The Lilac Bus by Maeve Binchy

I think I may have missed something. I've heard a lot about Binchy and that her books are fabulous, etc. But this was my first time reading something of hers, and I have to say, I'm not really impressed.

The Lilac Bus is a series of short stories that are all somewhat related in a way, but individual stories all the same. They involve a bus load of people that are driven from Dublin to their hometown on the weekend. In the hometown they all have their little secrets and things they're trying to cope with. The latter part of the book though deals with some other people who are living in Dublin and have issues all their own. I wish I could write a better description, but really, that's what the book is about.

Since we only get to see these people for limited amounts of time (even if they do appear in each other's stories) there is no real connection here. The first story was about a miserly girl who is finally told off for being miserly. There is a woman dealing with her drunken mother, another dealing with her drunken husband. A man who doesn't connect with his parents and can't tell them about his secret. And so forth. Everyone in this book has some kind of problem.

Yet all these problems are unresolved. For the people on the Lilac bus we only hear about their lives for the space of a weekend. The latter part of the book the stories encompass more time, but still have no resolution. It's very annoying and unsatisfying and to make it even worse, it's exceptionally depressing. There are only a few stories that ended with an upbeat note, and even then it wasn't so much upbeat as it was just average living. None of the stories are ever followed up on either so we don't know what happens. If I wanted to read unfinished stories, I would have just went to the file of documents I have on my own computer. I like to have a finish to my stories. But still, I'm giving this book at least two stars because Binchy's writing style is nice and clear and had she finished her stories, I expect they would have been good. It was the only redeeming feature of this book.

Not for me, and even though I have a couple of other books by Binchy sitting on my shelf, I may hold off on reading them as a result of having read this book.

The Lilac Bus
Copyright 1982
390 pages

The Story of Ireland: A History of the Irish People by Neil Hegarty

Apparently this book is a companion to a TV series by the same name. I would really like to see that series, if it's half as descriptive as this book it should be pretty good. But this book was well done, considering the amount of history that was crammed into a little over three hundred pages.

The Story of Ireland takes the reader through Ireland's history back to when the Christian religion first came into the country (and the story of St. Patrick) to modern times detailing the bombings and civil strife that accompanied Irish politics for many years. In between it covers the rule of Ireland by England, and it's many tries at having home rule. It details the tension between the Catholic church and that of the Protestants, a strife that has encompassed many United Kingdom countries throughout their history. And it also says a little bit on the famines that hurt the population of Ireland.

The majority of the people talked about in this book are those that had some political standing or rule over Ireland. The average person in Ireland is not referred to much unless discussing the famines. So because this book features the people active in religion and politics, the storyline does much the same. The result is that despite the title saying this is a History of the Irish People, it's more a book of the history of politics that effected the Irish people. I'm not saying this to criticize the book, but more that I expected to learn about daily lives of people to a greater extent than I did with this book.

There's a huge period of history that's covered here and it's done quite well. For having to put all that detail into a small place, Hegarty is able to do it in a way that is readable, yet still interesting. I learned much more about the history of Ireland than I ever knew before. Especially the turmoil that has taken place in the last century that I never would have suspected. I also enjoyed reading about the real St. Patrick and will try to remember the facts about him while drinking green beer this March. When going deep into politics it is hard to remember who's who as so many names are mentioned, but that would be my only complaint with the writing. There is a nice timeline section in the back as well as a notes section.

A very nice, concise look at the history of Ireland. If you've ever been interested in Irish politics or the way religion has impacted the country, this would be a good read. While not quite textbook detailed, it still provides a lot of information for the standard reader.

The Story of Ireland
Copyright 2011
343 pages

Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane

I'm not sure how this book got into my personal library.  But there it was, and I felt the need to read it, as I feel about all the books on my shelves.  It was ok, but I can definitely tell that this was not something I would have picked out for myself.

A young boy grows up in Ireland.  At this time there is much talk about informers and war and other things that are a family secret.  A secret he is determined to figure out although it will take him years and he'll only get it in snippets.  With a mother who is a little bit crazy he also has a troubled homelife as well.  But really, the essence of this book is what life was like in Ireland in the 1940's and beyond.  It shows one boy's childhood amidst the troubling time.

Our narrator is ok.  He speaks a little old for his age but he's also supposed to be quite smart, so that is forgivable.  He really wants to know secrets and has that childlike curiosity that makes you feel as if he is a worthy character.  His poor mother, I just found her a bit odd and crazy and couldn't really understand her.  I got the impression that she was supposed to be normal at least part of the time, but I never really felt that way about her.  And his father, while silent and strong, isn't given as much time in this book and I thought that he could have really been an important character and used much better.  There are several brothers and sisters as well, but they also only play minor roles.

The plot had a definite theme, rooting out the family secret.  But it was quite broken up into chunks of months or years, with no real set timeline or consistency.  It made it hard to really absorb yourself in the book because you were reading one story when you were immediately thrown into the next.  That being said, the actual language of the book was terrific.  Very descriptive and almost poetic really.  I liked the tone it set.  And there are some hard themes in this book.  It talks a little bit about war and execution and dark secrets.  Nothing is greatly described in detail, but it is implied.

This was just a hard book for me to really sink in to and appreciate.  I can't say that I'd seek other books out by Deane, but if they magically appear on my bookshelf again I'll probably read them.

Reading in the Dark
Copyright 1996
246 pages