Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

To give full context, I'm in the middle of a move, tied up with family concerns, and otherwise surviving the end of a particularly nasty winter. I kept this book out of the packed file because I planned to read it and leave it behind.
Within the first few pages, I realized that there was no way I could do that. I have to keep this sweet, loveable book nearby. The magical cheese farm of the Josephs Corrigan and Feehan, with its gaggle of singing pregnant milkmaids and cows that milk best to the Sound of Music, the tales of how to make wonderful cheese, and the many many threads of lives that have been tangled together made me smile, weep, and laugh out loud. I fell in love at the first description of the Princess Grace cheese, show more languishing in a fridge somewhere and gradually getting more annoyed (and smelly); I smiled with recognition at the earnest husband doing "good works" in a perfectly fine island community for the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement; I loved the townspeople and their antics and stories; I cheered as each character came into their own.
It's not a complex story, but it is laced with wisdom, running like a fine line of blue through a cheese. Parts of it have the slightly cheeky smell of a good Stilton. Parts of it glide down the throat like a creamy Brie. All of it fills the heart.
Key thing is, I ended it with a smile on my face, a tear in my eye, a hunger for some really good cheese, and a strong desire to go to Ireland. Or in some way, to head towards where I feel is home.
Loved it.
And I've got to say the title is one of the best I've seen. show less

I happened upon this book in my local library's book sale this weekend, having never heard of the book or the author. I didn't expect to be so touched by the story that I would find myself laughing out loud, frustrated by a character named Kit, and finally clutching my chest as I sobbed at the end. Truly a wonderful representation of the healing that happens at the end of the day when you have been let down, when you have let yourself down, and when you hit the bottom and find the strangers in your life picking you up and dusting you off and calling you their family. That it's also a story about cheese making is a bonus to a foodie like me! My only wish is that the story could have gone on! I want to know what happens to the next show more generation of the blessed cheesemakers! show less

This was loads of fun, and I really enjoyed reading this. The two protagonists were pretty boring by themselves, but the cast of supporting characters - the loving and good natured housekeeper, the temperamental Lucy, the two affable old cheesemakers, even the townspeople who you see for only a scene or two - they carried the story along. I wish the story was longer, though. There were things I wanted to see resolved that never were, but all in all, a good read. A bit slow the first half but it really picked up steam once all the main characters were all together on the farm.

from James:

This book is sort of a cozy read that uses a lot of cussing. It's funny in parts and touching in others. Lynch is a fine storyteller and I can easily see why others would give "Blessed Are the Cheesemakers" 4 or even 5 stars. It's sweet in a gruff way and lines up easily with current popular books like "The Storied Life of AJ Fikry." That said, I found it too predictable and somewhat dated. And it has a terrible, terrible cover.

The basic story is of two aged fellows who are renowned for their handmade near-magical cheeses. As the notion of mortality creeps in (foretold via a cheese-making failure), the search is on to find their apprentice(s) and ultimate replacement(s). Through a series of happenstance and accident, all's show more well that ends well.

If you just want to take the journey already knowing it's going to have a happy ending, you'll enjoy this book. If you take your stories with a little more twist and conflict, you'll probably grow bored about 3/4 of the way in...but at least you won't feel obligated to finish because you already know how it goes :) show less

I really liked this book. The title comes from a quote from Monty Python's Life of Brian so right away it captures the quirkiness of the story. Two Irishmen own one of the strangest cheese making enterprises in the world. Only pregnant unwed vegetarian girls milk the cows, the pasteurizer never comes in contact with the milk and the quality control consists of the two cheesemakers tasting the cheese each morning. Into their life comes a burned-out New York stockbroker and a granddaughter of one of the men who is escaping from her own problems.

It's a delightful read and full of lots of information about cheesemaking.

It only took me a week to read this cute, fun story about 2 quirky, old Irish cheese making men. Their dairy farm/cheese making sanctuary is where people who have nowhere else to go wind up. I liked reading all of their little stories, and appreciated the 3 farm cats named Jesus, Mary, and All The Saints. There is a bit of magic a la Chocolat which I thought was neato.

My least favorite part was a weird romance plot between a man taking a stab at sobriety and is 3 months widowed, and a woman who is only weeks out of a crappy, long marriage. Sounds like a disaster to me, but in a book I suppose it has a fair shot at working. Behold, the power of cheese!

It's not a keeper but I will probably read other books by Sarah-Kate Lynch.

This is the story of two haunted souls who feel trapped in their respective lives.
Abbey is living a lie with her husband and Kit is grieving for the loss of his wife.
Abbey is alone in the world except by her eccentric grandfather, an Irish cheesemaker, and Kit has just lost his job because he drinks far too much.
They meet in the most unexpected place, a "weird" cheese farm led by two elderly men, one of them Abbey's grandfather, which is more like a charity home for troubled people, especially young pregnant girls who sing to the cows while they milk them in exchange for a bed, food and good-hearted company.
The story reminded me of "Chocolat" or " Fried Green Tomatoes", where food takes a magical role in the story. In this case, the show more cheese is not coming out right because there's an ingredient lacking, and that's love. Kit and Abbey have to find out for themselves if they are willing to take the risk of loving again.

So, the plot was original, genuine and fairy-tale-like.
Why the two stars then?
I found the first quarter of the book endearing, Abbey and Kit's meeting romantic and touching but the final development was too unbelievably far-fetched. The "romance" lacks depth, the final chapters close the story abruptly and without charm. I turned the last page with a feeling of regret, thinking that this could have been a much better story if only the writer had stuck to the first chapters and finished the novel in a more plausible way. show less