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mbm1311's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this story bled into marginally related areas. Of course there were political aspects of the Potato Famine and the mass emigration, but this book spent too much time on those and not enough on the subject ship. She told us what kind of ship it was, but gave little description of that kind of ship. Not even a sketch of the outline. Yet, it seemed to *me* that the author struggled to fill 200 pages with half that much subject matter. I think this story would have been better if condensed into, say, a feature story in Smithsonian magazine. That said, I did learn a lot about a crisis of which I knew little. My great-grandparents lived through the famine before coming to America in the 1860s. This story made me feel like I knew them a bit.
lukeisthename34's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting stuff and it shows what I think we all know; even good stories will end up having sad endings if you check in with the stars long enough.
Also, really fascinating description of what blight looks like. Seems just like Lovecraft's THE COLOR OUT OF TIME.
Also, really fascinating description of what blight looks like. Seems just like Lovecraft's THE COLOR OUT OF TIME.
jeanm333's review
1.0
Many books have been written about the "Great Hunger." I was expecting a historical account of one story about this time, the Jeanie Johnston. Since there wasn't enough to write about the ship (the Jeanie Johnston), the author tells the story of the famine and the British attempts to solve the problem. She also attempts to tell the story of one family that made the journey, but she has only bare facts to go on, so she makes up a lot.
Her style is to fictionalize a non-fiction story and to embellish. This, in my opinion, is not history, but fiction with a little history thrown in. She does include cited quotations and she has some footnotes but much of her writing is not backed up by fact. I kept wanting to yell, "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?" She makes up a lot for dramatic effect. For example, someone's wife "waited piously." HDYKT? She also describes people in detail: A crew member is described as "fair-skinned and a little short for his age,... [with] gray eyes...." HDYKT? Did she see photographs of these people?
The story begins like a novel in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, in 1883 with a bit of a mystery. But remember, this book is supposed to be non-fiction, so what's going on here? It sounded like she was trying to mimic Stephen Ambrose or James Michener, but she's not in their class at all.
She also uses the term "genocide" (p. 40) "one of the world's most notorious genocides," but there's no footnote on this line and I wondered if she was just slinging words around for effect. Tim Pat Coogan, who is a real historian, has also written about the Great Hunger, and he discusses the question of whether there was "genocide" involved, but he doesn't use the word lightly.
Miles would have been better off writing a novel about the story of the people on the ship. She's no historian and the publisher should never have let this book be labeled as historical. Of course, with the sad state of publishing these days, anything goes.
If you want to read this book, just remember the author is making up much of what she writes. It's NOT non-fiction. I always label books but I refused to label this as non-fiction or history.
Her style is to fictionalize a non-fiction story and to embellish. This, in my opinion, is not history, but fiction with a little history thrown in. She does include cited quotations and she has some footnotes but much of her writing is not backed up by fact. I kept wanting to yell, "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?" She makes up a lot for dramatic effect. For example, someone's wife "waited piously." HDYKT? She also describes people in detail: A crew member is described as "fair-skinned and a little short for his age,... [with] gray eyes...." HDYKT? Did she see photographs of these people?
The story begins like a novel in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, in 1883 with a bit of a mystery. But remember, this book is supposed to be non-fiction, so what's going on here? It sounded like she was trying to mimic Stephen Ambrose or James Michener, but she's not in their class at all.
She also uses the term "genocide" (p. 40) "one of the world's most notorious genocides," but there's no footnote on this line and I wondered if she was just slinging words around for effect. Tim Pat Coogan, who is a real historian, has also written about the Great Hunger, and he discusses the question of whether there was "genocide" involved, but he doesn't use the word lightly.
Miles would have been better off writing a novel about the story of the people on the ship. She's no historian and the publisher should never have let this book be labeled as historical. Of course, with the sad state of publishing these days, anything goes.
If you want to read this book, just remember the author is making up much of what she writes. It's NOT non-fiction. I always label books but I refused to label this as non-fiction or history.
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