Rating: 
Summary: Disinterest or Dislike
Review: About half way through this book, I realized that, at best, I was disinterested in these characters. At worst, I disliked them. I waffled back and forth between the two positions until I decided, about three-quarters through this book, that I hadn't worked up a modicum of liking for any of them. I put the book down and decided to try it again in a year or so. Sorry, but at this point, I think I wasted my money!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Fresh Voice
Review: Emer Martin has a cult following and it is well deserved. She is the most talked about writer in underground circles in years. Her work is so unusual and unique I really think there is no one to compare her to. There has never been literature of this kind before. Such an array of weird and complex characters combined with language so stunning and visual that it leaves one breathless. I am so bored with all these so called uplifting books that make all this publicity noise and never live up to the hype. It is refreshing to see a real writer perfect her craft in such a fresh and individual manner without pandering to current tastes and lurid attention seeking. Emer Martin is the real thing and her books are the last bastion of hope in these tired fawning self congratulatory days.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fabulous
Review: Emer Martin has crafted a tale of an Irish family that is as far from Norman Rockwell (or his Irish equivalent) as they come. More Bread or I'll Appear is the story of an Irish family and their quest for a missing sibling. Each family has his or her own demons to deal with. Molly, the mother is stuck in Ireland, too scared to venture out and look for her precious first-born, Aisling; Oscar, her twin brother, is a homosexual, alcoholic priest, living in terror that his secrets will be revealed; Siobhan is anorexic, Orla has never gotten over the baby she gave up for adoption, Patrick has no ambition and drug addict friends. Keelin, the youngest, is perhaps the only sibling with some semblance of a "normal" life. It is she that Molly convinces to embark on a devastating journey to locate her lost sister, who disappeared 15 years earlier, almost without a trace. Keelin, accompanied by various siblings at various points in the narrative, learns some disturbing truths about her sister, and the rest of her family, as she searches. Martin writes with a sarcastic, twisted humor that keeps this novel from plunging into the depressing underbelly of humanity that Keelin discovers in her search for her sister. Keelin comes to understand that the one thing that ties her family together is also tearing it apart--the obsessive compusive disorder that sent her father to an asylum. More Bread or I'll Appear is a disturbing novel, a unique novel, a funny novel. I don't think it is for the faint of heart. I enjoyed this novel, and would encourage any daring reader to discover the world of Keelin and her family.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disturbing Tale of the Bonds of Family
Review: Emer Martin has crafted a tale of an Irish family that is as far from Norman Rockwell (or his Irish equivalent) as they come. More Bread or I'll Appear is the story of an Irish family and their quest for a missing sibling. Each family has his or her own demons to deal with. Molly, the mother is stuck in Ireland, too scared to venture out and look for her precious first-born, Aisling; Oscar, her twin brother, is a homosexual, alcoholic priest, living in terror that his secrets will be revealed; Siobhan is anorexic, Orla has never gotten over the baby she gave up for adoption, Patrick has no ambition and drug addict friends. Keelin, the youngest, is perhaps the only sibling with some semblance of a "normal" life. It is she that Molly convinces to embark on a devastating journey to locate her lost sister, who disappeared 15 years earlier, almost without a trace. Keelin, accompanied by various siblings at various points in the narrative, learns some disturbing truths about her sister, and the rest of her family, as she searches. Martin writes with a sarcastic, twisted humor that keeps this novel from plunging into the depressing underbelly of humanity that Keelin discovers in her search for her sister. Keelin comes to understand that the one thing that ties her family together is also tearing it apart--the obsessive compusive disorder that sent her father to an asylum. More Bread or I'll Appear is a disturbing novel, a unique novel, a funny novel. I don't think it is for the faint of heart. I enjoyed this novel, and would encourage any daring reader to discover the world of Keelin and her family.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Emer Martin has written one of the most interesting and engaging books I have read in years. The book is funny and intelligent, and the characters are vivid and unique. I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to get a glimpse of the various corners of the world visited in this book from a very hip point of view.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Emer Martin has written one of the most interesting and engaging books I have read in years. The book is funny and intelligent, and the characters are vivid and unique. I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to get a glimpse of the various corners of the world visited in this book from a very hip point of view.
Rating:
Summary: A Family that Sticks Together?
Review: Emer Martin's novel about the ups-and-downs of a dysfunctional Irish family is a new approach from her earlier work "Breakfast at Babylon." Martin examines human issues that brings about the saying: "a family that sticks together [doesn't always stay together]." The story focuses on a mother, Molly and her 5 children, Patrick, Aisling. Keelin, Siobhan and Orla.
Molly's husband becomes mentally ill and is institutionalized. Molly and the children move from west Ireland to Dublin. The eldest daughter Aisling attends college there. Molly follows her. Then one summer Aisling just disappears. It takes Molly 15 years later to presuade her youngest and reliable. Keelin and put her life on hold to search for Aisling. So Keelin sets off to travel the world with the other siblings. Keelin learns that each sibling is cursed with their father's affliction 'the doubting disease.' In some way and another each is ultimately compelled to perform irrational acts. In pursuit of her wild, elusive sister. Whose personality defies any description. Keelin takes on a very chic and decadent Japan, a talk show diverse United States and an incongruous Central America. There are many questionable adventures.. what follows is an uncertain reunion and a surprising betrayal. Keelin questions the family attachments that have driven her to the point of separation.
