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Cal

Cal

List Price: $39.95
Your Price: $39.95
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Political violence mixed with an amazing love story
Review: A great love story of a boy who is captured by his past actions. Cal took part in terrorist actions of the IRA, helped to murder a police officer. Since, he is unable to live an ordered life as well as getting out of the terror. By falling in love with the widow of the man he helped to murder he tries to get out of his violent environment but all his effort is not enough. His love makes him wanting to apologize but the only way he can do this is by scarifying himself for justice and the hope of peace.

Cal was one of the best books I've ever read. Its realistic style and the sense for youth and the political problems of Northern Ireland make this book leave a picture in your mind that seems alive.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Brutal Tale
Review: Bernard MacLaverty's Cal is perhaps on of the saddest books of the last 20 years. The story of a young Catholic man in Northern Ireland, it slowly but surely tears your heart out.

Cal is an unemployed young man who has very tenuous ties to the IRA. He begins to fall for the widow of one of his group's victims as he tries to break free from the IRA's clutches. All the while he is forced to bear the prejudices of his Protestant neighbors.

MacLaverty skillfully writes the tale. He never fools you about how the story will end but none the less he manages to make the reader invest some emotion in Cal so that when the inevitable comes you are just wiped out.

This is a wonderful piece of modern Irish literature.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cal, a highly recommended book. READ IT!!
Review: First of all, we used about one month reading it. It was a part of this years curriculum. "Cal" consists of a very heavy English language, so if your vocabulary is small, we're not sure if we would recommend it.
But the contents itself were really interesting, surprising and you'll get so involved that you can't lay the book down. You'll become a "readaholic."
The plot involves in Ireland in the late 70's. Cal is the main character, with Marcella, Shamie, Crilly, Skeffington, the Mortons and Dunlop as the other characters.
Cal is a boy in his early twenty's. He lives with his father, Shamie, in a house in a nameless town. The problem is that Cal and his father is Catholics, a hated religion in the protestant town.
Cal gets beaten up and "hanged out" because of his religion.
Cal's "friends," Crilly and Skeffington makes money in a criminal way. They also take part in the I.R.A (Irish Republican Army). Cal hears the name "Marcella somewhere, and remembers something about it. (This is the part when you're supposed to get the picture the things that has happened, some kind of turning point really) He cant remember what, but he is pretty sure that it wasn't a nice thing. He keeps meeting her, and soon remembers what he did......??? We wont tell what.
He eventually starts to work for Marcella's mother in law, and they develop their relationship.

In a few words; Cal is a book full of tension, sex, violence and other cool stuff. And you'll get an insight into the circumstances in Northern Ireland. You cant really imagine the violence and hate that the people had and still have to live with.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The story about a young man in Northern Ireland
Review: I confess I didn't know very much about the conflict in Northern Ireland a few weeks ago. "The Catholics built the I.R.A. to drive away the Protestants and to unite Northern Ireland with the catholic Republic of Ireland." That's virtually all I could say about the difficulties in that region of the world. Then, at school, I got this book. I considered it as my chance to learn more about Irish people, their culture and to get a more detailed answer to the question why there was so much blood-shedding in the last decades. Let me tell you if this book gave me the answers I wanted to obtain.

I was quite intrigued by the story of "Cal". An unemployed young Irish Catholic, who has a strong connection to the I.R.A. and who wants to leave it because he doesn't have the guts to commit crimes in the name of an illusion called United Ireland, falls in love with a widow named Marcella. Cal knows from the first moment he saw her that he helped making her a widow, and he realizes that their relationship can't possibly work out for a long time. It was quite interesting to see Cal's change from a depressive youth to a man who is able to take the responsibility for his deeds. He constantly fights against his past and, at the end, although he suffers to relieve himself from his sins, he loses everything. The reader can really identify himself with Cal and understand his behavior. In this point, the author did something you will not find everywhere. But unfortunately he made some mistakes as well...

The novel is called "Cal". The title alone shows the reader that the story is completely fixed on the young man. Apart from Marcella who was discribed in as many dimensions as Cal, all other "dramatis personae" seemed to be parts of the stage and had no life in them. The majority of them was characterized in a very shallow way, and they had the only function to show us in a too simple way the life and the problems of Northern Ireland. Crilly and Skeffington, the terrorists, particularly disappointed me. They were the shallowest and the most cliche-like of all of those background people. I expected more of them because they played such an important role in the story.

