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Rating: 
Summary: Every curse falls back on its author."
Review: This is a magnificent story of the author's growing up in Ireland.It takes place mainly after WW2 and until the mid-seventies.The son of an fanitically nationalistic Irish father who doesn't want to give up the past, and a German mother who is haunted by her past of growing up in Nazi Germany.
The author shows us the tremendous pressures of trying to get along when you are different from others in your community and country.This problem exists everywhere and we learn that it also occurs even in Ireland.This family lived with it as a central issue at all times and no matter how hard they tried,they could never get away from it.I don't think I have ever read a book that so clearly defined the issues and struggles that had to be faced.
Not only has the author described the struggles his family faced he also gives us a great deal of insight into the culture,thinking,perceptions,anguish,and the effect that the past has on the personality and feelings encountered when one is different.
Ireland is a very fascinating country and like no other.One never ceases to be amazed by what one learns by reading about its history and its people;and this book is no exception.
Several lines that really struck me were:
"Some things are not good to know in Ireland."
"We serve neither King nor Kaiser."
"My father says the Irish can't live on imagination forever."
"He doesn't want the song about immigration to go on forever."
"Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."
"Maybe there was no failure in Ireland,only bad luck,and
maybe there was no bad luck in Germany,only failure."
"Nelson's head was on the ground and the dust of the empire
was all around."
"When you're small you know nothing and when you grow up there
are things you don't want to know."
And finally,one that sums up the story:
"I'm walking on the wall and nobody can stop me."
The author's skill in the use of language is a whole order of magnitude higher than so much we see today;but still in a class with several of his Irish compatriots.What wonderful stuff this small country produces.
Rating:
Summary: Between languages
Review: I found The Speckled People after encountering a fascinating article by Hugo Hamilton on the "Loneliness of Being German". Similar to the article, the book immediately struck a chord with me. Those living within and without their own language will find a special connection to this book. Language as the identification of "home" and "country" and "language wars" are explored here in a rather exceptional way - through the voice and outlook of a growing child. Like a patchwork quilt the vignette chapters of the book come together for the reader to form an exquisitely drawn portrait. Hamilton's family is pictured against the backdrop of their Irish reality of poverty and want in the fifties and sixties. Complexities are accentuated by his dual identity as a child of an Irish nationalist father and a German mother who left Germany after the war.
While The Speckled People is an intimately personal chronicle of his youth, Hamilton's story has significance far beyond the autobiography genre. There are advantages and challenges in using the language of a child. On the one hand, experiences can be conveyed in a direct and innocent way. Johannes (Hugo) has not yet learned to query all he observes: "When you're small you know nothing". He is a sensitive and perceptive child who intuits that there are more untold dramas in the family. "You can inherit a secret without even knowing what it is." On the other hand, it may be difficult to maintain the language as the boy's capacity to analyze and reflect becomes more pronounced with age. Hamilton succeeds admirably in keeping his style consistent even where he integrates numerous events from the wider world as they become relevant to the young boy. As you settle into his style, the narrative becomes deeply absorbing.
The experiences of life under Nazi rule as part of an anti-Nazi family, continue to haunt his mother. Her painful memories are conveyed to the son in small doses, like selected scenes from a black and white movie in which she had a part. Nonetheless, she is homesick for her native country and all things German. Books, souvenirs and toys arrive regularly resulting in outbursts of happy laughter. Johannes records his mother's mood swings expressed through either laughter or primarily mental withdrawal and silence.
