Rating: 
Summary: Not Bryson, but funny.
Review: I bought this book when I read reviews of it being compared to Bill Bryson's books. Some even said that Pete McCarthy was funnier than Bryson! After reading the book, I have to disagree. Having said that, McCarthy is a funny man who made me laugh out loud more than once. I think the greatest thing that he does is to show us the real Ireland and the people who inhabit it. This book would be a must for those wanting to visit Ireland, or anyone who just wants to take a vicarious vacation. McCarthy makes a good travelling companion.
Rating: 
Summary: Humor at the expense of others...
Review: I finally put the book down. After traveling much of Ireland myself and being especially interested in antiquities I was looking forward to a wonderful read. One wonders what actually motivated him to write. I do not appreciate the humor of ridicule and cultural profiling. At the risk of doing what he has done to so many others in his book, I won't comment further. I only hope that Mr. McCarthy finds some serious help with the unhappiness in his life so that he may channel his sense of humor to enhance rather than debase.
Rating: 
Summary: Information Needed
Review: I need any information about how to e-mail the author ( Pete McCarthy ) directly. I need to inquire of him certain aspects of the book and his research. Please forward any information that you might have available regarding how to contact Mr. McCarthy via e-mail. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Very funny, insightful book on the Ireland of today
Review: I picked up the paperback version of this book in a bookshop in Kinsale, Ireland last week during a short vacation. By chance, the tour by rental car that we'd planned pretty much followed Pete's travels. The book is laugh-out-loud funny but also very insightful about Ireland today. The people were every bit as friendly and welcoming as described in the book. And he's not kidding about the call-in shows on Radio Kerry. On our last day, an old man called in to express his great worries about county workers' plans to straighten a stone fence on his property. The host said to him, "What I'm trying to glean from you sir, is, what exactly are the ramifications of straightening this fence?" The man replied, "Well, I don't really know." And that was the end of that call. Absolutely hysterical -- and true.
Rating:
Summary: Very funny, insightful book on the Ireland of today
Review: I picked up the paperback version of this book in a bookshop in Kinsale, Ireland last week during a short vacation. By chance, the tour by rental car that we'd planned pretty much followed Pete's travels. The book is laugh-out-loud funny but also very insightful about Ireland today. The people were every bit as friendly and welcoming as described in the book. And he's not kidding about the call-in shows on Radio Kerry. On our last day, an old man called in to express his great worries about county workers' plans to straighten a stone fence on his property. The host said to him, "What I'm trying to glean from you sir, is, what exactly are the ramifications of straightening this fence?" The man replied, "Well, I don't really know." And that was the end of that call. Absolutely hysterical -- and true.
Rating:
Summary: Ireland and Laughter
Review: I ran across this book in Dublin as I began an 8 day drive through much of the southwest of Ireland. Not only did I visit many of the places which McCarthy describes, but met some of the same sorts of wonderful Irish characters. This is also the funniest book I've read in 40 years. A brilliant and touching writer who can laugh at himself, as well. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Very funny and informative
Review: I read this in preparation for an upcoming trip to Ireland and found Mr. McCarthy's insights and his "rules for travel" (For example, never pass a bar with your name on it) to be a source of both recurrent laughter and in-depth insight into today's Ireland. Read this and learn while laughing. Great book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I was unsure about buying this book, but for the price I thought "what the hell!"I opened it and read the first sentence on the bus...what a mistake! I roared with laughter, much to the chagrin of my fellow travellers who weren't sharing in my experience. For your information, the first sentence is: "The harp player had just fallen off the stage and cracked his head on the Italian tourist's pint." Another sentence, and this is only from the prologue, I haven't even reached the first chapter yet, is: "At one point, the harp player fell off again, only backwards." This book is an amazing insight into the Irish way of life, and those who visit Ireland, by one who desperately wants to discover his Irish roots. Pete McCarthy is an astute and accurate observer. If you found the sentences I've quoted humorous, this book will have you in stitches. I'm not one to roar out loud to a book, but this one creased me up time and time again. For the craic, if nothing else, buy it!
Rating:
Summary: pretty accurate
Review: I've read the other reviews - they are mostly very good. I can see why - there are a lot of laughs in this book and it is accurate. After a while, you get a bit used to a routine in his humorous style, but he reflects the Eire I visit - a friendly people with great imagination and style in talking, and where odd things really do happen and are accepted as normal; also a country in a time of great change (you'll see I'm from the sad and grey little country of Northern Ireland - it's relief to visit this happier place).
Rating:
Summary: My kind of traveler
Review: McCarthy is the kind of traveler I aspire to be: serendipitous, easy-going, and ready to enjoy whatever experience he stumbles into, be it an all-night family birthday party, a nose-to-nose encounter with a cow, or a sublime bit of natural or human-made scenery. Having recently read Tony Hawks' "Round Ireland with a Fridge," I found some of the pub stories repetitious; however, McCarthy, unencumbered with either a fridge or the resultant notoriety, was able to interact more freely with the locals, so there's a less "forced" feeling to his anecdotes. I spent some time in the West of Ireland last spring, and I think he's got it exactly right: this region, for many years poverty-stricken and depopulated by emigration, is now coping with a nascent high-tech economy and the pressures of increased, up-market tourism, but the people haven't lost either their loyalty to their past or their friendliness. Although some of his jokes grew old after a while, I felt that he was trying, mostly with success, to give some coherence to the book -- it wasn't just a random collection of anecdotes. (And I don't think he over-emphasizes clerical abuse: the subject was still very much in the forefront of people's minds in Ireland when I was there, so he was just echoing what he heard.) In general, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book, and a true picture of Ireland as it is today.
|
