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A review by theshiftyshadow
The Hungry Road by Marita Conlon-McKenna
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Marita Conlon-McKenna's book, Under The Hawthorn Tree, is a much loved children's classic and is probably how multiple generations of Irish children first learned about the famine. So when I saw she'd written another famine set book for adults, I was curious to see how much more she could do without the restrictions of writing for kids.
Unfortunately The Hungry Road just didn't do much for me. While reading it I kept wondering who exactly it was written for, and came to the conclusion it's for people who know very little, if anything, about the famine. So not really for an Irish reader. For me it read like an endless list of all the worst things I've already seen, read, and heard about the famine. There's multiple characters that she tells the story through, and it jumps around between them all, and through time, but I never felt a connection to any of them.
All that is not to say this is a bad book. If all you know about the famine is that there was no potatoes and everyone died, then this book would probably widen your understanding a little. The problem for me was that it tries to cover too much, and as a result doesn't cover anything with any real depth.
Unfortunately The Hungry Road just didn't do much for me. While reading it I kept wondering who exactly it was written for, and came to the conclusion it's for people who know very little, if anything, about the famine. So not really for an Irish reader. For me it read like an endless list of all the worst things I've already seen, read, and heard about the famine. There's multiple characters that she tells the story through, and it jumps around between them all, and through time, but I never felt a connection to any of them.
All that is not to say this is a bad book. If all you know about the famine is that there was no potatoes and everyone died, then this book would probably widen your understanding a little. The problem for me was that it tries to cover too much, and as a result doesn't cover anything with any real depth.