, instead of only one, because there was never any for you and your brother Liam.

The entire book is written this way.  I gather that this is where the title comes from. Once I got over my first uncertainty about this manner of writing, I was drawn into the story. The story is told from the point of view of a ten year old girl and it is captivating. The reader gets a view of how she sees people and events and attempts to understand what is going on around her -- often failing to really understand how the adults in her life think or feel.  While written from the point of view of a child, the picture of the people involved is complete and sympathetic. This is a troubled family and the tragedy that strikes them resonated with me. So tragic and yet there is humor and optimism there too. I was really impressed at how well this story worked. I read the book in about a day total. It was hard to put down once I got involved in the story. There is so much that I would love to discuss, but I don't want to give too much away -- this book should be discovered by each reader on their own.  This story keeps popping into my head and I am sure I will have to read it again.

*Kennys Bookclub is a wonderful service provided by Des Kenny. I blogged about it early on, but the basics are this:

• You choose the amount you want to spend on books and at what intervals you would like the books sent to you.
• Des picks the books that are sent -- subject to approval. If you don't like them, you can return them. However, I have yet to be disappointed in anything that has been sent to me so far.

Every time I receive a parcel, it's like Christmas -- it really is a surprise because you don't know exactly which books will be included. If anyone is interested in Irish literature, I would recommend Kenny's Choice: 101 Irish books you MUST read  by Des Kenny as a starting reference point.

Ghost Light

Ghost Light by Joseph O'Connor
purchased from Kennys Bookshop
Summary from Goodreads:
Dublin 1907, a city of whispered rumours. An actress still in her teens begins an affair with a damaged older man, the leading playwright at the theatre where she works. Rebellious, irreverent, beautiful, flirtatious, Molly Allgood is a girl of the inner city tenements, dreaming of stardom in America. Witty and watchful, she has dozens of admirers. But in the backstage of her life, there is a secret. Her lover, John Synge, is a troubled, reticent genius, the son of a once prosperous landowning family, a poet of fiery language and tempestuous passions. Yet his life is hampered by Edwardian conventions and by the austere and God-fearing mother with whom he lives. Scarred by a childhood of immense loneliness and severity he has long been ill , but he loves to walk the wild places of Ireland. The affair, sternly opposed by friends and family, is turbulent, sometimes cruel, often tender. Many years later, an old woman makes her way across London on a morning after it has been struck by a hurricane. Christmas is coming. As she wanders past bombsites and through the forlorn beauty of wrecked terraces and wintry parks, a snowdrift of memories and lost desires seems to swirl. She has twice been married: once widowed, once divorced, but an unquenchable passion for life has kept her afloat as her dazzling career has faded. A story of love's commitment, of partings and reconciliations, of the courage involved in living on nobody else's terms, "Ghost Light" is a profoundly moving and finally uplifting novel from the award-winning author of "Star of the Sea" and "Redemption Falls". Full of exhilarating language and unforgettable characters, it is a homage to the act of storytelling itself.

My Take:
I really enjoyed this story about Molly Allgood, an Irish actress also known as Maire O'Neill. This is a fictionalized story about her life and her relationship with playwright John Synge.  At the beginning I had a bit of trouble determining what was going on because some of the chapters don't give the year, just the day or time.  But after awhile, I got into the flow of the story and could anticipate and/or easily determine which time period was being written about.  The story flows back and forth between London in 1952 where Molly is an old woman living alone in poverty with a reputation in the neighborhood as a drunk.  This is a heartbreaking picture of the fate of the vibrant, pretty, Irish girl who wants to be an actress. At first I was annoyed by the way the story switched back and forth, but then, I decided that it was symbolic of her aging mind and how her memories were still vibrant and her present reality wasn't as pleasant as her past.  Also, I thought it was illustrative of how older minds don't seem to differentiate as much between past and present.

This is a pretty sad story, in my opinion.  Molly had plans and ambitions and was supposed to marry Synge. But due to their family's disapproval and various other hindrances, they were not able to marry before he died.  Molly did become somewhat famous in her time, but her life never seemed to live up to her ambitions.  She looks back on her life and her decisions and has to come to terms with what has happened. As with most Irish literature I've read so far, there really isn't a happy ending. However, I did enjoy the story. It is very well written and once I let myself engage with the story, it was hard to put the book down. 

Foster

Foster by Claire Keegan
purchased from Kennys Bookshop
Synopsis from the publisher:
A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers’ house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.


Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan’s great accomplishment and talent.

My Take:
This was a very short book - a story, really.  I started reading it just because  it was the shortest book in my Kennys parcel. I was hooked from the first page. This is a simple story told from the little girl's point of view. Don't be fooled by the simple style and the brevity of the story. This is such a moving story. The girl has a stressful, chaotic life before she goes to live with the foster parents. The difference this couple make in her life is amazing. And in such simple, down to earth ways. This is a touching and memorable story.

