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The modest autobiography of Moore's success story.Moore has commentated on all the major football games since the World Cup in 1966 through to the England-Argentina match in the 1998 World Cup.This book of anecdotes takes in scrapes and magical moments in the commentary box and amusing stories of top names in sports broadcasting. ... Read more

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Taking a journey through the world of nature, this book explores the lives and habits of the animals and plants with which we share the planet. The main part of the book is divided into six thematic sections, each of which deals with a major aspect of the natural world: the living planet - the origin of life, simple life forms and the principles of evolution; the plant kingdom - structure, physiology and diversity; the animal kingdom - past and present, from dinosaurs to mammals; animal behaviour and physiology - from communication and social organization to reproduction and perception; ecosystems and habitats - principles of ecology and ecosystems; and threats to the planet - pollution, habitat loss and nature conservation. Each section consists of a series of self-contained but interrelated articles, and a 72-page A-Z "fact-finder" is included at the end of the book. ... Read more

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Ireland was too small for Ginger Coffey. No matter howhard he tried to get on, he just ended up as a glorified errandboy. That was why he emigrated to Canada with his wife and daughter -certain that there, his manifold talents would be recognised.

By the time he has spent the passage money home, and a top newspaperjob has turned out to be nothing more than reading proofs for apittance, Ginger is ready to try anything. Even driving a vandelivering fresh nappies to Montreal's young mothers - and collectingthe dirty ones. After all, it is only temporary... and things can'tget worse... can they? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Ginger Coffey learns what winning is all about
Having moved his family from Dublin to Canada, Ginger Coffey has about 15 dollars to his name, though an abundance of confidence (much of it false) as he goes about trying to find a job. Like Dickens's Micawber he is sure "something will turn up ("It's not even Christmas yet," he says at one point. "What's the hurry? I'll find something. Chin up!") But of course he never does, at least not something that will pay him decently. For a while he's forced to live alone in a room at the YMCA, cut off from his family. His wife Vera is threatening divorce, but Ginger is desperate to hold things together; both are tempted by adultery, but Ginger refuses to go that route. One disaster leads to another. Arrested for committing an embarrassing act of nature in a public place, he lies to the judge regarding who he really is to protect his wife and child. At this stage he begins to understand how he is responsible for his own life and actions: "A man's life was nobody's fault but his own." In a wonderfully developed reconciliation scene at the end, with Ginger about to walk out the door forever and Vera trying mightily to restrain him, Ginger accepts his fate and life with Vera. "Love isn't an act, it's a whole life," he reflects to himself. "Life was the victory, wasn't it? Going on was the victory." Moore's writing is sharp and compelling. He writes with great humor and human understanding and compassion. He makes Ginger Coffey a character we care about from beginning to end. It's a wonderful novel.

The luck of the Irish meets the Great Canadian Dream.
I truly love this book. In it, Brian Moore explores one man's heroic attempt to shift position in the world. Ginger Coffey leaves the unpromising economic situation in Dublin Ireland to pursue his idea of the Great Canadian Dream. With wife and daughter in tow, he arrives in Montreal in the dead of winter with $15.03 to his name. He has been waiting a long time for this golden opportunity. It soon becomes apparent however, that Canada was not as eagerly waiting for him!

He manages to land a job at The Tribune, but rather than his desired position as journalist, he wallows among the other galley slaves as a lowly proofreader. They collectively suffer under an exploitative and humiliating boss, MacGregor. Because of his radical Irish optimism, Coffey is blind to the emptiness of the editor's promise to promote him to journalist "one day soon". Before that mysterious day which never arrives, Coffey is further forced to augment his meager wages by accepting a job as a diaper delivery man for a company called TINY-ONES. Is this the Utopia that he crossed an ocean for? Utopia-shmopia! But while his Great Canadian Dream is shattering he hears some trans-Atlantic gossip that suggests the situation back in Ireland is even worse! So his choice of Montreal is now an irrevocable one, if for no other reason than it at least affords him some anonymity until he hits the big time. But even this anonymity is brutalized one day when he encounters an old Dublin girlfriend while he is in the full garb of his TINY-ONES uniform. This is only one of a series of humiliations that Coffey experiences, not the least of which is the fact that his marriage is threatened, and he fears that his wife Vera is involved with an associate of his. His fears are correct... her involvement with the successful journalist Gerry Grosvenor amounts to a sort of clandestine infidelity, but unknown to Ginger, it has not been adulterous. At any rate, soon they are poised for a divorce. But the coup de grace in Ginger's bad luck comes one cold winter night as he stumbles out of a bar after drinking far too much of a mixture of wine and Coca-Cola. While waiting for the bus, he feels the need to unburden his bladder somewhat, and (thinking that he was up against an unoccupied office building) relieves himself in the doorway of one of the biggest hotels in the city! He is arrested for indecent exposure and has his (hilarious) day in court. In this case, the luck of the Irish turns out to be a six-month suspended sentence.

