The Year of the French

I was compelled to write this review mostly because of the previous commentary. A lullaby? Hardly. Vivid and stirring, and not at all a textbook tome. As for the supposedly "homogenized" characterizations, I disagree completely. Owen McCarthy, as befitting of a poet, is a poetical character. His reflections on his people and his land are some of the most moving I have read in any novel in ages. The book brings to life not only events -- ugly battles between cannons and pikemen, in all their gore and horror -- but also the tenor of the times, the motivations of all sides in this epic confrontation. And while Flanagan does tend to belabor some of his points and themes in the latter third (which a keener editing eye should have taken care of; this was a debut novel), a reader emerges feeling that every side in this fight had good and bad sides, high motives and base motives. And, having seen firsthand the way that modern wars of revolt and insurrection quickly turn into butchery on all sides, Flanagan's illustration of the conduct and motivations of the warring parties in 1798 Ireland seems as dead-on an explanation of such events as you'll find anywhere.A superb read, astonishing in its breadth and depth and its lyrical skill.

This is writing at its finest, making the drama of history come alive through characters we relate to and care about. I was swept along from the first paragraph, held captive by beautiful language and vivid detail. As has been said of the Irish, "There's no cause like a lost cause". Writing like this makes one of history's saddest stories live on in the hearts of anyone lucky enough to come across it. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Fiction expertly wrought can capture the myriad dimensions of war with greater efficiency than a history and can impart in great nuance the varieties of human drama and motivation, cutting quickly to why and how men fight. Some historians and journalists, like John Keegan or Cornelius Ryan, get inside this frame to write wholly satisfying accounts of battle, but in my view, nothing succeeds quite like Thomas Flanagan in his astonishing debut as a novelist. Next month in fact marks the 200 anniversary of that fateful year, which Flanagan has salvaged from history's footnotes to render as a perfect work of historical fiction. In his hands, Humbert's "invasion" of Ireland, the United Irish army, its men, their stories, and their destiny at the hands of Cornwallis--yes, that Cornwallis, beautifully brought to life--and Lake make the most compelling reading.