Rating: Summary: Great Fiction Review: I just got finished the novel and it's tremendous: what a cast of characters moving around the world. Reminded me of the Odyssey and Candide, that kind of book, and it's a kind of answer to Ulysses. Intensely readable and beautifully written. Also, it's a really good book on the Irish family and on the large Irish family especially: some times I thought I was reading about my own, being the oldest of 8 but not the wisest. You have tremendous talent, Emer, and the novel is a great achievement. My glass is raised to you.
Rating: Summary: Uneven Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book. The subject matter-- a young woman searching the world for her older sister-- is intriguing. But Emer Martin doesn't do much with it. The novel jumps around too much and doesn't explore in detail anything that's worth exploring. I wanted to know how Keelin truly felt about jetting off. Instead we get snippets of her time in Japan, her time in Hawaii, etc. that could be interesting but just aren't. I felt that this book had a lot of potential, but missed the mark.
Rating: Summary: Increible; Just like the first. Review: If you liked Emer Martin's first book you will love this one. If you havn't read either book do so. More Bread is a story about Keelin and her journey threw the world and how she strives for some type of meaning in life while she looks for her lost sister Aisling. Keelin's other siblings help develop the story as they drift in and out of the story. I hope this book is not overlooked by the public, would be a shame.
Rating: Summary: More Bread, I'll Never Have Enough! Review: it's a wonderful novel. I hope by now it has garnered some good notices, because it deserves lots of 'em. It's a big, human, exploring stretch of a story and I loved it, if in a couple of particular aspects: randomly as follows: pg. 256 'We didn't crawl out of the sea to become us. We clambered to each others waters when we were trapped in dried-up pools. We aren't seeking to evolve, but forces of environment etc. LIFE IS INFINITE WHEN PERCEIVED AS A CONTINUUM, HOLLOW AND BRUTAL WHEN WE TAKE IT IN CHUNKS.' Now, that's my kinda reflection. I also enjoyed the Japanese man's absolute fascination with Keelin, his obsessions re Aisling, and the images of that red hair and that female expansiveness, which stretched in all kinds of sexual expressions and directions. And hardly any 'womanspeak' either. I found the book's movement towards its ending rather utopian, and that's okay, because it's an utopia WITHIN and not one imposed or even imagined (I think) on and for others, if you get my drift. I loved Uncle Oscar (I was on to him from the start), and I loved Gerry. Particularly enjoyed Shawn and his bloody nests. There isn't much hope for us, collectively, is there? Or if so, then possibly only within the most miniature of human networks, tentacle to tentacle as it were, ganglion to ganglion, imagining possibilities in the gaps between nerve ends. It;s a great, energetic run of a novel and I thought it was really skilfully handled, and the dialogue was great. But dialogue is one of her great strengths. Emer Martin's bleak vision of the human race as a composite of obsessive-compulsive disordered individuals cannot fail to both charm and challenge. Despite its bleakness, this is an arresting, extremely funny, high-octane book.
Rating: Summary: this book is the bomb!!! Review: Man, I became a fan of Emer Martin after reading the awesome Breakfast In Babylon. That book just blew me away. I was jumping up and down when I saw another Emer Martin book in the store. Yet I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to the first one and I would be shattered and bummed. More Bread Or I'll Appear is just as good and even better. I love all the crazy characters and the way she uses words makes me want to hop on a plane to Ireland and check the place out. Is everyone over there as witty as these characters? There is a scene in a Dublin bar with the characters sitting and talking that had me cracking up. This book covers even more ground than the last. Emer Martin's writing is GLOBAL!!! Gangsters in Las Vegas, Bull fighters in Mexico city, hippies in honduras, fancy hotels in San Francisco, trannies in Japan, wild uncle's in New York, runaway cult members in Hawaii. Cool!
Rating: Summary: wonderful Review: this book is as good as her last one Breakfast In Babylon, which is my favorite book of all time. Not everyone can understand where Emer Martin is coming from but those who do follow with cult like devotion. i was in russia when i came accross a story she wrote in shenanigans, a compilation of irish gen X writing. i was blown away by the short story Pooka, the books do not disappoint. She writes like no other writer, she forges her own style and is a true innovator. Emer Martin is not writing to please the mainstream, that is obvious. Some are deeply shocked by her though they must be weak livered. Her language is transcendant. the books are sad and funny and true.
Rating: Summary: The growing voice of an excellent, excellent writer Review: This is a lovely second book. Not as electric as the first; also, not as electric as the next. A joy to read.
Rating: Summary: exciting, chilling, riveting Review: This was a book I picked up from the bookstore last week while visiting the States. I confess I liked it because of the very stylish cover. Then something happened which rarely happened in my very busy life, I could not put it down. I read it on the train, I read it at my desk at work, I read it while walking down the street. The language was so compelling and beautiful and the plight of the characters so moving that I can safely say this was the best book I have read in ten years. I hope they will make it into a film because the plot is tense, exciting and mystery pervades every thrilling page. The public should know more about this book. Anyone I have loaned it to feels the same. Why isn't it on the New York Times best seller list? It deserves more attention. Their response is identical to mine. I hope if a potential customer is reading this that they will appreciate why for the first time in my life I felt compelled to go online and write a review. Emer Martin is going to have a long career. Her work is funny, sad, penetrating and her feelings for her characters is intensely compassionate. Stunning!
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