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

This is my first IMM post - and it may be the only one for six months or so. I got my parcel from Kennys Bookshop in Galway and I won't get another until March. All of these books were purchased by me through Kennys Book Club. Many of the books I receive are not generally available in the states so Amazon usually doesn't have cover images.

Foster by Claire Keegan
Ghost Light by Joseph O'Connor
Storm over Belfast by Mary O'Donnell (signed!(
You by Nuala Ni Chonchuir
The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories
South of the Border by James Ryan
The Big Chapel by Thomas Kilroy


I can't wait to start reading from my new Irish To Be Read Pile.

The Barracks

The Barracks by John McGahern
purchased from Kennys Bookshop
Summary from Goodreads:
One of the preeminent Irish writers of our time, John McGahern has captivated readers with such poignant and heart-wrenching novels as Amongst Women and The Dark. Moving between tragedy and savage comedy, desperation and joy, McGahern's first novel, The Barracks, is one of haunting power. Elizabeth Reegan, after years of freedom—and loneliness—marries into the enclosed Irish village of her upbringing. The children are not her own; her husband is straining to break free from the servile security of the police force; and her own life, threatened by illness, seems to be losing the last vestiges of its purpose.

My Take:
Well, I have to say that the only book I have ever read that was more depressing than this one was Famine by Liam O'Flaherty. From the first page,it seemed that the characters, Elizabeth Reegan especially, felt a  certain detachment from their lives. Mrs. Reegan seems to be just barely getting through each day of the monotony of her life. There are the small joys of certain tasks performed well and the small praise she may receive, but they are small and the fear for her health is ever present. In every character except perhaps the children, there is evidence of bitterness and dissatisfaction with life. 

Almost the entire novel is told from Elizabeth Reegan's point of view - all except that last several pages. Elizabeth had been a nurse before she married Reegan and she reflects on her past job and relationship with Halliday, a doctor in London. Because of her former nursing career, she is aware of what her symptoms may indicate and the fear causes her to delay seeing a doctor for months. Most of the book deals with her illness and how she and Reegan, her husband, deal with it. There is so little happiness in their lives and her illness only adds to their troubles. Reegan feels his job as police officer to be too restraining despite the security of a steady job.

It was a struggle for me to finish the book because it was just so very sad - not just Elizabeth's inevitable death, but also the constraints of their lives and the futility they seemed to feel. I thought the author did a good job of describing every day life in a small town in 1950's  Ireland, so I did finish reading it. I think I will try McGahern's Amongst Women next.

A Drama in Muslin

A Drama in Muslin by George Moore
bought from Kennys Bookshop

Summary from Goodreads:

A reprint of the first edition written in the 1880s, this is generally considered to be the best version of one of Moore's greatest books. Set in Ireland in the 1880s against a backdrop of Land League troubles in Co. Mayo, and in Dublin, where the social life revolves around the Vice-Regal court in Dublin Castle, this depicts the efforts of a mother trying to catch socially suitable husbands for her daughters, and chronicles the results.

My Take:

This was an interesting book for a number of reasons. I like Irish history and the book takes place in the 1880's in western Ireland during the activities of the Land League, so there is the historical aspect to it. But the most interesting thing was the picture it painted of the lives of five girls born into the gentry of the West of Ireland.  They had been sent to a girls school for much of their lives and when they were of age, they had to join society and begin their quest to find husbands.  The mothers of the girls were quite interesting and for the most part, not very sympathetic characters. Mrs. Barton, the mother of Olive and Alice, the two main girls, is a beautiful, mostly empty-headed woman whose main goal is to get Olive married to an important man. Because Olive is the "beauty" of the family, she is the main focus of her mother's plans. Alice, the older, quiet, plain daughter is not really part of her mother's plans. All focus is on Olive. This sets the stage for the dramatic differences between the girls' lives for much of the book. The book paints a stark picture of the realities for young women at the time -- either marry (and hopefully to a wealty man) or face spending your life alone, whispered about and with no real purpose. In fact, the search for a husband was so important that there are several instances where it is referred to in military terms and the mothers are compared to real military leaders in their style of going after a husband for the daughter.

There are some glimpses of the peasants and their plight. But the main focus is on the landowners and their daughters. The view presented of the Land League and their activites is from the landowners' side of the issue. For the most part it shows that they had little understanding of the actual situation of the tenants of their land. They were only concerned about how much of the rents they would be able to collect. The reader gets glimpses of the poverty, but then the story goes straight back into the dances and parties and in this way shows the complete lack of concern and awareness on the part of the daughters and mothers.

