About this title: Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Told ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780571215294ISBN:0571215297
Description: Acceptable. Minor water damage, does not effect readability. Well used. Still readable but not for the collector. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Description: Acceptable. 2007-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners, and may have creases. Spine has wear at edges and creases. 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
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 2008-06-12
ISBN-13:9780670019403ISBN:0670019402
Description: New in New jacket. New, unread copy with remainder mark. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 2008-06-12
ISBN-13:9780670019403ISBN:0670019402
Description: Very Good. New, never sold, but slightly damaged when the carton was opened. No marks in text. Hard cover with dust jacket. 073009. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2009-04-28
ISBN-13:9780143115694ISBN:0143115693
Description: Very Good. 2008 paperback no marks and is in very good condition All of our products are cleaned with an disinfectant for your protection before shipping. read more
"I love Irish fiction, and this one did not disappoint. The writing is, in a word, luscious. It just envelopes you and makes the whole story larger than life, which is indeed a hallmark of Irish literature. The story concerns an old woman committed for most of her life to an Irish mental institution, and a doctor, who must assess her to determine if she was correctly institutionalized. The institution is slated for demolition, and the new one being built cannot hold everyone. The narrative alternates between the doctor's notes and the woman's secret life history, which she keeps under the floorboards of her room.
The element of what is really true plays heavily here; a great quote: "The written word assumes authority but it may not have it." Much of Irish history figures prominently into the story - from the 1920s "Troubles" to the establishment of the Republic of Ireland to WWII. Characters are not whom they seem, and many secrets and relationships are revealed at the end.
It is an amazing book. A lot of GoodReads reviewers note the pain and heartache that is within, and this is true. But it is all juxtaposed to beauty - which I guess is the whole of Irish history, if you think about it."
"I bought this book from a second hand bookstall in Kendall Market when I was there recently. The book had seemed to be calling to me, as I had seen copies of it a couple of times earlier that day - so I decided to buy it. I have another Sebastian Barry book TBR, and I think it was last year I read A long long way. I am so glad I stopped at that second hand bookstall as I have enjoyed this one more even than that.
This is a really great book, and a hard to put down read. There is so much in this book, it is both a history of Ireland, and the tragic story of one woman who is horribly treated. The often awful power of the local catholic priests at this time in Ireland is in evidence too in the story of Roseanne. Alongside the story of Roseanne we have the story of Dr. Grene, who is struggling to make sense of his own life. I liked the style of this novel, the telling of both stories side by side, the two characters becoming slowly more involved with each other. There was a wonderful revelation toward the end which I maybe should have been expecting but wasn't at all. Beautifully written this is a novel that will stay with me. But as all my bookcases are more or less full, I registering this and setting it as AVL."
"A wonderful, poetic book about love and memory. Also pain, and loss, and how you can miss the most important thing in the world, even though it's right under your nose.
Ireland too, of course.
We're all innocent Roseanne, locked up in an asylum for decades for no reason, or because she happened to be born with the wrong religion, or because the jealous people around her find her beauty too disturbing. She never really knows why, but she manages to forgive her tormentors anyway, even the cruel Fr Gaunt. At the same time, we're poor Doctor Grene, who's messed up his own life and those of three other people, because he got drunk one evening and acted without thinking of the consequences.
He creates fantastic images. The burning rat. Her mother's clock. The German planes, flying low over the sea on their way to bomb Belfast.
The hammers and the feathers. I can still see them falling."
"I'd like to give it 3 1/2 stars. I thought it was very skillfully constructed and written; I reckon I might read it again; and I'd like to read the author's related book.
I think that part of the reason I enjoyed this so much dates to my 25-years-ago obsession with James Joyce. Not only did I feel, reading this, that it owed much to Joyce and resembled Joyce, in style and voice (Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners more than Ulysses, though there's some Ulysses in there too); but I also realized that I am very much at home in this particular literary landscape, that of early twentieth century Ireland. It is a familiar and beautiful landscape and comforting that way, despite its dangers and horrors. I thought that Roseanne Clear's voice was absolutely spot on; it sounded like a language from another time, although perhaps what I'm recognizing is the Irish sound, not the early twentieth century sound.
William Grene, the other voice, was less convincing. He was just a bit too stiff and oratorical, sounding more Dickensian than contemporary, I think. Although he is meant to be a stiff character.
I can't decide if the INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS COINCIDENCE that makes up the plot and denouement of this novel is a good thing or a weak thing. Emotionally, it made me happy. As a way of ending a work of literature, it was just a bit too Hollywood, too pat, too easy. There should have been a twist, and there wasn't.
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So how come, for the purposes of this book group, the only books I find appealing to my (granted, stringent) standards of excellence are all written by men? This disturbs and annoys me."
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