| Review of Books Fiction
 A
few years back, Irish novelist Joseph O’Connor wrote Star of the
Sea, an ambitious, multi-layered novel set mainly during the voyage of
an Irish famine coffin ship. The book was a best-seller, despite the fact
that it was a demanding read. Using flashbacks, jumbled chronology and
other trickery, O’Connor took readers all over the British Isles,
and his narrative spanned the better part of the 19th century. So we should
not be surprised by O’Connor’s latest effort, the equally
challenging Redemption Falls.
On the surface, Redemption Falls explores
the lives of numerous Irish characters trying to make new lives during
the American Civil War. There’s Eliza Duane Mooney, walking across
the country on an epic search, and James Con O’Keeffe, Acting Governor
of the frontier territory, which gives O’Connor his title. O’Keeffe’s
past in Ireland is a troubled one, and his present in the U.S. is not
much better.
A Spanish poet, a former African-American slave and a war-hardened Irish
drummer boy also figure in O’Connor’s long list of characters.
But it is the form of this book that makes it so rewarding. Each character
speaks in his own native dialect, while O’Connor employs news reports,
posters, songs and more to move his story along.
Redemption Falls is not for those interested in a ripping yarn. But there
are strong hints of Faulkner in this epic, which adds a new layer of complexity
to our grasp of the links between Ireland and America.
($25 / 464 Pages / Free Press)
Buy: Amazon.com
| Amazon.co.uk
 Cora
Harrison’s new mystery novel My Lady Judge
goes even further back in history than Joseph O’Connor’s Redemption
Falls. The novel revolves around a 16th-century judge, named Mara and
is set in western Ireland. Mara is forced to abandon her usual practice
of settling local squabbles when one of her assistants is assaulted with
a knife during a colorful festival.
My Lady Judge is a highly readable mystery based on the actual Brehon
Law system which did allow so-called “lady judges.” ($24.95
/ 368 pages / St. Martin’s)
 Paul
Carson’s protagonist Frank Ryan has a problem. Several, in fact.
As told in Carson’s new novel Betrayal,
Ryan is abducted while performing his duties as a medical officer in a
Dublin prison. One problem is that no one believes Ryan’s version
of events, in part because his girlfriend seems to have vanished and Ryan
may have had something to do with it.
So, in search of answers, Ryan becomes enmeshed in a global mystery. Carson
(who is a practicing physician) has drawn comparisons to Michael Palmer
and Tess Gerritsen, so if you like those writers, give Carson a try.
($25.95 / 400 pages / St. Martin’s Press)
Highway 23: The Unrepentant by Patrick Carlin,
is a historical novel of note. Set during the Korean War, Carlin’s
book is about a 20-year-old Irish-American named Eddie Flynn, who falls
in love while stationed in Michigan. Complete with disapproving parents,
colorful scenery and forbidden passions, Highway 23 is a compelling period
love story. ($20.95 / 351 pages / iUniverse)
Non-Fiction
 For
better or worse, Rosemary Mahoney will forever be remembered for Whoredom
in Kimmage, her 1994 study of sex and gender in Ireland. Mahoney’s
latest book Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s
Skiff is quite different, though not entirely.
Mahoney has long been an avid rower, and the book began when she set
out to purchase an Egyptian rowboat and sail the ancient river, the world’s
longest. For this reader, an account of someone floating down a river
seemed less than fascinating. However, when your guide is as learned,
humorous and observant as Mahoney, the trip becomes a worthwhile one.
So, how is this similar to Whoredom in Kimmage? Well, it turns out even
a simple ride down a river can be loaded with cultural questions related
to sex and gender and culture.
Suffice it to say a lone Western woman rowing herself down the Nile is
not a sight to which Egyptians are accustomed. Mahoney is forced to confront
and navigate numerous cultural questions that are nearly as troubling
as the crocodiles in the Nile.
($23.99 / 288 pages / Little, Brown)
 Born
in Elizabeth, New Jersey during the Great Depression, Irish-American Chuck
Feeney went on to become one of the richest men in the U.S. He made a
fortune owning and operating Duty Free Shoppers, a chain of affordable
retail stores.
But these are not the most fascinating details located in The
Billionaire Who Wasn’t, Conor O’Clery’s
biography of Feeney. The world discovered in 1997 that Feeney was also
one of the world’s great philanthropists, a fact he managed to keep
secret until he sold much of his business interests. It was then that
Atlantic Philanthropies, Feeney’s charitable operation, became known
to the public. Why did he keep this a secret? Why does this billionaire
refuse to spend money on first class travel or even a car or house? O’Clery,
the award-winning Irish Times journalist, attempts to answer these questions.
He also notes that Feeney, now in his mid-seventies, has a new project:
spending the remaining four billion of his fortune while he is still alive.
($26.95 / 352 pages / PublicAffairs)
A dark moment in Irish history is explored in The Killing
of Major Dennis Mahon, by Peter Duffy. Mahon was ambushed
and killed during a roadside attack in 1847, during the height of the
Irish Famine. Mahon controlled land on which some 12,000 peasants struggled
mightily to scratch out a meager existence.
What precisely spurred Mahon’s killers? Were they justified? These
are some of the questions Duffy explores in a fair and balanced manner.
The book also takes a close look at the trial of Mahon’s killers,
and how prejudices of the day and other factors played out in the courtroom.
($25.95 / 352 pages / HarperCollins)
 Irish
Times journalist Patsy McGarry also has a fascinating story of crime and
punishment to recount in While Justice Slept:
The True Story of Nicky Kelly and the Sallins Train Robbery. This story
has been called Ireland’s own great miscarriage of justice, on par
with the Guildford Four/IRA scandal in Britain.
Though he signed a confession, Kelly is believed to have been innocent
of involvement in the infamous 1978 train robbery. Kelly was officially
pardoned in 1992. McGarry takes an authoritative look at what happened
not just during the robbery and ensuing trial but the fallout, public
reaction and Kelly’ s crusade for exoneration.
($24.95 / 262 pages / Dufour)
Memoir
 Two
Irish-American women have recently told their personal stories of family
and perseverance. First there’s Circling My Mother
by Mary Gordon, one of the great chroniclers of Catholic America. Gordon’s
mother Anne died in 2002, and the writer explores the world of blue-collar
ethnic Catholicism which shaped her and also left an indelible mark on
her daughter Mary. Gordon’s work can seem harsh, but here, her words
are imbued with wisdom, love and compassion.
($24 / 272 pages / Pantheon)
 Carole
O’Malley Gaunt’s Hungry Hill is
a coming-of-age memoir in which the world of high school dances and budding
romance is shattered by the death of the author’s mother. Seven
brothers and an alcoholic father become Gaunt’s reality in this
harsh yet poignant book set in the working-class Irish world of Springfield,
Massachusetts.
$19.95 / 284 pages / University of Massachusetts Press) |
