0696 | Amongst Women | John McGahern
Lyrically written as so many Irish novels are, this centres around the inscrutable patriarch of a rural family. Moran rules his family with an iron fist. He’s an old freedom…
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0652 | The Talk of the Town | Ardal O’Hanlon
Had I not read Angela’s Ashes then this would have been unique and would have totally captivated me. But seeing as this was published just three years after Ashes, I…
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0632 | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | James Joyce
Joyce is such a wordsmith, He’s so able, at any point, to spring off with a bound and run with words in such a way that you really have to…
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0623 | The Story of Lucy Gault | William Trevor
What a beautiful novel is Trevor’s paean to loss, regret and life itself. I can’t tell you how it cleansed the palate after the first three books of Updike’s Rabbit…
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0615 | Brooklyn | Colm Tóibín
Last summer’s The Master had me wanting more of Tóibín’s writing. So, this summer, I picked up a copy of Brooklyn to see if he could transport me back to the…
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0594 | Murphy | Samuel Beckett
My, this was a strange one. Having not read any Beckett before, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Being Beckett though, it seems that, even halfway through, it was…
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0585 | Ulysses | James Joyce
Notoriously difficult to read, even more notoriously difficult to understand, whatever your opinion about this novel it is not notoriously difficult to appreciate the genius that lies between its covers….
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0534 | Loving | Henry Green
Really didn’t get into this. It’s not helped by the unorthodox dialogue which I had a hard time following at times. There are some half-memorable characters in here but the…
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0531 | Girl with Green Eyes | Edna O’Brien
A looooong time ago in the decade old life of Arukiyomi, I read August is a Wicked Month. That was my first taste of O’Brien’s work and it’s been too…
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0513 | Troubles | J. G. Farrell
This last book in the series completes my reading of Farrell’s Empire trilogy. I wish I’d read them in order. I actually read them back to front. Troubles is a perfect…
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0510 | The Third Policeman | Flann O’Brien
This starts off as normal as you like and then suddenly, like Alice down the rabbit hole while taking LSD, takes you on a mind-bending and, at times, literarily taxing…
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0487 | Star of the Sea | Joseph O’Connor
This was a very quick read due to O’Connor’s engaging and eclectic writing style and ability to construct some very strong characters and bring them together in creative ways. Star of…
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0461 | ADMT VII: The Valley of Bones | Anthony Powell
For me, the beginning of three books that make up the war trilogy section of A Dance to a Music of Time was an entertaining read with more of a…
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0426 | That They May Face the Rising Sun | John McGahern
Now I know what many are going to say on finishing this: ‘what the heck was that about? Where was the story? What was the point?’ And I have to…
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0337 | The Gathering | Anne Enright
Context: Finished burning off our piles of old paperwork as I finished reading this. REVIEW Right off the bat I’ll say that this is one of the most disappointing Booker…
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0287 | Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha–Roddy Doyle
Context: While I read this, we did teacher training sessions for the teachers at Male Primary School. REVIEW Heard a lot about this Booker Winner (1993) but never had a…
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0269 | In Europe – Geert Mak
Context: Finally finished this off at our friends’ lovely house in Beamish, County Durham. REVIEW This was an amazing book and I can’t think why it isn’t better known. For…
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0260 | Castle Rackrent – Maria Edgeworth
Context: Finished this off as I flew from Cleveland, Ohio to Dallas, Texas for some training for work. REVIEW Right from the start, I knew that this was an unusual…
