A review by hspindlew
Away by Jane Urquhart

4.0

This book caught my eye while at the Mississauga Sheridan Centre book sale extravaganza and it has been burning a hole in my bookshelf ever since. I tend to stay away from historical immigration after being burned by Bride of New France (somehow one of the dullest books that involved an asylum and travelling to Quebec in the later 1700s). This book was different: brimming with memory and a shared history of Ireland, I found it very interesting...if at times a bit over wrought and interested in its own importance. At times it did fall under its own grandeur and self-importance, and perhaps it attempted to stuff too much myth (Irish and Canadian alike) into a not-so-long book. However, when it was done right it was very moving and I enjoyed the myth that came from Canada. I live on Lake Ontario myself and it is interesting seeing it from such a mythic, otherworldly, point of view - like the way people describe Ireland or France or Italy.