It looks like things could get no worse. Coffey returns home to gather up his things and leave his family. But amazingly, his final courtroom incident has led to some genuine "luck" in the life of Ginger Coffey. A great final chapter shows us the joy that comes from true forgiveness and reconciliation. Ginger Coffey must resign himself to the fact that some very simple things in life (the renewed love of his wife, the steadfast love of his daughter) are like the consolation prizes in his uphill run through life. In the end he celebrates the retention of roughly no more than what he arrived with in Canada... his original $15.03. But, along with that fortune, he now has a new understanding of what makes life important.

This was Moore's first novel with a Canadian setting, published in 1960 after the Irish-born author himself had spent twelve years living in Canada. He was personally familiar with what it is like to be an immigrant emerging from Montreal's Dorchester Street bus terminal into the same sort of frozen slush, snow and gloom that Ginger Coffey experienced. And Moore's interest in this novel seems to be an investigation into the ways in which public myths (the Great Canadian Dream) reflect and encourage private fantasies (I'm going to get rich when I get there). Coffey's conclusion was that "life was the victory... going on was the victory." That the true challenge and test in life resides in the private domain, in intimate relationships. It is for this reason that the central drama of the story, which is intertwined with Ginger's search for wealth and public recognition in the New World, is the collapse of his marriage to Vera. Moore deals with these serious themes in a novel that is very light to read and even "comic" at most points. Ginger Coffey is an unforgettable character... the quintessential well-intentioned optimist/dreamer.

The Luck of Ginger Coffey
This book is a great book.It is written differently which is very good.As I read I seemed to flow with it and I felt everthing that the character Ginger Coffey felt.Each time something new came up, or another problem arised, you felt for the character, but you knew it would be ok.Summary: very interesting, easy to understand, and factual about immigrating ... Read more

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James Mangan is a failed poet and when he is deserted by his beautiful wife his life is devastated. Searching among his father's papers he finds a photo of an Irish ancestor, also a poet. In search of his past he uncovers a sad, violent history of incest and madness . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Search for identity
In this novel the wife of Canadian poet Jamie Mangan has just walked out on him and he feels totally abandoned and lost. He decides to go back to his homeland, Ireland, and to look into his family origins, especially that of his look-alike poet grandfather. What he discovers is not so encouraging: he meets relatives who are pretty low in character; but he also meets the 18-year-old Kathleen, with whom he becomes totally smitten. He is not too sure what to make of this Mangan inheritance, some of it rather motley, but he also comes to realize that it's what he does in his life that will ultimately define who he is. Moore has often been concerned with characters and their search for identity in his fiction, and Jamie's search is made quite fascinating and enlightening by the author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

