RAM of God

A popular author in Ireland, Keane is best known here for his play, "The Field," made into the movie of the same name. He writes of Irish country village life with humor and emotion; it's passions, dramas, small mindedness and, not least, its pervasive Catholicism. Eddie Drannaghy is the "Ram of God," a nickname mockingly bestowed on him 15 years previously when he was expelled from the seminary for impregnating a distant American relative. The American was an older woman who came to Ireland for the express purpose of conceiving a Drannaghy child. "The poor fellow was like putty in her arms. He had no chance at all, Thomas," the village sergeant says, explaining the name to his assistant. The book opens with Eddie, a strapping, handsome man of 35, being rudely awakened before sunrise by his drunken, shiftless younger twin brothers, ordering him to go and mow the high meadow of the family farm. As Eddie was meant to be a priest, his younger brothers have inherited the farm. Eddie, as usual, swallows his urge to bash their heads together in much the same way he buries his sorrow over his lost vocation in work and sublimates his natural sensuality in prayer and isolation. But all that is about to change. The twins are marrying the two Cronane sisters, daughters of the village's most manipulative, single-minded and ambitious woman, Mollie Cronane, and will be turning the Ram out to fend for himself. Eddie, despite his love for the land, is not despondent. He will pursue his seminary training in California, the only place far enough away to, perhaps, escape his nickname and reputation. And his growing interest in Patricia Cahalane, a gentle but strong-minded village teacher. But, despite the planning, there is foreboding in the air. "Mollie could not shake off a harrowing premonition of impending disaster. Everything was moving too smoothly." As Mollie's plans begin to unravel, she goes to greater and greater lengths to pursue the prime land of the Drannaghy farm and add it to the Cronane holdings, using any means, be it violence, gossip or the cudgel of Catholicism. Eddie Drannaghy, however, finds himself digging in his heels, refusing to give an inch, while never quite relinquishing his dream of a vocation or his daydreams of Patricia. Keane's novel is populated with vivid, strongly drawn characters with numerous idiosyncracies. A number of subplots, some comic, some tragic, circle his main plot. There is high drama, low comedy and a thoughtful (but never didactic) exploration of prejudice, alcoholism and the use and misuse of religion. Keane's writing is musical and witty and until the very end the reader is not quite sure how it will all come out. A delightful and absorbing and very Irish novel.