From a historical and societal perspective, I thought the book was excellent. I did have a bit of a problem with some of the dialogue.  In several places, the girls' dialogue seemed overwrought -- such high emotion that sometimes it seemed unreal.  But then again, if your life was so constricted these fits of emotional ranting might be the only way to break out of the norm. I was quite pleased that Alice ended up with the happy marriage because she was considered plain, too smart, and basically unmarriageable at the beginning of the book. She proved to be a true friend, a wise person, a good sister and daughter and learned to be uncompromising when it came to decisions about her own life. She was the exception in the story. So, overall, I did enjoy the book although it took me awhile to get into the story at first.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Description from Goodreads:

Hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking, Colm Tóibín's sixth novel, Brooklyn, is set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s, when one young woman crosses the ocean to make a new life for herself.

Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn to sponsor Eilis in America — to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland" — she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. He takes Eilis to Coney Island and Ebbets Field, and home to dinner in the two-room apartment he shares with his brothers and parents. He talks of having children who are Dodgers fans. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

By far Tóibín's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.

My take:
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is a beautifully written book about Eilis Lacey, the younger daughter of a poor Irish family in Enniscorthy. There are no chapters in the book - it is divided into four parts with periodic breaks that can make decent stopping points while reading. I feel divided in my opinion of this book.  I thought it was beautiful, haunting, and as with most Irish literature I have read, very sad.  There were points in the book where I really liked and admired Eilis and there were others when I just wanted to shake her.  A good portion of my frustration was with the way she just follows every one's orders and even their suggestions without much question. At times it seemed as though she had no thoughts or ideas of her own about where her life should go.  At other times, she handled herself very well and made pretty decent decisions. Of course, many of her attitudes had to do with the time period in which the story takes place and the relative powerlessness of women to shape their own lives.  Another part, I suspect, had to do with where she was from.  The contrast between her hometown of Enniscorthy, Ireland and her adopted town of Brooklyn, New York was made starkly clear when she returns home towards the end of the book.  She returns home a changed woman -- everyone thinks she is so sophisticated and modern because of her clothes and the way she carries herself. Overall, I like the book, but from a modern female perspective, I was annoyed by what prompted many of her decisions; she seemed to wait until someone forced her make a decision by their actions or threats or simply telling her what they thought she should do.

My Near-Obsession with Irish Literature

I love to read and I like many different genres of writing. I am extremely fond of urban fantasy as well as historical fiction and literary fiction. But I have found that I am becoming almost obsessed with Irish literature. A few years ago, Kennys Bookshop of Galway, Ireland had a booth (or entire room to be exact) set up at Milwaukee's Irishfest and I made a point of purchasing a book. The book was Seek the Fair Land by Walter Macken. I finished it the same weekend and searched futilely for the next in the series. To my disappointment, it wasn't readily available in the U.S.

Last year at Irishfest I was fortunate enough to meet Des Kenny and bought a copy of his book Kenny's Choice:101 Irish Books You Must Read. I also signed up for Kennys bookclub. This is a bit different than what one might expect because Des chooses all the books for you. You give him a bit of information about what types of books you like and he chooses what he thinks might appeal to you. He also chooses books that might be a little different than what you usually read, but that he thinks would be a good choice for you. You have the right to return any book you do not like, but Des has great taste in books. I have been delighted with the books he has sent me. I have received two shipments so far and have loved all the books I have read up to this point. I have tried to spread the books out over the months between shipments. If you are up for a reading adventure and are interested in Irish writers, you might consider signing up for this wonderful service. http://www.kennys.ie/

The first book I read from this bookclub was All names have been changed by Claire Kilroy. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a signed copy of this book.
From the book jacket: All Names Have Been Changed is set in Dublin in the mid-1980's - a city in the grip of recession and a heroin epidemic. Narrated by Declan, the only boy of a tight-knit writing group at Trinity College, it tells of their fascination with the formidably talented but troubled writer Glynn, and the darkly exhilarating journey this leads them on.

Brilliantly exploring the shifting group dynamic, and offering a unique insight into the pursuit of the creative life - with all its energy and demons, its moments of artistic elation and defeat - this is a novel of considerable verve. Following earlier forays into the worlds of art restoration and classical music, it is further evidence of Claire Kilroy's natural gift for narrative, atmosphere and character.

My view: This is a stark, grim story. The picture painted of Dublin during this period is dark and depressing. The views into this writing group that are provided to the reader are interesting and intriguing and a little difficult to read sometimes. There is a sadness throughout the story. There is a longing that the members of the writing group seem to believe will be alleviated somehow by an association with Glynn the famous or infamous Irish writer who is running the class. The entire group, including Glynn, enters a downward spiral for much of the book, but there is a glimpse of hope by the end that they have learned something from their experience and grown as people and/or writers.