A Grand Man

Rating:
Summary: Introducing the irrepressible Mary Ann Shaughnessy
Review: Little Mary Ann and her family are poor and live in
Mulhattan's Hall. With strong, child-like belief in the
powers of her beloved Da and the Catholic Holy Family,
however, the child herself lifts the family out of poverty.

She accomplishes this by bullying and charming rich,
powerful Mr. Lord, into giving her occasionally-alcoholic
father a farm job which should keep him off the booze.

This a a strong novel about families. In view of recent
books describing family systems, Mary Ann is the young
Star of the family, her loyal, strong personality overshadows
her brother Michael. Her brother takes after their quieter
mother Lizzie, a rational woman who has fallen in love
with a sometimes irrational man. He loves his wife and
family but Mike just can't give up the booze whenever his
self-esteem takes a blow, or if things aren't going well.
Keen Mary Ann senses this, and time and again protects
and now we would say enables her drunk father. She won't
even say the word drunk, her Da gets "sick" occasionally.
Lizzie the mother and Michael the brother can't handle
Mike's drinking, but Mary Ann, so like her father, knows
just how to deal with his episodes, no matter how harsh
or embarrassing Mike becomes.

Parish priest Father Owen, knows all about these family
issues from young Mary Ann's Confessions, she poignantly
believes that the priest in the confessional is tempararily
blinded and can't know who he's talking to. This frees
up the priest to be Mary Ann's shoulder to cry on. Mary Ann
also gains comfort from kind-hearted neighbor Fanny McBride,
her father's only champion.

A sometimes heartbreaking look at father/daughter love, and
the first gem in the shining Shaughnessy series.