EMERALD GERMS OF IRELAND

Name: EMERALD GERMS OF IRELAND
Author: Patrick McCabe
ISBN: 0-06-019678-5

by Patrick McCabe ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

One wonders, though, why McCabe seems compelled to keep retelling the same essential story, with minimal (albeit artful and...

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The violent history that continues to plague the Irish writer's fragmented homeland, dramatized in such critically praised fiction as The Butcher Boy (1993) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), once again suffuses his blackly comic—and frustratingly arch—latest.

Structured as a basically chronological series of related tales, McCabe's seventh novel chronicles the increasing dementia of Pat McNab, a middle-aged bachelor son of "Gullytown" in rural Northern Ireland—and a serial alcoholic whose problems only begin when he murders his nagging mother and buries her in the backyard. In a bifurcated narrative that observes Pat’s actions both through a boozy haze and from the viewpoint of an analytical (and annoyingly pedantic) omniscient observer, McCabe compiles a lurid and often risible catalogue of rapidly accumulating horrors. Egged on by the ghost of his (still domineering) "Mammy," Pat impulsively dispatches neurotic widow Mrs. Tubridy (who makes him her domestic slave and lover), an "interfering peddler of dirt" (i.e., a "turf salesman") unwise enough to threaten blackmail, a property-hungry neighbor, an amorous aunt retired from a career in pornographic films, and numerous others—including Pat's confederates in a botched drug operation, three wild girls who take a fancy to him (in a droll parody of the classical legend of the Golden Apples), and even the policeman who finally arrives to apprehend him. Or are these crimes only figments of Pat's drunken imagination?—a possibility clearly suggested by considerable internal evidence, including interpolated flashbacks to Pat's childhood, spent cowering under the thumb of his brutal father, a former IRA soldier himself irrationally inclined to "imagining things." Meanwhile, McCabe keeps it all moving along swiftly, employing snatches of sentimental poetry and pop songs as chapter headings and ironic refrains.

One wonders, though, why McCabe seems compelled to keep retelling the same essential story, with minimal (albeit artful and ghoulishly amusing) variations. One gets the point, appreciates the skill with which it's made, and wishes this impressively gifted author would move on.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-06-019678-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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POGUEMAHONE
by Patrick McCabe

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THE STRAY SOD COUNTRY
by Patrick McCabe

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THE HOLY CITY
by Patrick McCabe

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.