[bksvol-discuss] McGreevy, haunting, shocking, deeply human, award nominee
- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 21:04:42 -0400
Dear Booksharians
A wonderful novel and Booker prize finalist, The Deposition of Father
McGreevy by Brian O'Doherty was recently added to the Bookshare collection.
I validated Amber's excellent scan, doing my best to render the accented
letters which most OCRs like to turn to numerals, carrots, and assorted
letter punctuation combinations.
It is an unforgettable, poetically written story brimming with human insight
a serious reader will appreciate. Though it's set in a tiny Irish mountain
village, there's no blarney about it. The time is World War II, though the
issues examined are worlds away. Witness the devastating smothering of a way
of life never to be reclaimed. One winter all of the married women die. The
only surviving females are girl children and an old woman, half mad and half
inspired. Father McGreevy desperately strives to keep the civilization,
spirituality and hope of the grieving survivors over 2 years of bleak
winters and emotional and physical deprivation.
So why is this devout champion of his people and his faith defrocked. Why is
the village shut down, it's children alienated from their fathers, it's men
imprisoned and driven away? What aspect of human sexuality, rarely
contemplated by most of us, innocently committed by the village's brain
injured young man, shocks the priest, the reader and the Irish population to
the point that lives are forfeit?
Don't approach this novel lightly, but don't be frightened away. For the
most part its characters demonstrate the height of human faith, love and
endurance. Human insensitivity, lack of compassion, impulse to affix blame,
and inability to face reality head on are facts of life. There are victims
and survivors among characters and truths you'll never forget.
Thank you, Amber, for the honor of validating this book.
Short and long synopses.
Short synopsis
An Irish mountain village survives death, isolation and despair over 2
bitter winters, to be obliterated by neglect, and condemnation of neighbors
church and government. Haunting masterpiece!
Long synopsis
"In a London pub in the 1950s, Editor William Maginn is intrigued by a
mention of the strange--and reputedly shameful--demise of a remote mountain
village in Kerry, Ireland, where he was born. Maginn returns to Kerry and
uncovers an astonishing tale: both the account of the destruction of a place
and a way of life which once preserved Ireland's ancient traditions and the
tragedy of an increasingly isolated village where all the women mysteriously
die--leaving the priest, Father McGreevy, to cope with insoluble problems.
As war rages through Europe, McGreevy struggles to preserve the remains of
his parish,
against the rough mountain elements and the grief and superstitions of his
people, and the growing distrust of the town below. [The book] explores the
locus of misfortune and the very nature of evil."
(Validator's note - Shortlisted for the Booker prize, this beautifully
written , unpredictable, unforgettable novel grips, moves, and shocks.
Always with love,
Lissi
The learning curve is a wavy rose blossom rim,, a maple seed spiral, a
slippery slope, a tidal wave, a settling feather's track, a shark's sharp
edged tooth, a changing cloud border, A spider web, a Key's coded notches,
an unearthed fossil, a lightning strike, an addictive substance, a rising
star's ark, a falling star's plummet, a stream of fresh air, a way to go, a
life line.
Estelnalissi
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