Star of the Sea

"Star of the Sea" is a fabulous book. It humanizes an inhuman piece of Irish history. The history of the Irish famine is so painful---even for those of us who have never been more than slightly hungry---that we often avoid learning about it. Documentaries and history books are stark and brutal and sometimes we watch or read them more because we should than because we really want to know. O'Connor uses his formidable writing skill to examine the time of the famine in such a good story that you may be able to forget for a bit that he's writing about actual events...and that there was famine, coffin ships, and wickedness beyond our comprehension. I loved the whole book, but I was particularly impressed with the ship's captain who embodied the spirit of "Friends" I have known. It always seemed to me that the Quakers who offered soup to the starving Irish were misunderstood and that their generosity was a reflection of philosophy rather than a form of coercion. I admire Frank O'Connor for presenting what was likely the true Quaker motive during the Irish Famine.

Star of the Sea is a name that inspires confidence, the sort of jaunty, streamlined ship that any would-be seafarer would be proud to board for a swift cruise across the sparkling ocean. But Star of the Sea is a hell-ship, barely seaworthy, carrying too many starving and pitiful Irish refugees from the great famine of 1847 in its hold, carrying too little food and fresh water, and numbering at least one black-hearted killer among its passengers. Star of the Sea, a daring novel by Irish author Joseph O'Connor, is an engrossing tale of many parts. It is an engrossing murder-mystery set at sea. It is a piece of historical fiction that presents a vivid picture of a grim, hopeless time. It is a tale of disease and deprivation among the desperate poor of Ireland, whose hopes for escape are too easily shattered by circumstance. It is an indictment of class and privilege. It is a series of character sketches, colorful episodes, dark secrets and layered purposes. This ambitious book reads so realistically, it's hard to believe it's not lifted directly from the pages of history. Set within the framework of a 27-day voyage from Liverpool to New York, the story unfolds through a series of narrative sequences, flashbacks, letters, log entries and reminiscences. The dramatic and complex plot comes to us through varying perspectives, and O'Connor juggles diverse points of view without ever letting the thrust of his story slip. He avoids the easy path, the overly sentimental images that could steal the wind from his sails; his blunt honesty about conditions in Ireland and aboard ship is a heavy enough weight in the belly that he need not resort to such obvious tricks. He wraps a vital message within an epic tale that will not soon be forgotten.

A stunning work of art. The author uses the intertwined lives of several characters to convey the tragedy of the Irish famine and the human cost of migration, and does so in glorious prose.I've never read a more moving evocation of the Irish famine, which is the book's central focus. But this is also a tale about the Irish diaspora. O'Connor strips that event of romance of hindsight and conveys the pain and suffering that accompanied the emigrants on their journey.As a writer, I'm impressed by the book's complex structure; it's not easy to pull off these shifting points-of-view, but O'Connor does so with ease and grace. This is a beautifully written novel and a marvelous accomplishment.

In the bitter winter of 1847, a ship named Star of the Sea sails from Ireland, bound for New York. It is a miserable November, the cold seeming worse because of the Great Famine that has stricken the country. Thousands are dying from starvation and disease. Thousands are fleeing, after selling everything they owned to buy passage to America. And thousands are perishing in the attempt. Joseph O'Connor tackles a tragedy too long ignored. He turns the writing over to G. Grantley Dixon, an American journalist traveling home to Manhattan on the Star. Thus the story feels more authentic, as Dixon uses excerpts from the captain's log and bits and pieces from his own unpublished novel, along with other similarly clever literary devices. We join Dixon and other first class travelers aboard the Star, a ship with a dank hold overfull of steerage passengers with little choice but to bear the wretched filth --- and often too weak to care.O'Connor has created some wholly unlovable characters. A notable few of the cast are brilliantly moral, despite overpoweringly desperate conditions in the midst of an historical bleakness. Lord Kingscourt, sailing with his wife and two sons, comes on as a quite likable fellow at first, a fellow fallen on hard times of his own --- and hard times of his own making. As you get to know him, his darker side slowly emerges. I finally found myself nearly devoid of sympathy for this errant soul. But Lord Kingscourt is a product of his past and his choices, as indeed we all are. He fell in love with the wrong woman and spent his life in marital misery. Mary Duane, his children's nanny --- and the object of his desire --- sees things from a different viewpoint. She lost a husband and a child, and now she does what she must to survive. Lurking in the corridors, on the decks and in the hold is the Ghost, Pius Mulvey, a murderous prison escapee with a plan for assassination aboard the ship. As the Star sails, Lord Merridith, his wife Laura, Mary Duane and the despicable Pius Mulvey are profiled.Everywhere in this novel are the stark reminders of the chasm between classes. The present action takes place onboard the ship bound for America with her starving and diseased, but hopeful, cargo. Unfortunately, many of the steerage passengers, carried below decks in the frigid hold with clogged toilets and stinking blankets, will not make the journey alive, much to the good captain's sorrow. Meanwhile, in First Class, the tables are set with fine cutlery, the wine is abundant, and the beds in the private cabins are warm and snug.I am a week late with my review of this book because I just didn't want it to be finished. I love to savor a good book, but this one gets inside your soul. There is so much going on --- injustices that evoke a sense of outrage, a dose of history (with a few authorial liberties taken), secrets revealed right and left about the characters, and a few famous ones, like Charles Dickens, wandering onto the page now and then ---