Another disappointment was the ending of "Cal". Reading it, I got the strong feeling that the author became bored by his work and wanted to finish it at all costs. The ending was constructed too obviously and appeared unbelievable compared to the rest of the novel.

There are many symbols and metaphors inside "Cal". Both make the book a bigger challenge to understand. What I missed was a trial to explain the conflict and controversial possibilities to solve it. MacLaverty seems to see the happenings in a rather pessimistic way without any thoughts concerning their origins. If something of this kind was there, it seemed to be quite vague and too simplified.

"Cal" is certainly worth reading. Even though there may be a few flaws, the majority of the novel is OK. To be clear: it's written by an Irishman for Irishmen; nevertheless every reader will understand and and hopefully enjoy it. I, for my part, did the last, and additionally I got all answers about Ireland I was looking for.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The story about a young man in Northern Ireland
Review: I confess I didn't know very much about the conflict in Northern Ireland a few weeks ago. "The Catholics built the I.R.A. to drive away the Protestants and to unite Northern Ireland with the catholic Republic of Ireland." That's virtually all I could say about the difficulties in that region of the world. Then, at school, I got this book. I considered it as my chance to learn more about Irish people, their culture and to get a more detailed answer to the question why there was so much blood-shedding in the last decades. Let me tell you if this book gave me the answers I wanted to obtain.

I was quite intrigued by the story of "Cal". An unemployed young Irish Catholic, who has a strong connection to the I.R.A. and who wants to leave it because he doesn't have the guts to commit crimes in the name of an illusion called United Ireland, falls in love with a widow named Marcella. Cal knows from the first moment he saw her that he helped making her a widow, and he realizes that their relationship can't possibly work out for a long time. It was quite interesting to see Cal's change from a depressive youth to a man who is able to take the responsibility for his deeds. He constantly fights against his past and, at the end, although he suffers to relieve himself from his sins, he loses everything. The reader can really identify himself with Cal and understand his behavior. In this point, the author did something you will not find everywhere. But unfortunately he made some mistakes as well...

The novel is called "Cal". The title alone shows the reader that the story is completely fixed on the young man. Apart from Marcella who was discribed in as many dimensions as Cal, all other "dramatis personae" seemed to be parts of the stage and had no life in them. The majority of them was characterized in a very shallow way, and they had the only function to show us in a too simple way the life and the problems of Northern Ireland. Crilly and Skeffington, the terrorists, particularly disappointed me. They were the shallowest and the most cliche-like of all of those background people. I expected more of them because they played such an important role in the story.

Another disappointment was the ending of "Cal". Reading it, I got the strong feeling that the author became bored by his work and wanted to finish it at all costs. The ending was constructed too obviously and appeared unbelievable compared to the rest of the novel.

There are many symbols and metaphors inside "Cal". Both make the book a bigger challenge to understand. What I missed was a trial to explain the conflict and controversial possibilities to solve it. MacLaverty seems to see the happenings in a rather pessimistic way without any thoughts concerning their origins. If something of this kind was there, it seemed to be quite vague and too simplified.

"Cal" is certainly worth reading. Even though there may be a few flaws, the majority of the novel is OK. To be clear: it's written by an Irishman for Irishmen; nevertheless every reader will understand and and hopefully enjoy it. I, for my part, did the last, and additionally I got all answers about Ireland I was looking for.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cal - a novel for school
Review: I had to read it for a school assignement and I was not really fond of it. A book dealing with the Northern Ireland conflict? Weren't there already too many concerning this topic? However Cal is very easy to read for an ESL student and therefore I can recommend it. The story is quite interesting, but sometimes I miss the logic. Especially the ending was not too good. To sum it up one can say that this book is nice as an evening lecture and one gets insight into the terror of Northern Ireland, but it does not have a deaper meaning. For those of you, who are interested in NI and what it really means for a young person - go for it!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cal!
Review: I've had this book on my shelves for almost fifteen years, if you can believe it, but never got around to reading it until this week. Now I can't figure out why it took me so long to open it.

"Cal" describes the "troubles" in Northern Ireland in a simple yet elegant manner, with a bare minimum of explicit violence and gore. Most of the violence is implied - the two exceptions being the story of how Marcella Morton became a widow, and what at first glance seems to be a rather pointless episode concerning a land mine and a cow. It seemed pointless, that is, until you read further and discovered exactly how the land mine came to be there.

While the violence is at a minimum, the thoughts, feelings, and philosophies of each side are explored quite thoroughly for such a small book. And while I personally found both points of view quite repellent, I will say that I believed that the characters in this book had these beliefs, and that they were extremely passionate regarding them.