"War was freedom. Freedom from futures."
Not surprising for those familiar with Moore's novels, he comes storming out of the gates with a lighthearted sort of tongue-in-cheek contempt for religion (specifically Roman Catholicism) right on the first page, where young Gavin Burke is having an imaginary dialogue with the icon of the Divine Infant that stands watch over him from its perch on his bedroom dresser. Gavin no longer believes in God, yet he remains in dread of God's vengeance for the fact of this unbelief. He struggles with what he calls his Black Angel and White Angel which live, one on each shoulder. "The trouble was, the Black Angel seemed more intelligent; more his sort." Comic dialogues with these invisible psychoanalysts abound in the novel.
The scene is Belfast Ireland, early stages of WWII. Seventeen year old Gavin enlists in the war effort to escape the responsibility of continuing his education and getting "a real job." This is a great spin on one of Moore's oft-recurring themes... a young man struggling to make a go of it, and making wrongheaded decisions as he does so!
Gavin joins the A.R.P. (the First Aid Party, similar to a wartime emergency Red Cross). The boy has a totally negative self-image, and convinces himself that he is just "a second son that will never amount to anything." He'll never be as successful as his older brother Owen, and will never meet his father's expectations of him.
So... he welcomes the War. As did many Ulster adults in that era, who oddly welcomed the advent of Hitler. They revelled in his havoc in Britain, and maintained the belief that the Fuhrer would never strike at their own little backwater towns anyway.
For Gavin, "War was freedom. Freedom from futures" (p.7). If there is a central idea in the book, this is it... it is a key theme in the novel. Believing those six words provided Gavin and many others with an excuse for not facing their personal problems. The ever-present, albeit unlikely, threat of attack provided distraction of all sorts.
The central drama is within Gavin's consciousness and in a bitter conflict between him and his father. Gavin's adolescent fantasies of power and achievement - sometimes sexual, sometimes iconoclastic - always rest on a knife-edge of indecision and powerlessness, of shame and humiliation. But these fantasies, and his father's equally self-serving political/philosophical beliefs are put to the test when the bombs fall.
It seems that Hitler has found Ireland on the map! This changes everything.
Father and son who have been bitter adversaries throughout the novel are reconciled through a shared knowledge of the horror of war. It proves to be more than either of them were ready for, and when they both return to their bombed-out house, they find that the war has changed a lot more than the physical landscape.

Those who know about Moore's own upbringing will see that there is much autobiographical content in this novel.

What a great book. My four stars is actually four-and-a-half!
A word about the title. It is borrowed from a Wallace Stevens poem. I looked it up in hopes of finding out why Moore chose this phrase as his title. The actual poem is very difficult, and far beyond the scope of this review to even half-examine. But what is certain is that it represents symbolically, the bitter moment of choosing life over death, at a time when life seems particularly lonely, self-serving, lustful, and sordid.
When I first picked up The Emperor of Ice-Cream I seriously thought it would be about a guy that sold ice-cream.
Moore proves once again that he is so much deeper than me...

An Irish Coming-of-Age Story
This 1966 novel by Belfast-born Moore (best known for "Black Robe" and "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" is a touching and affecting --- and very, very Irish --- story of an 18-year-oldboy in World War II Belfast who is trying to figure out where he fits in. He isn't good at academics (unlike his father and brother), his girlfriendis a strict Catholic who won't let him get past first base, and he's onlysure of what he doesn't believe.

He drops out of school and takes alow-paying job with the First Aid Patrol, a civil-defense outfit that fewpeople take seriously, since it is widely believed that Hitler wouldn'tbother bombing Ireland, and certainly not Belfast.Many older Irishmenhope that Hitler will defeat the British.

This novel rambles somewhat butdoes have a convincing and satisfying conclusion, and the writing hasseveral passages of considerable brilliance.A fast - paced, easy read,with realistic characters in a well-described milieu. ... Read more

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Before and After 1865 provides a discussion and exploration of the interlinked themes of education, politics and regionalism.

Part 1 looks at the competition between church and state in providing education for the freed people, Americaxs influence on curricula and the movement to indigenise the syllabuses at all levels of the educational system.

Part 2 explores political developments before and after 1865. The unifying theme of these essays is the rise of local politicians and organisations that developed a creole nationalism as they struggled against British colonial rule. The papers in Part 3 examine immigration, land distribution, currency reform and gender issues, while Part 4 addresses some of the ideas, forces and personalities which both encouraged and hindered regional integration. The book takes its title from the seminal work of F. R. Augier in whose honour the book is dedicated. ... Read more

