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A review by kathieboucher
The Islander by Tomás O'Crohan
5.0
I bought this book in Ireland some years ago and it’s been staring up at me, unread, ever since. Picked it up and read it this week and was totally enchanted.
This is an account of life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on an island off the coast of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula, recounted by an island resident of great charm and good humor. Life and death, custom and tradition, fishing and pub visits—the author paints vivid images of his neighbors and of that vanished life (island residents were permanently evacuated in the mid-1950s).
I’ve seen many of the places he mentions, and some Irish forbears lived in the area. So I loved every bit of this book, especially passages like this: “One after another looked down and we could see that the pool was full of whatever it was that was there. However, none of us could actually make out what it was we were looking at.” Delightful.
This is an account of life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on an island off the coast of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula, recounted by an island resident of great charm and good humor. Life and death, custom and tradition, fishing and pub visits—the author paints vivid images of his neighbors and of that vanished life (island residents were permanently evacuated in the mid-1950s).
I’ve seen many of the places he mentions, and some Irish forbears lived in the area. So I loved every bit of this book, especially passages like this: “One after another looked down and we could see that the pool was full of whatever it was that was there. However, none of us could actually make out what it was we were looking at.” Delightful.