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rosepoints's review
3.0
this was a book i picked up largely because i was intrigued by the cover and the title, and i started it without knowing anything about the author or the plot. doireann ní ghríofa is an irish writer and the book is essentially about her tracing through the life of an obscure irish poet named eibhlín dubh ní chonaill. the book is half about eibhlín and half about doireann herself, and it covers themes regarding motherhood, invisibility, and female labor. doireann ní ghríofan also translates the original gaelic poem into english and although i don't know any gaelic, i found the final translated poem to be beautiful.
the prose and writing style itself is quite lyrical, and at times, i felt like doireann was writing poetry rather than a memoir. this can either be a good or bad thing depending on what kind of books you prefer. personally, i enjoyed the writing style but not the content. i am just not interested in the ordeals of motherhood, being pregnant, breastfeeding and milk, all that. nearly the entire book is about mothering and having children, especially since doireann is a mother of four and her experience with being pregnant and raising her children is intricately tied to her search for eibhlín's history. that being said, if you are a mother or are interested in having children, i could see this being a great book for you. i'm just not the right target audience for this book and that's okay.
the prose and writing style itself is quite lyrical, and at times, i felt like doireann was writing poetry rather than a memoir. this can either be a good or bad thing depending on what kind of books you prefer. personally, i enjoyed the writing style but not the content. i am just not interested in the ordeals of motherhood, being pregnant, breastfeeding and milk, all that. nearly the entire book is about mothering and having children, especially since doireann is a mother of four and her experience with being pregnant and raising her children is intricately tied to her search for eibhlín's history. that being said, if you are a mother or are interested in having children, i could see this being a great book for you. i'm just not the right target audience for this book and that's okay.
cameronfrye's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
A book that intimately blurs the lines between past and present. History is humanised and brought achingly to life in these pages. Figures of the past feel close like breath on the back of your neck. Art and Eibhlín are so strikingly real, like you could reach out and grasp them by the hand and try to ease their grief. Motherhood and the erasure of women's labours and lives is perilous and full of longing and is the life force beating within the heart of this text. I have always been fascinated with the humanity of history; of the echoes of repeated practices, reformed according to circumstances and personalities yet very much the same. This book absolutely captured that feeling of close/distance that comes from touching the walls of some ancient place, or dancing the same formations as generations passed. That feeling of your movements mirroring an infinite number of others, of being an apex of inherited dreams, sorrows, customs and language. Just gorgeous.
katiegilley's review against another edition
5.0
A Ghost in the Throat was such a beautiful book. It's about a young Irish mother who becomes obsessed with an 18th century Irish poet. She spends her day making to-do lists to take care of her home and giving of herself constantly. But she steals away from everything while she's nursing and pumping and enters into the world of Eibhlín Dubh, "sipping [her] own dark sustenance from ink." She translates Dubh's poem and meticulously researches her family lineage. She visits the known places that Dubh visited and lived. "What's all this for?", asks a visiting nurse after the birth of her third child, as she boldly flips through the folders she's collected on Dubh. It's because, surprisingly, Eibhlín Dubh's poem is famous and studied in Irish schools yet there is almost no academic work done on her life. That's because Dubh is a woman and so much of women's lives is erased, day after day.
I saw so much of my own daily life in these pages. This is a female text, the book states from the beginning. Maybe you'll see some of your own life captured here?
I saw so much of my own daily life in these pages. This is a female text, the book states from the beginning. Maybe you'll see some of your own life captured here?
juliregen's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
silentreadernaomi's review
1.0
Hoewel de schrijfstijl met vlagen prachtig is, ging het mij te veel in de herhaling zitten. Op de helft had ik het idee continue hetzelfde te lezen. Vond de beschrijving overigens ook niet echt overeenkomen met de inhoud.
abbyoreilly's review
4.0
“The human effort to articulate a want and a love… The letter as a kinetic object of desire, in motion from one body to another. These spaces between Nelly and Art are all that I let myself see, how after a letter had left, one might linger at a window, imagining it held in the grip of a lover, and one’s own words moving quietly over another’s lips”
I have a complex relationship w this book! There are so many aspects of it I see myself in. It follows Doireann as she deep deep dives into the life of Eibhlín, an 18th century noblewoman and poet she feels a sincere connection with as she attempts to translate her poem from Irish to English. I really really related to the kinds of thoughts she had while conducting her research , feeling you’re forming a connection with someone you’ll never meet & the intimacy that comes with that, not wanting to imagine or falsify aspects of their life you don’t have access to out of respect, etc etc - all this I felt so strongly earlier this year researching women of glasnevin. Her prose is also beautiful. But I’m torn w her version of womanhood being so innately tied to the female body and its functions. “This is a female text” was repeated a bunch and essentially formed the basis of a lot of her relationship to Eibhlín as she experienced the traumatic birth of her daughter. Aside from this I definitely took a lot away from ghost in the throat and think I read it at a perfect point in my life - probably warrants a reread at some point
I have a complex relationship w this book! There are so many aspects of it I see myself in. It follows Doireann as she deep deep dives into the life of Eibhlín, an 18th century noblewoman and poet she feels a sincere connection with as she attempts to translate her poem from Irish to English. I really really related to the kinds of thoughts she had while conducting her research , feeling you’re forming a connection with someone you’ll never meet & the intimacy that comes with that, not wanting to imagine or falsify aspects of their life you don’t have access to out of respect, etc etc - all this I felt so strongly earlier this year researching women of glasnevin. Her prose is also beautiful. But I’m torn w her version of womanhood being so innately tied to the female body and its functions. “This is a female text” was repeated a bunch and essentially formed the basis of a lot of her relationship to Eibhlín as she experienced the traumatic birth of her daughter. Aside from this I definitely took a lot away from ghost in the throat and think I read it at a perfect point in my life - probably warrants a reread at some point