The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
ctrlaultdelete's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was a slow burn for me but once she got back to Ireland I was all in and loved the shifting reflections and continued reveals about both the Talbots and Kathleen’s own past. Also Nan Leech forever. ALSO appreciated the reflection on the attempt to suppress historical and personal trauma. I took so many photos of memorable descriptions and lines of dialogue. Just loved this book.
elenajohansen's review against another edition
1.0
DNF @ page 163. I hung on longer than usual to get to the section where we go back to the past for the Talbot's story directly, but it wasn't anymore engaging than the present-day narrative. The style was heavy, bogged down with detail and stilted prose.
gardngoyle's review against another edition
1.0
I got horribly bored about 100 pages in. The story seemed to aimlessly wander and I realized I didn't care where it was going.
maureenmcc's review against another edition
3.0
I picked up this book on a whim, loving the author's name and wanting to read some Irish fiction. It was quite sensual and dreamy and I liked the back and forth of current events contrasting against the gradually unfolding pieces of the narrator's life that we learn through flashbacks. While not an altogether likeable character, I did ultimately enjoy the journey.
laneamagya's review against another edition
4.0
See my review at http://booksforears.com/author/lanea/
adriennel's review against another edition
4.0
This is a haunting tale- full of nostalgia and history. An unusual fav for me, but something about O'Faolain's writing just gets to me.
dearreader's review against another edition
1.0
Truthfully, it took me nearly a year to finish this book. It was very difficult to get through just out of disliking the entire story so much. I wasn't pleased with the style of writing either.
papaya6's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting Irish author, but I found it took me a while to get into the book. She was a bit lengthy with her descriptions and after a while, I wanted her to just get on with the story.
extemporalli's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really interesting novel about passion and what lies at the bottom of it. Kathleen de Burca is an Irish writer on the cusp of fifty. Her closest companion, a colleague named Jimmy, dies. Thrust into an existential crisis, Kathleen returns to a nineteenth-century divorce judgment she read decades ago and decides she's going to find out what really happened - and returns to Ireland. It all comes back- her childhood, her father and mother, what it was like being young and female there. At the same time, a man enters her life. This could so easily be self-indulgent sensationalism, but what makes the novel is this shadowy awareness of all the hurts and verse that underlies Kathleen's self-aware and self-destructive drive towards passion. This gets better as the novel proceeds - in fact, I'd say that I started really enjoying the novel about halfway or two-thirds through. Some really good passages about Irish history and what it's like to be Irish, too.
Flaws: the novel does feel both slow and overstuffed at certain points. This is a 500-page novel that could easily have been 300+ pages. But if you're in the mood for a self-aware, quasi-historical slow-burner, this is a novel to pick up.
Flaws: the novel does feel both slow and overstuffed at certain points. This is a 500-page novel that could easily have been 300+ pages. But if you're in the mood for a self-aware, quasi-historical slow-burner, this is a novel to pick up.
shalms's review against another edition
4.0
Hmm, interesting to read the mixed reviews of this book on GoodReads. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author is a grand storyteller and her language drew me in. I learned more about Ireland and the Potato Famine than I had known before and loved how she portrayed the people the main character, Kathleen , got to know during her sojourn in her homeland. And I really loved the story of the main character, who seemed very human and real to me. No, there are no neatly wrapped happy endings to the book, but isn't that how life is? And the historical subplot was intriguing as well, shadowing the messiness and lack of resolution that is reality. Not a deeply meaningful book but definitely an enjoyable tale that lends itself to reflection about how we live our lives and our regrets.