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Ireland: A Novel
: My Irish heritage and love of the country sometimes make me bristle at the inanity often found in "Irish" novels. Delaney gets it right. Ireland is extraordinarily rich in history and culture. "Ireland" is a perfect mixture of the two.
Delaney successfully conveys the flavor of the land and its people, even describing the subtle differences among the counties. Amazingly, he accomplishes this without cluttering the tale with politics.
This is more than a story. It is a fabulous - literally - journey with perfect travel companions. Enjoy the ride.
I relished every moment of IRELAND by Frank Delaney, right from its opening words: "Wonderfully, it was the boy who saw him first ... a tall figure in a ragged black coat and a ruined old hat was walking down the darkening hillside; and he was heading toward the house." The man is a traveling storyteller, "the last of his breed," who will tell stories in exchange for a place to stay and something to eat. Like Scheherezade in "1001 Arabian Nights," how many nights will the family let the visitor stay if he can entrance them with his stories? The man tells the story of Ireland a little at a time, a battle here, a hero there. He starts with the origin of the ancient rock, "stone born of fire and cooled by sea," in a segment reminiscent of James Michener's sagas. He tells of the building of prehistoric Newgrange and relates colorful stories about ancient kings, St. Patrick and the legendary Finn MacCool.
Meanwhile, we learn about the boy, Ronan O'Mara, 9 years old when he first hears the Storyteller in his home in 1951. The old man seems to see a promise in the boy, and we suspect he has chosen him for his apprentice. Ronan is instantly fascinated by the Storyteller. Even after the man has gone away, the boy is eager for more and reads all the Irish history he can find, because he has fallen in love with the stories. As he grows up, Ronan follows the Storyteller, determined to catch up with him.
The history of Ireland is messy, and the stories get more brutal and more bloody, with a lot of battles. There are also dramas and mysteries going on within Ronan's family, and secrets are gradually revealed.
Some of my favorite parts of the book feature the Storyteller using simple language to explain beautiful thoughts: "I like cobwebs on branches, the fine silver netting with drops of dew at the corners." But he is most eloquent when he speaks of his love for Ireland and its people. "We are seers.... Islands appearing in the ocean off the coast surprise no one ... ghosts stride hillsides.... We are infinitely permissive of possibility; we rule out nothing." And especially: "But when I come out on the road of a morning, when I have had a night's sleep and perhaps a breakfast, and the sun lights a hill in the distance, a hill I know I shall walk across an hour or two thence, and it is green and silken to my eye, and the clouds have begun their slow, fat rolling journey across the sky, no land in the world can inspire such love in a common man."
The great sweep of the book reminds me of Edward Rutherford's LONDON. This is an impressive epic and a very moving, satisfying read. It will make the Irish in you want to get up and dance. And if you're not Irish, you may just wish you were.
This is an interesting form of novel. The main character, nine years old in 1951, hears the tales of an itinerant storyteller and in later years wanders across Ireland learning and telling stories that add up to the history and mythology of Ireland. Some of the stories are Irish folklore, some are created for this book, some are actual Irish history.
As I read the above description, it makes the book sound rather dull. It's not. These are delightful stories intermixed the take of a young man growing up as he seeks the story teller who visited his community many years before.
Already a best seller in Ireland (surprise, surprise) this book is likely to go down as one of the best novels of the year. I wouldn't be surprised to see it receive several of the bigger prizes.
A great introduction to Irish history and geography. I would recommend the purchase of the audio cd which is narrated by the author, Frank Delaney. He is a gifted performer of the highest order. I have been listening to recorded books for nearly twenty years. Delaney is one of the finest narrators I have ever heard. Just heearing the different regional Irish accents added another level of pleasure. Don't miss this opportunity.
My mother was given this book by a friend who bought it in Ireland and who is now giving copies to everyone. I didn't want to read a book about 'Ireland' but this is about so much more than that, this is a book about wonder and delight and enchantment and love and marvelous humanity and now I am going to tell everyone about it. I read all the time but I had given up reading novels because many of them were so badly written. Then I read this book and was captivated from start to finish and I even read it walking along the street because I didn't know that people were writing books like this again. I think this may be the best book I ever read, with the most wonderful, positive, life-enhancing ending.
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