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Loading... Ireland: A Novelby Frank DelaneyLibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Irish history through the eyes of a storyteller. Excellent! (  ) fellerw | Sep 12, 2009 |  I LOVED this book! I was so sorry when it was over. :) (  ) Wanderlust_Lost | Jul 4, 2009 | I plucked this book from the "New Fiction" shelf at my library, based purely upon the previous nights' conversation with a friend about her honeymoon in Ireland. This book has three parts to it: it is the story of Ronan O'Mara, a history-obsessed only child growing up with his doting father, abrasive mother, and fun-loving aunt in a small town in Ireland. One night, he looks out his window to see a man walking up the path, looking like "a scarecrow that abandoned his post". Enter the storyteller. Back in the Olde Days, Storytellers would wander the roads of Ireland. Households would take them in and house them for a short time in exchange for evenings filled with wonderous tales of the history and people of Ireland. Ronan had always dreamed of a Storyteller happening upon his house, and when he was nine, his dream came true. The Storyteller stays for a few days and enchants Ronan, but his mother, Allison, doesn't want the man in her house and kicks him out. Thus begins Ronan's search for the Storyteller. This book alternates between the life of Ronan, his family drama and his obsession with finding the storyteller; and the stories that he hears as time goes on. There is an excellent balance between storyline and tale, it doesn't seem at all like Frank Delaney didn't have enough to fill a book so he put in some lore to add a chapter or two. The tales are written as an Old Storyteller would relate them - making it all the more charming and engaging. (  ) anterastilis | Feb 24, 2009 | This isn't the book I thought it was. Fortunately, by the time I'd worked that out I was well and truly hooked and read happily right through to the end. Delaney is telling two ... or three, or four? ... stories in this book. First is the story of Ireland from prehistoric times right up to the 1960s. Then there's the story of the young boy we meet in the opening pages. Ronan is only nine when a Storyteller visits his family home. He is spellbound by the old gentleman and his tales and devotes a great piece of his life to finding him again. To say more about the plot would be to tell secrets so I shall leave it there. Delaney's writing is engaging and knowledgeable. The characters are painted in broad brushstrokes and there are so many stories within the stories he tells that it might have all become a shade too complicated. Thankfully, Delaney is skillful enough to pull it off and I never had that nasty feeling of being all at sea. Highly recommended. (  ) notjustlaura | Dec 13, 2008 | This was an enjoyable read - what it lacked in characterisation it made up for in the interest of tracing Ireland's history through stories. As an English person I found parts of it quite horrifying, and it made it a lot easier for me to understand how there has been so much hatred generated between Ireland and England. Didn't do anything for my national pride but then I barely had any to begin with. ( ) Eruntane | Nov 24, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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From a land famous for storytelling comes an "absolute masterpiece"* -- an epic novel of Ireland that captures the intimate, passionate texture of the Irish spirit.
One wintry evening in 1951, an itinerant storyteller -- a Seanchai, the very last practitioner of a fabled tradition extending back hundreds of years -- arrives unannounced at a house in the Irish countryside. In exchange for a bed and a warm meal, he invites his hosts and some of their neighbors to join him by the fireside, and begins to tell formative stories of Ireland's history. One of his listeners, a nine-year-old boy, grows so entranced by the story-telling that, when the old man leaves abruptly under mysterious circumstances, the boy devotes himself to finding him again.
Ronan's search for the Storyteller becomes both a journey of self-discovery and an immersion into the sometimes-conflicting histories of his native land. As the long-unspoken secrets of his own family begin to reveal themselves, he becomes increasingly single-minded in pursuit of the old man, who he fears may already be dead. But Ronan's personal path also leads him deeper and deeper into the history and mythology of Ireland itself, in all its drama, intrigue, and heroism.
Ireland travels through the centuries, interweaving Ronan's quest for the Storyteller with a richly evocative unfolding of the great moments in Irish history, ranging from the savage grip of the Ice Age to the green andtroubled land of tourist brochures and political unrest. Along the way, we meet foolish kings and innocent monks, fabled saints and great works of art, shrewd Normanraiders, strong tribal leaders, poets, politicians, and lovers. Each illuminates the magic of Ireland and the eternal connection of its people to the land.
A sweeping novel of huge ambition, Ireland is the beautifully told story of a remarkable nation. From the epic sweep of its telling to the precision of its characters -- great and small, tragic and comic -- it rings with the truth of a writer passionate about his country and in full command of his craft.
* Jack Higgins
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:57 -0400)
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