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dr_dick's review against another edition
5.0
outstanding! this is the best thing i've read in a long time, and that's saying something. because i've read some pretty amazing stuff lately. great story albeit with devastating deceptions of war, exceptionally rendered characters, and the most lyrical prose. there wasn't a false note in the whole thing. i look forward to more of Sebastian Barry.
jjpalala's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
kshimer's review against another edition
5.0
This is not a page turner or a "can't put it down" kind of book. This is the kind of book you want to savor, read slowly because the writing is that hauntingly beautiful. The narrator's voice, Thomas, is so compelling, unique and authentic. He created the most vivid images that you truly feel you are there through the heartbreak and the joy. A must read.
rc2's review against another edition
5.0
This book was so atmospheric and good. You could really feel the deadliness of the war. Also, the audiobook is the superior way to listen to this book, especially if the narrator is Irish themselves.
e_j_cook's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
eccles's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A grim tale of the life of two Irish immigrants in 19c America. Surviving starvation in Sligo and a death ship to Canada, they find each other under a hedge somewhere in that brave new world, and and after a childhood dressing as girls to dance with miners the pair spend their youth first killing indigenous people out West and then southerners in Kentucky and Tennessee. Full of the atrocities of war, this is a picture of the inexplicable cruelty of mankind: “…and then Death comes stalking in, in his bloody boots”; leavened at times by the thin strands of love they find in this broken, blood-soaked land. The story is told by one of this couple at the end of his life, a kind of autobiographical mode that lowers the narrative stakes in a tale that feels constantly full of peril, as the reader knows the narrator is going to survive to write his account. I say “his” but the first person here is “born a man and growing into a woman”, one whose gender fluidity waxes and wanes, but with whom the characters of this time seem remarkably oblivious to or accepting of. The prose is replete with beautiful turns of phrase, delivered in the deadpan mode of someone deeply traumatised. Does the high-reaching style sometimes seem to fall short? Perhaps, but more worrying to me is the dialect. I don’t know how early 19c Irish immigrants might have talked, what diction and turns of phrase these Irish boys might have picked up from their migrant brethren, but at times the narrative voice here slips from Sebastian Barry into something that seems to be aping Twain’s more studied efforts at a southern vernacular. It feels patchy, unconvincing, and for me distracted from the flow of the story. But it is a story so filled with suffering and pain that perhaps the distraction was welcome.
mitchk's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
antananarywa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
kayay's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25