Martin Ross (1)

I'm a sucker for tales of hapless British colonial administrators going gradually native while the natives run circles around them. Major Yeates, despatched to a remote corner of Ireland to arbitrate disputes over horses and keep a lid on drunken disorder, is the most delightful kind of fish out of water. Despite the subject matter being roughly 50% fox-hunting, 25% shooting and 25% horse-trading, there's a timelessness to the gently ironic style and easygoing prose of Somerville & Ross. show more Split into a dozen "experiences" of equal length and charm, this would make a perfect holiday read. show less

Absolutely hilarious. The British judge, the RM for Royal Magistrate, arrives in rain, compelled to buy a horse from his savvy landlord who's already overcharging. The house is vast, with unexplored inner reaches--unexplored until various fugitives lodge there. Without fear of contradiction, the best fox hunt in all of literature, an Irish fox hunt with everyone participating, bicycles, carts, several horses of varied abilities and instincts regarding walls, ditches and fences.
I do not know show more the current state of Irish reaction to this book, whether it is seen as baldly critical: humor always has that possibility of serious misapprehension. (Many readers of Confederacy of Dunces resent the book, though it is a modern classic.) But take it from me, with an Irish surname at least, Hilarious. show less

There's not a better moment for a book lover than discovering a novel of this quality, in among the dregs of Koontz and King, on a Salvation Army book shelf. I knew from nothing the names Somerville and Ross. I thought I was picking up a biography of Charlotte Bronte.

And so I suppose, the authors made a clever choice in naming the book The Real Charlotte. It's not like a Charlotte Bronte fan, upon closer inspection, would put the book down. But I think a better title would have been "And show more truly, Francine?"

The two cousins, Charlotte Mullen and Francine Fitzpatrick, one a Machiavelli and the other a minx, fight a genteel then deadly cage match in this Irish "comedy" of manners. It's surprising how very modern this novel feels. The three males and two females who are the principal actors are all flawed by both vanity and greed - our contemporaries, to be sure - and yet endowed with traits that induce understanding and sympathy. Charlotte is a calculating woman with an eye to the bottom line, but with a very human eye and heart for Lambert. Francine is half an innocent and half a coquette - with each wrestling within herself to find her a place among the men in her life. Lambert has good instincts for a comfortable blend of city and country life, but lacks self-discipline and knows it. Christopher Dysart is morally impeccable but almost as equally ineffectual. Hawkins is all dash and damn it, but with a creamy Romantic nougat core.

The novel has an apt and perfect ending, but not one that lends itself to the Hollywood touch. I almost wished for an ending like the diner scene in the Sopranos. But like the Soprano family, this mix of a compromised but charming company of neighbors, set in the tapestry of an Irish countryside, will long linger in your memory. show less

Humor is not a genre that holds up very well over time (Mark Twain excepted). The stories of Somerville and Ross, a remarkable pair of women, are an exception. I remember reading somewhere that Teddy Roosevelt was given a copy of this book while recuperating from surgery; it had to be taken away from him because he was laughing so hard the nurses feared he would split his stitches. It was the subject of a PBS drama series years ago, but even PBS did not do it justice. The exploits of Major show more Sinclair Yeates, his family, friends, and animals, hold up beautifully. Some of the stories have been collected, usually in equine anthologies, but resist categorization as "horse stories"

Reading past the humor, a modern reader can perceive the underlying tragedy of Ireland at the turn of the century, and the story of two women born out of their time. show less