Rating: 
Summary: The Chisellers
Review: I loved every word on every page of this book of family relationships. I found myself laughing aloud when Mam came to the defense of her daughter. I felt the tears before I knew I was weeping when the siblings joined together to protect their mother from the truth about her child. On the one hand the book is deeply rich with character development, on the other it is pure entertainment. My only criticism is that the book was too brief...
Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful chapter
Review: I picked up "The Mammy" last summer and could not put it down. When I found out there were going to be three books giving us the wonderful heartfelt tales of Agnes Browne and her boys, I could hardly wait. After finishing "The Chisellers", I was not disapointed. Brendan O'Carroll sucks you into this working-class Irish family with a tender and loving hand. (It was a bit embarassing laughing AND crying on the subway, but there are weirder people than that on the trains.) It can stand alone, but one book would just not be enough of Agnes Browne and her clan. Now, if I can just hold out until "The Granny" is published...
Rating: 
Summary: Chiselled
Review: I wanted very much to like this book, having been quite disappointed with "The Mammy", because my wife is from Stonybatter in Dublin, where Brendan O'Carroll also hails from. However, the decline that began midway through "The Mammy" continues apace in this sequel. The Browne family is growing up into steretypes industrious or shiftless, artistic or bumbling, straight or gay, while the quality of the writing sinks to the amateurish. The author's attempts at humour become pathetic and the attempts at pathos humorous. I shudder to think to what levels "The Granny" might sink to if the slide continues. I rate "The Chisellers" one star only because of the wonderful cover photograph, and I must add that my Stonybatter wife liked this book a whole lot more than I did, but even she agrees that the promise of "The Mammy" is not fulfilled.
Rating:
Summary: Another great chapter
Review: I was anticipating this book and accidentally bought "Agnes Browne" thinking this was it! But Amazon was kind enough to refund and forward the chisellers. A great story with a serious side, it made me laugh and even cry - no not the Cats thing! If you liked the Mammy then you have to ready this, I went and bought The Granny to round out my collection!
Rating:
Summary: Thumbs Up For Brendan O'Carrol
Review: Second in his seriers of three. Funny, heart warming, and well read by Donada Peters. The only thing that could imporove The Mammy, The Chisllers, and The Granny is book number 4.
Rating: 
Summary: Brillant! But a Sequel
Review: Sequels can not capture the initial feel of an original idea. This book has much of the charm found in "The Mammy", but lacks in the pantomime-like situation comedy that tickled your insides. We see another side of the family as they blossom into adults. It's darker, more mundane, but real and just as relevant. If you could relate to "The Mammy", you will find this a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Very good sequel to The Mammy!
Review: The Chisellers is the second book in a trilogy by Brendan O'Carroll which began with The Mammy. As I found with the first book, this is a good book which continues the story of Agnes Browne and her seven children.
When we first meet Agnes Browne she is newly widowed trying hard to take care of her children, the Chisellers of the title, and her stall in the market of the streets of Jarro. In this book, Agnes is older, wiser and still trying hard to keep her children in school or at work. Her oldest son is now working for an elderly man making furniture which presents the reader with a bit of a mystery while her daughter is keeping company with a local policeman. Then there is Agnes's son who has become a hair dresser and is keeping the secret that he is gay fromthe family. The younger boys are in school where one son isn't doing well and will be expelled while another one has become a pickpocket in the local stores. As Agnes continues selling her wares in the marketplace, she desparately misses her dear friend Marion while she continues her relationship with Pierre the owner of a pizza store.
Life couldn't be more of a challenge for Agnes keeping everything together and calm when she receives word that the Browne clan will be relocated to a different area while renovations to the area of her flat in the Jarro is completed. Naturally, this is quite unsettling to a woman who has never lived anywehre else and she wonders how her children will adjust. What happens when they move and one son is gone from their midst and the days are good and then bleak fills the pages of this book with laughs and tears.
This was a really good read and a worthy title to follow The Mammy. While reading this book, Agnes and her chislellers become real fleshed out people that any reader feels they know well. As I closed this book I looked forward to reading the last book in the trilogy, The Granny.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't want it to end!
