Reading in the Dark

Rating:
Summary: Needs a candle to read in the dark after Angela's Ashes!
Review: I don't know what exactly it was that disappointed me so about this book. Perhaps it was its disjointed beginning chapters, or that I felt it never really picked up with any sort of continuous flow. I never felt like I knew any of the characters well enough to sympathize or relate to them. There are no scenes or anecdotes that memorably capture the heart, mind or spirit of the reader. As a follow-up to Angela's Ashes, it was a great disappointment. That at least had some solid development; this, I feel, does not. I was less concerned how it ended than I was about actually getting through it, which is a shame.

Rating:
Summary: Great Expectations
Review: I had high hopes for this book, only because it won a few awards, but it didn't take long to be discouraged. I didn't like the short divisions between chapters; it made it all too confusing. The plot could have been made into a good one, but it seems as though the author threw in a lot of nonsense that had nothing to do with the ending. It seems as though the book actually started midway through the novel. Perhaps I just needed more of an Irish backround to fully enjoy the story/memoires that this book talks about.

Rating:
Summary: A well written read if you give it time.
Review: I just finished "Reading in the Dark." I'm a great fan of Irish authors and Seamus Deane did not disappoint me. The story is very well written and the further along into the book you go, the more engaging it becomes. As a warning, do not begin this book thinking that it will be reminiscent of Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes." Should you do so, you will be disappointed and lose appreciation for a distictly different book. Stick with it; it is worth it, if for nothing else but for the imagery.

Rating:
Summary: Simple family anecdotes which provide glimpse of Ireland.
Review: I loved this book. I felt it could have been the story of my own family from the way the reader is brought into the emotion of the tales through the simple perspective of a child. The family lore covered all manner of subjects - a ghost appearing on the stairs, the autocratic priest teaching maths , the younger sister dying of meningitis, the village idiot and the ever-present awareness of a history that was not being told of the links with an IRA scandal. Not to be missed for anyone with an interest in Ireland.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely beautiful!
Review: I read this book for a class, and it was truely one of the best books I've ever come across, (it made me cry- no small accomplishment)! At first sight I was worried it might be a rip off of Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, but not at all. It was fresh and had a totally diffrent feel, almost like poetry. I encourage everyone to read this, Irish or not, because everyone can understand the narrator's struggle. Truely a beautiful read.

Rating:
Summary: reads as if written in the dark
Review: no joking, this novel seems to have been written without the aid of any illumination, physical or otherwise; some may call it literary style but what it really amounts to is a disjointed and brusque mode of narrative that fails to capture the reader with anything save contempt; the characters all remain hidden behind this facade of darkness, only perring out now and then so that the plot does not completely stall; this work is more representative of a violent mind than an Irish one.

Rating:
Summary: Will become a classic...
Review: One of the best, ever. It was dark, moody, true. It had a lot of love in it. I appreciated the way the protagonist loved his parents and showed us, fairly and steadily, their good and dark sides. In fact, the whole book is like this - good story- telling, with the grim and the humorous so you never needed to put it down because you felt overwhelmed with one or another emotion. I will read more of Seamus Deane.

Rating:
Summary: A Brave New Ireland
Review: Reading in the Dark might merely have been one more "miserable Irish childhood" story, sandwiched between Angela's Ashes and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and dismissed. Seamus Deane's unnamed boy author -- nameless, it seems, because his world can't be bothered to notice him -- fits squarely between Frank McCourt and Paddy Clarke in era and in social class. He does not suffer Frank's horrific poverty, nor does he own the books that he reads, as Paddy does. The boy's life in a large working-class Catholic family, with its minimal adult supervision, at least one parent who cannot cope, cruel priests for teachers, and the necessary string of funerals, initially seems to be heading down the literary path to deja-vu.

Seamus Deane, born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1940, and now a professor at the University of Notre Dame, rescues his first novel from this downward spiral with his ability to transform stereotypical storylines into shattering new tales. Deane masterfully subverts the IRA theme of glory and honour; of fighting and dying for Ireland. He gives us the story of the narrator's Uncle Eddie, introduced as an IRA hero who either escaped from or was killed in a shoot-out with Protestant policemen, but who has not been seen or heard from since.

