About this title: In the debut crime novel from a Booker Prize-winning author, a Dublin pathologist follows the corpse of a mysterious woman into the heart of a conspiracy among the city's high Catholic society. Picador USA
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Date Published: 03/2007
ISBN-13:9780805081527ISBN:0805081526
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 340 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Date Published: 03/2007
ISBN-13:9780805081527ISBN:0805081526
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 340 p. read more
Description: Used-Acceptable. Bonus Audiobook sampler cd included. Good reading copy. We ship daily. All books are boxed and ship via USPS with delivery confirmation. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312426323ISBN:0312426321
Description: Very Good. Slight cover wear with minor scuffing to edges. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2008-01-22
ISBN-13:9780312426323ISBN:0312426321
Description: Very Good. Some notes in pencil. Nice copy! Ships from Colorado. Check out our 98% positive Feedback rating on Amazon! (March 2009. ) SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! Buy from the best – Tomorrow's Stuff Books! read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"During: It looks like I am reading slowly, which makes me feel self-conscious! so I must remark: I secretly was reading the new John Irving but was afraid to post it on here in case John Irving was monitoring for sneaks (some big fancy-pants authors DO that, I was not being paranoid) but then it was so stupid and bad and ridiculous that I had to put it down halfway through. Anyway I know it's dumb to be self-conscious about looking like I'm reading slowly, but I am NOT reading slowly is the only reason I felt self-conscious about it and felt compelled to share. Sometimes I just read slowly and that is fine.
Anyway, back to this, which is quite good! It's not as like steamily fraught with jumpy jittery skitters as was Tana French's lovely gem, but Literature Map suggested Benjamin Black and it was not a bad idea on Literature Map's part, at all.
After: No, no, no. If someone says, "Hello, Brenda," it is NOT appropriate to say that the other people in the room "picked up on the frisson of recognition." Saying HELLO to someone with their NAME does not slyly educe a freaking frisson of freaking recognition. Eejit. Which is not to say that the book completely falls apart--I mean, it's pretty successful, right? And Banville-as-Banville won the damned Man Booker, so who am I to say, really--but Christ. He also thinks it's dreadfully witty to have sexy women do sexy things to men totally out of the blue, and to have a (spoiler) baby-shaker perform a grotesque rape on a girl barely out of her teens. Which, okay, I can get behind sometimes, but he just kind of clatters that material out at you and I don't know if I'm meant to be shocked or horrified or what--in the end this book just left me irritated."
"No good guys in this story of a Catholic-sponsored baby-smuggling ring between Ireland and the US, no grasp of characters' motivations (at the beginning, the hero's been mourning his dead wife for years, but by the end we find out he feels not only ambivalent but hostile to her; he gave up his baby daughter to his sister in law when his wife died, so she's raised as his niece, but he seems unaccountably unaware of that at the start of the book and matter-of-fact about it at the end; even stranger, a young man transforms from a pretty-boy nonentity into an infant murderer/opportunistic rapist for no clear reason), way too much smoking, way too much "weren't the 50s just awful!" superiority, and no point to the whole thing. We follow characters around, they find out that a group of wealthy Catholics (the Order of St. George) are spiriting unwed mothers' babies out of Ireland to place them with devout American families (maybe to increase the numbers of priests & nuns when the kids grow up), but none of it ever seems really to matter much; it's a bad sign when the big reveal of the book elicits a "So what?" reaction."
"I enjoyed this book! The writing is well-done, the story is taut and gripping enough to keep the reader wanting to read more. The main character is sort of an anti-hero but still has an appeal. There were short scenes that were a little risque but it wasn't overdone. I would read another by this author."
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