Booking Passage: We Irish & Americans

It's hard to define this book. Mostly, it's about the experience of Thomas Lynch and his extended Irish-American family living in Michigan and his going back home to Clare to the relatives still living in the home of his ancestors. That part alone is well worth the read but Mr. Lynch goes much further, delving into his personal, spiritual faith and the schizophrenia of The Church as well as the residue of 9/11 and the chaos, fear and war that has followed, adding a depth I hadn't expected. The writing is lyrical and flows from topic to topic with ease, like an often beautiful, sometimes heart-wrenching journey.

I'd been waiting for what seemed like too long for a third book of stories from Thomas Lynch, but wondered if his Irish-based tales could possibility be as compelling as his earlier works, which were stories about life based on his career in dealing with the dead (in addition to being a writer, Lynch is an undertaker). But again, just as he used the funeral home as a backdrop for stories not about death but about life, Lynch uses Ireland, land of his ancestory and his frequent visits, as the canvas for telling poignant stories about life. Now I'll give friends copies of "Booking Passage" while i wait for a fourth book from Thomas Lynch.

I have read half of the book so far and it is a wonderful written book with a great story.

I found this book very interesting. I am also a Lynch whose ancestors (a couple of them named Thomas Lynch) came from Carrigaholt, County Clare. This book was very enlightening to me and although I have been to Ireland many times, I never stopped in Carrigaholt, but I definitly will on my next trip. Because of Thomas Lynch, I feel as though I have already been there. I plan to email Mr. Lynch. Four of my great-grandparents are from that area and his story sounds so much like the one my sisters and I have heard all of our lives, we must be related.

Ah yes, the grand saga of the Lynch clan as told by their own poet and fireside seanachi, Milford's favorite son undertaker and Rotarian, Thomas Lynch. Make no mistake, he has labored mightily to produce a history of his people that will endure to enlighten and instruct Lynch progeny for generations to come. His scholarship is impressive in its casual presentation. His ear is perfectly pitched for the colorful colloquial turn of phase. While the essay subjects ostensibly provide historical context, it is his dissection and examination of the minutia found in daily life that draws forth the foibles, contradictions, and eternal mysteries of existence. Deeply spiritual, he nonetheless is unflinching in presenting a litany of grievances against The Church of his ancestors. His lengthy petition to the Irish Arts Minister for intercession with the bureaucracy of land management is a masterpiece of unrelenting, yet humanistic logic. Global tribal conflicts are almost rendered banal by his catalog of international conflicts. Were it not for their heroic stoicism and deep mysticism, the sparse inhabitants of Mr. Lynch's West Clare coast could all be characters in a play by Samuel Beckett. These hardscrabble subsistence farmers, often reduced to dodging freak man-eating waves to gather seaweed for sustenance, would be astounded by the agricultural wealth of John B. Keane's "Kerry Gold" farmers just across the Shannon River. This book should be required reading before embarking on a Celtic genealogical journey or a pilgrimage to the old sod.