Deane plays with this contrived, glorious IRA getaway story, tempting the reader to take the anecdote at face value, to romanticize Eddie as a hero. He then inserts a twist -- we learn that Eddie does not have a hero's reputation outside of his family, but is seen as a police informer, a "stooly," by the Catholic community. This reputation stains Eddie's entire family, including the nephew that he never met. The boy is ostracized by his community when, about to be beaten by a gang of boys, he throws a stone at a passing police car in an attempt to escape.

"Once and informer, always an informer," the Protestant policemen sneer.

"F----- stooly," shout his friends.

"Is there something amiss with you?" his father asks.

Deane's layered treatment of conflict is gripping. Hiding beneath each layer -- political, religious, familial, and parent-child -- is a secret, founded partly in myth, partly in history, and considered sacred by the novel's adults. Deane turns the centrality of myth and history in Irish society from a charming tale, as it is most often seen, to a source of great turmoil for a young boy.

The narrator, skeptical of the myths that he is bombarded with, and determined to uncover the truth about his family and world, asks questions in a society in which blind faith is required. This throws him and, to an extent, the reader into conflict with everyone around him. The novel's structure, a series of snapshots of events in the boy's life, puts the reader and the boy on even ground in their quest for the truth. Both are privy to the same limited sources of information, both are told the same stories, and both must piece these tidbits together to make sense of the novel's new Ireland.

Rating:
Summary: A Brave New Ireland
Review: Reading in the Dark might merely have been one more "miserable Irish childhood" story, sandwiched between Angela's Ashes and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and dismissed. Seamus Deane's unnamed boy author -- nameless, it seems, because his world can't be bothered to notice him -- fits squarely between Frank McCourt and Paddy Clarke in era and in social class. He does not suffer Frank's horrific poverty, nor does he own the books that he reads, as Paddy does. The boy's life in a large working-class Catholic family, with its minimal adult supervision, at least one parent who cannot cope, cruel priests for teachers, and the necessary string of funerals, initially seems to be heading down the literary path to deja-vu.

Seamus Deane, born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1940, and now a professor at the University of Notre Dame, rescues his first novel from this downward spiral with his ability to transform stereotypical storylines into shattering new tales. Deane masterfully subverts the IRA theme of glory and honour; of fighting and dying for Ireland. He gives us the story of the narrator's Uncle Eddie, introduced as an IRA hero who either escaped from or was killed in a shoot-out with Protestant policemen, but who has not been seen or heard from since.

Deane plays with this contrived, glorious IRA getaway story, tempting the reader to take the anecdote at face value, to romanticize Eddie as a hero. He then inserts a twist -- we learn that Eddie does not have a hero's reputation outside of his family, but is seen as a police informer, a "stooly," by the Catholic community. This reputation stains Eddie's entire family, including the nephew that he never met. The boy is ostracized by his community when, about to be beaten by a gang of boys, he throws a stone at a passing police car in an attempt to escape.

"Once and informer, always an informer," the Protestant policemen sneer.

"F----- stooly," shout his friends.

"Is there something amiss with you?" his father asks.

Deane's layered treatment of conflict is gripping. Hiding beneath each layer -- political, religious, familial, and parent-child -- is a secret, founded partly in myth, partly in history, and considered sacred by the novel's adults. Deane turns the centrality of myth and history in Irish society from a charming tale, as it is most often seen, to a source of great turmoil for a young boy.

The narrator, skeptical of the myths that he is bombarded with, and determined to uncover the truth about his family and world, asks questions in a society in which blind faith is required. This throws him and, to an extent, the reader into conflict with everyone around him. The novel's structure, a series of snapshots of events in the boy's life, puts the reader and the boy on even ground in their quest for the truth. Both are privy to the same limited sources of information, both are told the same stories, and both must piece these tidbits together to make sense of the novel's new Ireland.

Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, spellbinding
Review: Reading in the Dark, along with Call it Sleep, and Mass for the Dead, is one of the best books I've read about growing up and family ties. The story is spellbinding and each sentence has the imagery of rhythmn of a poem. I regret that Seamus Deane's Selected Poems are out of print, because I would like to read more from this author. Reading this book takes concentration because it is so rich in language and imagery. The effort is well rewarded.