Are You Somebody

Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: Boy, when I picked this one up I didn't know that 215 pages later I'd actually believe it must have been "accidental". To echo the herd, McCourt got it right and O'Faolain just plain didn't...If you were drawn to this because you loved "Angela's Ashes",try Rick Bragg's "All Over but the Shoutin'" for another poignant memoir.

Rating:
Summary: Dull and depressing
Review: Memoirs of more or less "ordinary" people can be interesting and involving as Frank McCourt, Rick Bragg and Russell Baker, among others, have proven.(I wish I could think of some women to add to this list). But simply naming obscure Irish poets and writers without fleshing them out for the reader leads to an attitude of "who cares?". There was not a single character in this book who was not a victim, predator, petty, repressed, deluded, or in some other way unlikeable. Unfortunately, this includes the author. I give an extra star for the occasional beautifully written passage; I wish there were more of them.

Rating:
Summary: Nuala O'Faolain would be on my guest list.
Review: I've just reached the half-way mark in the book and I should probably finish it before I write this. But having read some of the other reviews I find their remarks cruel and callous, words such as pretentious, self pitying and a few other unflattering phrases, for me this is far from the truth. Nuala has opened herself to us, no holds barred, and I find her and her writing delightful. It's as though she's talking and for me her writing just seems to flow. Perhaps it's because I relate to some of her experiences during the sixties and seventies which bring back fond, although sometimes painful, memories. For me reading is a passion and I'm always searching for books that I can get involved in and this is definitely one of those. Nuala O'Faolain is definitely one person I would invite to a dinner party, it would be a pleasure to sit next to her.

Rating:
Summary: Some advice, Nuala - Get some Prozac!
Review: This memoir was deeply unsatisfying. While I like the way she writes and crafts words, I found her to be uninspiring and pretentious, to say the least.

Rating:
Summary: Never quite got to the point in revealing what's her message
Review: Very hard reading and trying to relate to all the many men in her life, There were so many and only brief information on them all. Also, she never seems to share any in-depth feelings about herself and what she learned or discoverd through her journeys. Her book reads like a long boring recital.

Rating:
Summary: McCort did in better in Angela's Ashes
Review: I wanted to like this book but found it depressing and uninsightful. Angela's Ashes is the best of this genre. Her newspaper columns must be better. I had to force myself to finish it.

Rating:
Summary: A thoroughly depressing, pretentious book.
Review: Given the cover recommendation by Frank McCourt, I was prepared to enjoy this autobiography. Yet, several pages into it I put it down and wasn't sure if I could start it again. I was determined to get through the book and finally managed to read it from cover to cover. Why, I don't know. Nuala O'Faolain is pretentious, obtuse and depressing. Pretentious in the continual references to her "famous" friends and lovers, obtuse in her literary references (many in Irish which she doesn't bother to at least paraphrase so those of us not fluent in this language can at least make an attempt to understand what point she is trying to make) and depressing in leading us through her love life, much of it conducted in an alcoholic stupor. Angela's Ashes illustrated an impoverished Irish childhood with clarity and a degree of humor. Nuala O'Faolain's impoverished Irish early adulthood made me want to through her bok through the window.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious and self-pitying
Review: I read this for a book club and not a SINGLE person in our group liked this pretentious, self-pitying woman who can't write. We didn't like her book either!

Rating:
Summary: An honest and deeply moving memoir
Review: My sister lent me this book and I found it a wonderful read. I did not want the book to end. Her search for love and her looking at that search in such honest ways has made me feel that solitude is a common human experience even though we may not talk from it all that much. I am so grateful to Ms. O'Faolain for writing from her heart and sharing it with so many.

Rating:
Summary: turgid and meandering
Review: Nuala O'Faolain is one of Ireland's better journalists, but her memoirs are so dull. Why did she think anyone would be interested in her fairly average life? The copy of the book I bought (because I tend to love all things Irish)included some of her regular columns - which were brilliant and are the reason I gave this book one star instead of none.