Freshness, innocence, and an engaging, unfussy style. O’Brien creates direct and likeable characters for her young girls coming of age in the hidebound, repressive, tight-lipped Ireland of the ‘50s. Hard to credit now, 60 plus years on, with today’s Ireland bedded in as the opportunity-rich society we see in Normal People, but the honesty, moral neutrality and probably the very playfulness of this treatment caused a storm of condemnations and controversy in its day. Hard to be sure quite how sanctimonious and repressed real people actually were back then; perhaps O’Brien’s work is some evidence of spirited lives being lived beyond official disapproval. ( )

I enjoyed two out of the three books in Edna O'Brien's "The Country Girls Trilogy and Epilogue." Probably unsurprisingly, I enjoyed the first two books, (which are on the 1,001 Books to Read before you Die list and are much stronger installments) much more than the final book.

The story mainly follows Caithleen, who has the misfortune to grow up poor with a deceased mother and drunkard father in rural Ireland. Her relationship with her frenemy Baba is all pervasive in her life and changes its course. Over the course of the series, the girls grow up and get kicked out of school, move to Dublin where they date, dance and drink with a variety of men, and later move on to marry just the wrong guys.

I disliked the switch in narration in the third book to Baba's point of view -- it really didn't provide any enlightenment about her character -- it actually made her more one-dimensional to me. I liked the first two books enough that I found the series enjoyable overall though. ( )

Do not read the Introduction unless you want the entire plot laid out before you read it.

The first book of the trilogy opens with gentle suspense as the ordinary daily life of a girl, her mother, and their hired man
revolves around speculation and fears about the fate of the missing, violent drunken father.

The story flows seamlessly between conversations and evocative descriptions of Irish country landscapes.
Then it moves into endless details of the interactions of the two country girls,
Caithleen passive, Baba a mean bully, and their respective mothers, passive and mean.

Men are uniformly drunk, deplorable, predatory, violent, and otherwise questionable as fathers, husbands,
friends, and priests. The Gentleman is the sole exception and eventually he peters out.

Girls get themselves expelled from their convent school and move to Dublin where Baba becomes slightly subdued since she is no longer feared by her friend.
Plot drags with clothing obsessions and boredom.

The Lonely Girl picks up two years later with some powerful landscape descriptions brightening an otherwise repetitive crawl toward seduction.
Eugene Gaillard's pursuit of innocent Kate is a long and improbable stretch where she is deserted by yet another married man.

Story moves to pathos with: "It is the only possession I have which I regard as mine, that cork with the round silver top."
It continues reciting the boring lives of two ordinary young women beset by stupidity and not transformed by any passion for creating,
for caring for others, for compassion, or for love. Empty and repetitive.

Eventually, in Girls in Their Married Bliss, Kate's needy, jealous, and fearful insecurity drives her husband away.
Eugene, who surprisingly returned to claim her after his desertion, is the only character I liked.
Despite his obsessive tendencies, he was the only intelligent one with a real sense of humor, irony, and truth.

While this may be a realistic depiction of the lives of the girls, it becomes predictably unredeemable and depressing:
"If nothing else, she'd get drunk."

Though the tame sexual episodes were shocking in their time, it is the pervasive Catholic negativity which amazed me,
expected from the priests, but unquestioned by the girls' families and the various people of the town.
It was also unusual to see no mention of father/daughter incest and Catholic complicity. ( )

Wishy wash mamby pamby romance which I only read because it was on the 1001 List. Big mistake. It only made it on the list because The Charwoman's Daughter was mentioned. ( )

The Country Girls Trilogy and Epilogue is a compilation of three novels that span the lives of two girls, from childhood through middle age, who were both rivals and friends in rural Ireland. The first of the three novels, The Country Girls introduces us to Caithleen and Baba. Caithleen is practically raised by a single mother, her father often drunk and absent, leaving them with little or no money most days, while Baba's father is good provider who comes home every night, even if the family isn't exactly a happy one. Together they go off to a convent school, Caithleen on scholarship, Baba out of jealousy. The second book in the set, Lonely Girls (more commonly known by the name Girl With Green Eyes), picks up where the first leaves off, in Dublin, where the girls are set to start their lives. They live together as boarders, Baba to attend school, and Caithleen working in a grocery. What they are really looking for though is freedom and men, rich if Baba has anything to say about it. The final book of the series, Girls In Their Married Bliss opens with both of the girls marriages, both of them seemingly getting exactly what they wanted. Yet nothing is ever as it seems, and life still has many surprises in store for both of them.

Both the first and second book were told by Caithleen, later known as Kate, while the last of the trilogy and the epilogue are narrated by Baba. Kate was often ruled by her emotions, and though intelligent, she let her feelings blind her to common sense and reality. Baba is far more pragmatic; she is also brazen and bold, and in my opinion makes a far more interesting character, though Kate's story is richer. In the end, I quite enjoyed all of the books and I'm glad I read them together in one book, because I'm not sure that I would have made a point to continue soon after the first.

Both The Country Girls and Girl With Green Eyes can be found on the list of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, though I actually enjoyed the last book far more. The story told in Married Bliss, while much darker, was more interesting and far richer. Yet, without the first two preceding it, it couldn't have been told. These are quintessential coming-of-age stories, both realistic and tragic, telling a story that unfolds every day, in every town and city. ( )