Ireland

I was toying with the idea of writing my first on-line review, but Juan of Columbia has pushed me to do it today. Anyone who couldn't find a plot in this novel, couldn't find a pit in an apricot! This glorious book -- which seems so accessible, and indeed, is accessible - uses language and style with elegance and depth and tells a story of such importance, that I can't imagine anyone not being moved and even changed by the reading. There are so few novels about men, their place in their families and in the family of man. This is just, simply, one of a kind. It may be the most satisfying book I've ever read. I've now shared "Ireland" with a number of friends and we all feel the same way. Just bowled over. So - Juan, thank you for the inspiration to write and share my views - in hopes that I can inspire more folks to pick this up and find, in it's pages, their own ideas about family and history, secrets and stories, what it is we were meant to be and what it is we leave behind. Whatever you do, don't miss this book!

Some call it the gift of gab. Some call it blarney. Others, the art of storytelling. However you label it, the Irish have a way with words, and spinning --- and living --- an epic tale always has been at the heart of their culture and history. Frank Delaney's IRELAND is true to this tradition: in both form and content, IRELAND is a tale spun robust and ranging. History and fable merge in this grand story narrated in part by a Seanchai, a traveling storyteller who finds a willing ear in Ronan O'Mara, a nine-year-old boy living in the Irish countryside. Ronan has heard from his father of such people, who entrance folk with larger-than-life yarns in exchange for a seat by a fire and a home-cooked meal. And entrance Ronan he does. The storyteller so influences and inspires young Ronan that he devotes his life to finding him and to seeking out the truths behind the stories. Sainted characters, rogues on thrones, and lyric poets populate the teller's romances; the pages are full of political and religious unrest and upheaval. Irish history takes on a life all its own, a life rife with fiction and fact, interchangeable and often indiscernible as one from the other. In the great tradition of Michener and Rutherford, Delaney writes a voluminous and impressive novel, one that captures the magic of Ireland and captivates the reader with its nod at history and wink at myth. Or is it the other way around? Maybe in the end, IRELAND is the epitome of storytelling, with the obligatory generous dash of blarney. --- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara

This is an interesting form of novel. The main character, nine years old in 1951, hears the tales of an itinerant storyteller and in later years wanders across Ireland learning and telling stories that add up to the history and mythology of Ireland. Some of the stories are Irish folklore, some are created for this book, some are actual Irish history. As I read the above description, it makes the book sound rather dull. It's not. These are delightful stories intermixed the take of a young man growing up as he seeks the story teller who visited his community many years before. Already a best seller in Ireland (surprise, surprise) this book is likely to go down as one of the best novels of the year. I wouldn't be surprised to see it receive several of the bigger prizes.

My mother was given this book by a friend who bought it in Ireland and who is now giving copies to everyone. I didn't want to read a book about 'Ireland' but this is about so much more than that, this is a book about wonder and delight and enchantment and love and marvelous humanity and now I am going to tell everyone about it. I read all the time but I had given up reading novels because many of them were so badly written. Then I read this book and was captivated from start to finish and I even read it walking along the street because I didn't know that people were writing books like this again. I think this may be the best book I ever read, with the most wonderful, positive, life-enhancing ending.

Ireland, A Novel, by Frank Delaney is a great read. I got so caught up in the story that I was a third of the way through the book before I realized how much Irish history & mythology I was learning. I have always appreciated a good story & Ireland contains some of the best of them. Beginning in the depths of geologic time, journeying through prehistory, mythology, and history I've come to feel an almost intimate relationship with the place and it's people. Although I grew up in a neighborhood with many families of Irish descent I must confess that almost none of it rubbed off on me. I knew very little of Ireland and the Irish aside from the green of Saint Patrick's day. That has changed with my reading of Ireland. If your background is Irish, this is a must read, you'll understand your own story so much better. If you've not a drop of Irish blood in you, you'll feel that you do with this book - and you will be glad of it.