The book is also an interesting psychological study, at least as far as Cal McCluskey (the main character) is concerned. With the help of Marcella, the woman he comes to love, it seems that he is growing up, and coming to realize that there's a lot more out in the world than just Catholics & Protestants fighting and killing each other - but his past will ultimately work against him and nullify all the good that Marcella has done for him - because he was the driver of the car containing the man that killed her husband.

A touching, sad, and very important book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Simple but elegant.....
Review: I've had this book on my shelves for almost fifteen years, if you can believe it, but never got around to reading it until this week. Now I can't figure out why it took me so long to open it.

"Cal" describes the "troubles" in Northern Ireland in a simple yet elegant manner, with a bare minimum of explicit violence and gore. Most of the violence is implied - the two exceptions being the story of how Marcella Morton became a widow, and what at first glance seems to be a rather pointless episode concerning a land mine and a cow. It seemed pointless, that is, until you read further and discovered exactly how the land mine came to be there.

While the violence is at a minimum, the thoughts, feelings, and philosophies of each side are explored quite thoroughly for such a small book. And while I personally found both points of view quite repellent, I will say that I believed that the characters in this book had these beliefs, and that they were extremely passionate regarding them.

The book is also an interesting psychological study, at least as far as Cal McCluskey (the main character) is concerned. With the help of Marcella, the woman he comes to love, it seems that he is growing up, and coming to realize that there's a lot more out in the world than just Catholics & Protestants fighting and killing each other - but his past will ultimately work against him and nullify all the good that Marcella has done for him - because he was the driver of the car containing the man that killed her husband.

A touching, sad, and very important book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Story of Hate and Love
Review: It is a story of a young guy named Cal who lives in the Land of Hate (Northern Ireland) where he can be beaten and his house set on fire only because he is a Catholic. He gave up his work in an abattoir in a week, being repelled by its blood and atrocity, but became a driver in IRA's raids that brought misfortune and pain to the ordinary innocent people. We see what Hate can do with a person: it leads Cal's father to physical and psychical collapse (victim); it makes a 30-year-old teacher an implacable personification of Death and Destruction and a school hooligan a killing machine (executors). Cal is lone in the world with father as his only relative and music as his only friend, and they can't help him to overcome a deadlock. But his love to a woman, whose husband he helped to murder a year before, converts his guilt and sorrow into genuine repentance. At least since the time of Shakespeare we know that Love is doomed in the Land of Hate but it changes the Land in the end.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: cal on film
Review: Pat O'Connor's film Cal which was completed in 1984 deals with the tragic conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. The film tells the story of the Catholic central character, a young man called Cal Mc Cluskey who lives together with his father Shamie in a Protestant estate. Cal gave up his job in an abattoir because he could not bear the smell of blood. now he is unemployed. In the beginning of the film the viewer sees two men driving to the Morton's farm. While the driver is waiting, the other rings the door bell and shoots the Protestant Robert Morton and injures Robert's father with several shots. In the next scene Cal goes to the abattoir where his father works and borrows some cigarettes from him. On his way back he stops at the library where he sees the librarian Marcella Morton who is attracted by his attention. Then he meets Crilly a former schoolmate and Skeffington a 30 year-old teacher who are both involved in a local IRA organisation. They tell Cal to drive for a raid on an off-licence in a town near by. Back at home he finds a note from the UVF ( Ulster Volunteer Force, a Protestant organisation ). They threaten to burn the Mc Cluskey's house if they do not move away soon. On Sunday he goes to church in Magherafelt because he overslept. For his surprise he sees Marcella there and gets to know that she is Catholic, too. Later he cuts a tree together with his father. He drives with a van to the Morton farm to sell the blocks. On his way home three Protestant teenagers beat him up. The next day he comes back to the farm and splits the logs in smaller pieces and meets Marcella. Before he goes home he is offered a job as a potato lifter for some days. After that work he gets a full time job as a farm hand. One evening Cal has to help Crilly to raid the off-licence to get money there. He has to drive the car although he does not want to participate in IRA movements. After that the two boys go to Skeffington to bring him the money they just got right before. Skeffington tries to explain Cal the importance of those raids for the Irish history and that he cannot stop with that when he wants to. The next day Cal starts with his job on the farm. This is the start of the film... I think this film shows very well the situation in Northern Ireland. Everybody can imagine how things are going on there....


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