His father feels more Irish than anybody around them. He insists on preserving Irish culture and on "freeing" the Irish people from British influences. His children become "his weapon" against the enemy. He forbids the family to speak English. The children tend to "live" in German as their mother has difficulties speaking Irish. The Irish language has to be protected even if it means losing business. This can mean that cheques are not accepted from people who cannot spell Ó hUrmoltaigh - Hamilton in Irish. The language is your home, "your country is your language", he insists - it identifies who you are. The pressure on the children to speak German and Irish at home sets them apart from people in Dublin at the time. There, English was the preferred language. The children suffer from this enforced isolation. The neighbourhood bullies, responding to their otherness and German identity call them "Nazi", "Hitler" or "Eichmann". They attack them whenever the opportunity arises. While Johannes repeats to himself and to his mother "I am not a Nazi", he does not defend himself against the assaults. One of the rules of the house is to adopt a form of pacifist resistance, the "silent negative " and not to become part of the "fist people". As Johannes grows up, he understandably rebels increasingly against these strictures. In the end, he discovers his own way out of all the identify confusion, his anger and pain.
The Speckled People is a memoir like no other. Any comparison with other Irish memoirs would seem inappropriate to me. While Hamilton chronicles his childhood and growing up, themes and issues beyond the personal play a fundamental role. In particular his exploration of the complexities of "language" as "home" and "country" gives this book added richness and depth. [Friederike Knabe, Ottawa Canada]
Rating:
Summary: Nationalism and Nazism
Review: Memories of an unhappy Irish childhood marred by an eccentric and often ludicrous father who, although the son of a British sailor and (apparently) not a native Gaelic speaker, tried in abusive ways to stop his children speaking English. His mother was German, from an anti-Nazi Catholic family. Some of the father's vitipurative nationalist writings were anti-semitic.
It's beautifully written, very moving, and often funny. Some large political questions arise. Is there a similarity between the impulses that gave rise to Nazism and the romantic patriotism of small countries? Is the insistence on separate national identity linked to the need for personal self-esteem? How desirable is the preservation of dying languages? One fault is that Hamilton lets the political questions intrude too much. There is a long and vivid description of the Hitler assassination plot. The consciousness of Second World War enmities seems exaggerated for a child born in Southern Ireland in 1953. A closer focus on the facts would still have allowed us to ponder the larger questions.
Rating:
Summary: Speckled Like A Trout
Review: Some reviewers tell the whole story in a paragraph like this, which I will refrain from doing. That would take away the entertainment value of reading the book. Suffice it to say that, of the 50+ books I read a year, this one is one of the top 5 of the year. It has a very interesting voice (a child's perspective), and story (one Irish parent, one German parent, and their children who live in Ireland after WWII) that certainly makes you think about one's place in the world and also one's perspective of history. I highly recommend reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: We Knew About Losing
Review: The cover of this book has one of the most charming photographs of a young child reading. The picture has much greater relevance, as it is not simply a wonderful photograph chosen for the cover of a book, rather a picture of a young Hugo Hamilton. The author characterizes his early years in post war Europe as the child of an Irish mother and a German father by stating, "We knew about losing, we were Irish and German".This autobiography is not like many I have read by before, especially those set in Ireland. This is not a fairy tale that is ruled by wicked characters from Dickens or a childhood that is unfamiliar with happiness. The most bizarre character that struck me was his father, an ultra nationalist obsessed with Gaelic. For this man absolutely everything secured its destruction by whether or not Gaelic was the written or spoken word. This was a man who would imperil his family financially not because there was a lack of work rather those he worked for did not address his mail in Gaelic. His children were made near recluses, as he would not allow them to interact with any children that did not come from a home that shared his strict and bizarre views of language. When his strange fixation on language was added to the prejudice the children experienced as a result of lingering German prejudice, there was plenty for this man to write about. As happens in many instances his Mother was a critical influence and she is interesting to read of as well. This is a beautifully written work but is not one that will constantly raise your spirits. I found it to be melancholy, but a very worthwhile use of your reading time.
Rating:
Summary: Almost an Angela's Ashes
Review: The cover picture and the packaging are obviously attempting to ride on the coat tails of the phenomonal success of "Angela's Ashes." Which is okay in this case, because there are many similarities, and also because this book is almost as good. Almost. It's very close. Which is to say: it's still better than just about any other memoir you could get your hands on. This is a most charming, most intuitive, most page-turning read. I loved it. You probably will too.
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