Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
|
 |
The Irish in America: A History (Pbs Documentary Series) |
List Price: $25.00
Your Price: |
 |
|
|
|
| Product Info |
Reviews |
Features:
Description:
When public television aired The Irish in America in early 1998, the program received several tepid reviews from big-city TV critics. It seemed the drama of the early episodes--with their chilling, poignant stories of the "Famine Immigrants" of 19th-century Ireland--couldn't be sustained throughout all six hours. Well, words may be worth 1,000 pictures--at least, as read by Irish actor Colm Meaney (The Commitments, The Snapper) in this audio version. With a gentle elocutionary lilt, Meaney makes every event immediate, every personal history intimate. The story of the Irish immigrant experience is told here in six parts: "Hunger," "The Parish," "The Precinct," "Work," "The Arts," and "The New Irish." Along the way, we hear the interweaving of personal accounts--of Patrick Kennedy, great-great-grandfather to John; and James O'Neill, great-grandfather to Eugene. And in an imaginative pairing of scripted narration and personal narrative, each section closes with an essay written and read by a present-day American with deep roots in the Irish story. The most moving is a poetic eulogy to hunger from Frank McCourt, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Angela's Ashes. As with the TV version, it's the first section of the narrative--where we follow the journey of the 19th-century Famine Irish as they flee the recurring potato blight--that makes these cassettes worth a long car ride. The insidious fungus that killed a million people also wiped out the ancient myths and honored traditions of an entire culture, transplanting its survivors to a country that was, at best, hostile. Still, the Irish in America managed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and in the century that followed, went on to influence every aspect of American life. (Four audiocassettes; running time: 4.5 hours)
|
|
|
|
