HIRD ALONE

There's a poetic quality in Sean O'Faolain's writing that carries one on through the mazes of a certain obscurity of structure and lack of clarity in story telling. This is the story of an emotional boyhood in Ireland of Parnell's time and immediately after; of the forces of religion and political unrest at work; of the contradictions of the Irish character, now gay, now sombre. Not so striking a piece of writing as A Nest Of Simple Folk -- and the limitations of the autobiographical from plus the oblique approach to the story make it at times red her difficult reading. Not for a wide audience.