Review: The Mammy and The Chisellers were recommended to me by a friend. I started The Mammy and could not put it down till I finished it. I started The Chisellers right away, and was no where near disappointed. These are EXCELLENT books, I didn't want them to end! I look forward to reading The Granny.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fooled by the cute photo on the cover!
Review: This book was advertised in some of the American Irish Papers and the photo looked very cute, and frankly, I could have been one of the kids on the cover, so I picked it up. The novel is PURE pulp set with some cute characters, but this author 'jazzez' up the storyline and makes it 'modern' in a way that is subtle to the modern mind but a fraud and a trick on the reader. This book follows teen and late teen working class (comparitively) large family living in a Dublin apartment. In the tradition of a trite modern movie, good things happen to this 'single mother' 'Agnes' who never had an 'organism' with her late husband because he was like ice upon her back. You gotta throw in the single-mom and sexually underutilized 1970's housewife to sell a novel these days you know. She however, finds fulfillment in a French transplanted pizza maker. This all the while her oldest son, who works for an Austrian Jewish holocau$t refugee and survivor (gotta throw the holocau$t reference in there to make a modern novel you know) and saves the survivors old fashioned handcrafted furniture factory when the English clients want cheap disposable furniture, by making . . . cheap disposable furniture. Along the way, he finds a girlfriend and gets married. The second older son becomes a hairdresser and a homosexual, but Agnes, being the stupid woman, never cathces on even when her gay son dances with his randy boyfriend at the other son's wedding. But the son actually married says the modernist 'Whatever makes you happy?' But the third older son is a skinhead punk (gotta throw the nazi rascism reference in there to sell a modern novel ya' know) He steals money from Agnes, gambles, and helps beat her gay son almost to death with his other skinhead punk friends. We all know that there were *so many* skinheads and beatings in Dublin circa 1973. That is why the whole country, below the 6 counties, had 2 murders a year. The other kid is a shoplifter, the other daughter races a go-kart, all summing up into a completely false and unbelievable tale wrapped in quaint language with some true references to way people act, and still act in some quarters. I think this book's cover is its only high point. I have cut the cover off, by the way. Buy this book with the hopes of scoring a picture, do not expect writing in the style of the McCourts, or as accurately truthful as 'Its a long way from Penny Apples'
Rating:
Summary: Don't be fooled by the cute photo on the cover!
Review: This book was advertised in some of the American Irish Papers and the photo looked very cute, and frankly, I could have been one of the kids on the cover, so I picked it up. The novel is PURE pulp set with some cute characters, but this author 'jazzez' up the storyline and makes it 'modern' in a way that is subtle to the modern mind but a fraud and a trick on the reader. This book follows teen and late teen working class (comparitively) large family living in a Dublin apartment. In the tradition of a trite modern movie, good things happen to this 'single mother' 'Agnes' who never had an 'organism' with her late husband because he was like ice upon her back. You gotta throw in the single-mom and sexually underutilized 1970's housewife to sell a novel these days you know. She however, finds fulfillment in a French transplanted pizza maker. This all the while her oldest son, who works for an Austrian Jewish holocau$t refugee and survivor (gotta throw the holocau$t reference in there to make a modern novel you know) and saves the survivors old fashioned handcrafted furniture factory when the English clients want cheap disposable furniture, by making . . . cheap disposable furniture. Along the way, he finds a girlfriend and gets married. The second older son becomes a hairdresser and a homosexual, but Agnes, being the stupid woman, never cathces on even when her gay son dances with his randy boyfriend at the other son's wedding. But the son actually married says the modernist 'Whatever makes you happy?' But the third older son is a skinhead punk (gotta throw the nazi rascism reference in there to sell a modern novel ya' know) He steals money from Agnes, gambles, and helps beat her gay son almost to death with his other skinhead punk friends. We all know that there were *so many* skinheads and beatings in Dublin circa 1973. That is why the whole country, below the 6 counties, had 2 murders a year. The other kid is a shoplifter, the other daughter races a go-kart, all summing up into a completely false and unbelievable tale wrapped in quaint language with some true references to way people act, and still act in some quarters. I think this book's cover is its only high point. I have cut the cover off, by the way. Buy this book with the hopes of scoring a picture, do not expect writing in the style of the McCourts, or as accurately truthful as 'Its a long way from Penny Apples'
|
