Playwright-novelist Keane movingly evokes the pervasive pettiness and prejudice of Irish rural life, blighting dreams and love, in the story of a young man who's destined for the priesthood but is nearly destroyed by gossip, family greed, and his own stubbornness. The story, set in one of those small Irish communities where the pubs outnumber everything else, is as much about an insidious national pathology as it is about the hard times of Eddie Drannaghy. Keane's Ireland is a country where, as ``husband and children took precedence, it was fashionable for overworked mothers to neglect themselves'' and ``where only the unemployed can afford to drink on a regular basis.'' A devout lad and a good student, Eddie has entered the local seminary. But the flesh is weak: He is seduced by a visiting cousin from the US, a tryst that's observed by his twin brothers. An anonymous note to the seminary president then gets Eddie expelled. In the years that follow, he works the family farm left by his father to the twins. Eventually, however, those two come under the influence of the greedy Mollie Cronane, owner of the local supermarket, who is anxious to marry off her own two (already pregnant) daughters and get more land in the bargain. Though the twins die before their weddings, Mollie is even more determined to get the Drannaghy farm for her family. But Eddie, now the legal owner, refuses to sell. He regards his ownership as a sacred trust, and Mollie's conspiracies, violent attacks, and malicious slander—he is accused of impregnating a teenager, who later commits suicide—do not deter him. Eddie stands firm, is exonerated, and at last, miraculously, finds love amidst the mayhem and meanness. Keane, an Irish storyteller in the best tradition (The Bodhran Makers, 1992, etc.), scants the blarney to tell a tale that resonates with truth and with compassion for a people trapped by poverty—both spiritual and temporal.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-57098-068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
