1471 Trinity, by Leon Uris (read 21 Dec 1977) I was repelled by some aspects of this book: it wallows in obscenities as far as speech is concerned I thought I was reading the Watergate tapes, but there were no delted obscenities--they were all there. It also reeks with anti-clerical, anti-Church sentiments. Uris is really a pulp writer, I think. He glories in gore. All in all I felt the book was not worth reading. ( )

Excellent book, read a lifetime ago. At the time, I remember thinking that it was the only book to adequately explain 'the trouble' in Ireland and how they came about. ( )

An historical novel, Trinity is about the Irish uprising and battle for independence. The author chose to show the plight of the Irish Catholics through fictional characters and fictionalized actual events. It covers the history of the conflict from about the mid-1800s to just before the Easter Rising, jumping back and forth between Catholic, Protestant and English characters.I appreciated the scope and depth of the information, I really knew very little about this moment in history. The author knows how to build a story and grip your emotions and sympathies for the characters and events, as well as set out clearly the motivations of the parties involved.At the end though, I felt as if I had been emotionally tweaked. I will not believe that every person committed to their faith is an evil, bigoted, hateful human being and that the only compassionate, sensible and decent human beings are the atheists and revolutionaries. Nor can I believe that every English man and woman is a beast who cares nothing for others. That is the impression the book leaves you with. It is not even-handed in any way. I don't like to be tweaked by ministers, politicians or writers, however, I am glad to have read this book, as it did give me insight to the bitterness and sorrows of a part of humanity, and what they did to overcome it. It also made me dig deeper into a part of history I had only glossed over until now. ( )

This is one of the better books I've ever read. It is a true Irish saga with all the right ingredients; the poor Catholic family, the wealthy Protestent family, economic progression, societal destruction, love affairs, political uprisings, etc. The book is quite long but the story propels itself with a passion. I love books that I can really "sink my teeth into" and this one fit the bill!
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
Suggested With: A pint of Guinness. :) ( )

This was a slow read, which isn't typical for me. It started slow because of the dialect, and because of the task of figuring out how so many characters fit into the story. Mainly, though, it was slow because of the depth of history it covers, a history with which I was largely unfamiliar.

The reward of reading this book, though, lies in the history it covers. I knew only vaguely, going in, of the strife between Ireland and England, and this book really explores that conflict and gives a face to it. On that score, it's a pretty staggering work.

In terms of the writing, I thought it was a little clumsy. Dreams were used as plot points on a couple of occasions, which strikes me as extremely lazy, and I couldn't quite figure out the purpose of the occasional first-person narrator, especially when, if you can forgive the spoiler, he doesn't even live to tell the tale. In general, I was disappointed in the characters, which were pretty flat and one-dimensional, nothing more than tools for advancing the plot.

Still, for all of its flaws, this was a pretty good read, and I'll soon be taking up the sequel, Redemption. I'm given to understand that some of Trinity's loose ends are tied up in that one, and I'm definitely interested to see how that works. ( )