Martin's work casts a unique ego on vital issues of gender, race and class. Though it's primarily a story about family. It sheds some light on what some family's face within their circle. The domination of genetic and emotional bonds, the struggle for individuality and the difficulty of love. If you like reading about the quirkness and social norms in family relationships I suggest this.
Rating:
Summary: A Family that Sticks Together?
Review: Emer Martin's novel about the ups-and-downs of a dysfunctional Irish family is a new approach from her earlier work "Breakfast at Babylon." Martin examines human issues that brings about the saying: "a family that sticks together [doesn't always stay together]." The story focuses on a mother, Molly and her 5 children, Patrick, Aisling. Keelin, Siobhan and Orla.
Molly's husband becomes mentally ill and is institutionalized. Molly and the children move from west Ireland to Dublin. The eldest daughter Aisling attends college there. Molly follows her. Then one summer Aisling just disappears. It takes Molly 15 years later to presuade her youngest and reliable. Keelin and put her life on hold to search for Aisling. So Keelin sets off to travel the world with the other siblings. Keelin learns that each sibling is cursed with their father's affliction 'the doubting disease.' In some way and another each is ultimately compelled to perform irrational acts. In pursuit of her wild, elusive sister. Whose personality defies any description. Keelin takes on a very chic and decadent Japan, a talk show diverse United States and an incongruous Central America. There are many questionable adventures.. what follows is an uncertain reunion and a surprising betrayal. Keelin questions the family attachments that have driven her to the point of separation.
Martin's work casts a unique ego on vital issues of gender, race and class. Though it's primarily a story about family. It sheds some light on what some family's face within their circle. The domination of genetic and emotional bonds, the struggle for individuality and the difficulty of love. If you like reading about the quirkness and social norms in family relationships I suggest this.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fabulous
Review: Having read Emer Martins first novel, Breakfast in Babylon, (which is highly recommended), I waited with baited breath for her next book. Follow up books from new authors can often be disappointing at the least, however, I was pleasantly suprised at the consistancy in Ms. Martin's talents as a young author. The story although tragic, is written with warmth and an understanding that is rarely seen in modern literature. There is greatness in this book and something for everybody.
Rating:
Summary: Great follow up to E. Martin's Debut (Breakfast in Babylon).
Review: Highly recommended!!
I loved it from start to finish!!! Emer Martin's brilliant and sexy second novel comes only two years after she unleashed Breakfast In Babylon onto the unsuspecting literary world. The title comes from an Irish folk legend concerning madness, and the story follows the lives of a dysfunctional family plagued with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This global literary mystery is instantly compelling as we follow the adventures of Keelin, who is tracking her missing sister, Aisling, across three continents. The sensual, assertive Aisling is herself engaged in the pursuit of her African lover, Fatima. Aisling has changed everyone she has met and left a trail of shell-shocked characters in her wake. The protagonist, Keelin, is a sensitive sensible girl committed to her teaching career and her mother. Keelin is in turn transformed by her journey and begins to search out her own place in the world. This is Keelin's story not Aisling's, and like all traditional odyssey tales it is the journey itself that is the revealing factor and not the outcome. A mother who loves one child more than all the rest sets events in motion. There is sex, danger, guns, transvestites, gamblers, a wealthy business mogul who wants to be a slave, a gay priest escaping from the past, the irrepressible Gerry dying of A.I.D.S. yet controlling his lover to the last, an anorexic who begins to eat, a young woman who steals back the son she gave up for adoption. Martin's characterizations are astute and compassionate. As in Breakfast In Babylon, humor is the shield against all life's cataclysmic twists and turns. However, there is a sadness underlying the humor. Not a weepy, sentimental sadness but an almost heroic sorrow that comes from the fact that, as the Greeks knew so many centuries ago, we are all powerless, and as Uncle Oscar states, "They had all stolen a brief existence from an indifferent history, and in the end these borrowed lives would break their hearts." Their brother, Patrick, illustrates that the great forces of life are beyond our control on a more personal level. Patrick suffers from OCD and is in the words of the author "a rational person compelled to perform irrational acts." All their over-lapping, intersecting stories gallop to a close with a dazzling driving force that culminates in a stunning betrayal. More Bread Or I'll Appear is an ambitious and successful follow-up to an auspicious debut. It is a novel about family and the power of family members to wound each other casually and profoundly. We are moved when Keelin pleads "There must be other homes to be had. Safe places in the world. Safer than her own home had been." By the end of this roller coaster of a story we feel that what triumphs is the human's ability to go on in the face of outstanding odds and our unlimited capacity to love even those who have hurt us deeply.
|
