Becoming Finola

This was an amazing book. I was shocked as I read it how alike this town Booley was to a town I visited last time I was in Ireland called Doolin. Both towns had a row of about 5 or 6 shops, one of wich being a pub, both towns have cliffs with a holy well only about a mile or 3 fields away, and both are on the side of a hill next to the ocean on the west coast of Ireland not to far from Limerick. I swear Shea must have visited Doolin before writing the book because she captured the spirt of the little Irish town to a key. Now a word about the book, wonderful, it's a classic love story that every woman wishes she could experience while on vacation, or as they say in Ireland "on holiday"

I first got into Shea when I read "Hoopi Shoopi Donna," to which I could relate because I, too, grew up second-generation Polish in New England. Although the characters and plots varied, Shea's first four or so books tended to focus upon Polish-American twenty-something heroines, usually living in Massachusetts, humorously dealing with their old-country relatives. In "Becoming Finola," however, Shea tackles an unfamiliar country, Ireland, and does it wonderfully. Massachusetts native (she couldn't totally abandon the old and familiar, could she?) Sophie accompanies her friend Gina on a three-month trip to Ireland for a change of pace after Gina's husband's death. However, Gina lasts all of one night, heading back to America and insisting Sophie stay. She does, and finds it surprisingly easy to fall into small-town Irish life -- as well as the spot left by Finola, a local legend who broke hearts when she abruptly fled the village three years earlier. Sophie all but takes over Finola's old life as she works Finola's old job, and falls in love with her old boyfriend. And then Finola comes back...

I just love discovering an author about whom I knew nothing, and finding a fresh new voice in the process! Suzanne Strempek Shea has written a wonderfully delightful quirky story that is so much fun, so fresh, so witty, that I am loathe to categorize it. It simply stands alone. Sophie White, a nice, thirtysomething New Englander, agrees to accompany her newly widowed and terribly grieving best friend Gina to a remote village in Ireland, where Gina hopes she will regain her equilibrium and start to heal. The two women arrive at a charming cottage (prepaid by Gina) near the sea, prepare to unpack their myriad clothing and belongings (also bought by Gina) and stay until Gina feels better. But Gina takes off after less than 24 hours, and Sophie is left alone in this friendly, tiny village that is seemingly haunted. Haunted, that is, by the very undead but very much revered and remembered Finola, who took off two years before with her German lover. Absolutely everybody in the village has a story about Finola, from her still lonely ex lover Liam, whom Sophie thinks looks like a young Eric Clapton, to the very "auld" Joe, whom Finola brought back to life and happiness by taking him for a long walk every day. Even the dog Pepsi owes his well-being to Finola, who rescued him from a wretched existence tied up in an uncaring yard. Unwittingly, Sophie starts to model herself on this mythical woman, thinking, "What would Finola do?" And in this way, she gradually assumes Finola's life, from her jewelry-making in the craft store run by Liam, to taking Joe for walks, to living in the cottage that was apparently Finola's before she left--to wearing Finola's left-behind, perfect, clothes. Oh--and Sophie also takes over Liam, until like it or not, she feels she IS Finola. The inevitable denoument is so tragicomic, but so full of wisdom, that it simply makes the book. I won't give away the ending, but in my mind, it was perfect. I cannot wait to read everything Shea has written; where has she been all my life?

In this strikingly present novel, Shea dips you by the toe into the village life of Booley, Ireland. The reader easily finds herself becoming Sophie, the narrator. We are the outsider, suddenly immersed in this simplistic, artistic life into which Sophie metamorphosizes. From the first day, when she straightens the merchandise in Liam's shop out of impulsive need for order, Sophie finds a place where she belongs, a place she never knew she was looking for. Sophie becomes Finola: an artisan of beaded jewelry, onto which she endows virtues, assigned according to the charms strung onto them, assigned on a whim, on a wish. Hers is a world into which we all long to disapperar. Into another world, another country, another life. The magical bracelts, in a way, narrate the story, and leave you wishing that you, too, could BECOME FINOLA.