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This collection of essays by distinguished scholars began as a series of lectures sponsored by the Department of History, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, to honour internationally recognized Caribbean historian Elsa Goveia. The collection consists of thirteen lectures delivered between 1987 and 1998. The book is divided into two broad sections: Slavery and Freedom, which features critical research on slavery and post-emancipation society, and Gender. Many of these seminal works are now widely available for the first time to the large number of individuals interested in Caribbean history and gender studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Entertaining but ultimately disappointing
This was an interesting and vivid historical novel that ultimately failed to deliver.It is also prescient of our present problems with the Muslim world as it was written in 1998.Moore can certainly deliver on his development of character and place, as he has in other novels (e.g., Black Robe), but the story-line seemed to have fizzled toward the end.

no title
Didn't like this book one whit; thinly disguised romance.More concerned with exotic and historical details than building character.Written on a third grade level.Very disappointing.

An "off" book in the Moore repertoire
Set in North Africa in 1856, a magician is sent by Napolean III to Algeria to "convince" the fractious Bedouins that France has absolute power. To do this he creates contrivances, little devices that appear to give him magical powers. (One is a fake bullet made of wax with which he can be "shot" and not suffer any effects.) The Bedouins, however, have their own "magician" - a marabout, or holy man, and it comes down to a competition between opposing "seers."

Although the book can be pretty suspenseful at times, the writing, especially the dialogue, is very stiff. This is surprising for Moore, who usually writes extremely well. It's as if the formal historical setting dictated he write in an almost stereotypically old-fashioned way - a big mistake. An amateur writer might be excused this failure, but not a pro like Moore.

Explores the politics of war and cultures
I found the story very interesting - I chose it because it takes place in France and Algeria however the plot and the characters took over and I couldn't put it down - fascinating.

Tricks, politics and religion
`The Magician's Wife'is my first Brian Moore book, and I can say it is good, but I still have mixed feelings about it. He has a good style, and is a great storyteller, but somewhere in the middle I got lost --but found again in the end. I liked the way he mixed politic and religion -- and I've read he does it in many novels, so I'll probably read another of his books sooner or later.

I liked the first part best than the second. It was very interesting to learn the traditions in that court, but I have the feeling that most characters were human types rather than human beings. Anyway, his attention to details is one of the things that makes the reading interesting. The description of lucheons, parties and huntings are very interesting.

In my view, he lost the command of the narrative in the second part, when the story is set in Algeria. Local people again seem more human types, and the narrative got a bit confusing. Nevertheless, the climax of the novelis something very interesting, and that grabs your attention, and there is one twist in the end, that makes sense.

Emmeline, the magician's wife, is an interesting character --of course, the most well developed one in the novel--, and despite some flaws she is totally believable. So areher husband and Denieu, the two other important characters.

To sum up, this is an interesting book, but not recommended to everyone. And for me, I think I should try anothe Moore novel before deciding where I place him in my taste for books. ... Read more

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You've heard about Vertigo - now it's time to take the plunge.This specially priced collection invites readers into the first issues of six different critically-acclaimed series: Y: THE LAST MAN, 100 BULLETS, THE BOOKS OF MAGIK: LIFE DURING WARTIME, SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING, TRANSMETROPOLITAN and DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. ... Read more

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An excellent start off point for new Vertigo readers
In an attempt to lure in new readers, DC Comics' mature readers imprint Vertigo assembled this TPB featuring six first issues of six of their best series'.There's no Hellblazer, Sandman, or Preacher featured here (although they are all amazing series that are more than worth checking out for new readers), but what you do get are the first issues of Neil Gaiman's Death: The High Cost of Living mini-series, Brian K. Vaughan's modern day classic Y: The Last Man, Warren Ellis' classic Transmetropolitan, Brian Azzarello's crime opus 100 Bullets, and the recently launched Books of Magick: Life During Wartime by Si Spencer.Also here is comic god Alan Moore's legendary first issue of Swamp Thing, which began one of the greatest and most epic sagas in the history of the medium.All in all, Vertigo: First Taste is a great starting point for new readers and those interested in the imprint, and at the cheap price this TPB is hard not to pass up. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Brian Moore," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Brian Moore in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Brian Moore when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Brian Moore, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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Brian Patten is one of Britain's best loved poets and storytellers, and this book is the first to be illustrated by Mary Moore, daughter of the famous sculptor Henry Moore. ... Read more