Customer Reviews (12)

The real thing!
I decided long ago to write the Great Irish-American Novel, starting with the potato famine of 1845-1850.I've been studying the event for over a year, and ran across this title and author.The book is so true to the countryside, the people, the hardships, the language and the raw emotions of the characters, that I am now going to write a murder mystery novel set in New England.Has that already been done, too?(Facetious and rhetorical).

Why I am Here
I read this book 15 years ago or so, captivated by the story and its telling.When I set it down, a thought just popped up: now I know why I am here. "Here" is Washington, DC, USA.My great grandfather arrived here as a boy from Kerry in 1848, and we still don't know with whom he might have come.We know he had a much younger brother who stayed in Ireland, probably with parents (if they were still alive; it was easy to wonder after reading O'Flaherty's tale). I turned the book over to my then-13 year old daughter; an untimely fatherly recommendation if there ever was one. I did not know then that O'Flaherty was a rebel.I recall only thinking that the writer was a great storyteller. You could almost taste the putrid and blackened potatoes as they fell apart in the characters' hands.A powerful story of roots, intimately felt by at least one family.

Packed with information
I read the book because one of my great-great-grandfathers immigrated to the USA about the time of the famine, and I wanted to learn more about his life in Ireland. This book delivered. From the first page to the last, the author describes everything interestingly and in detail. I don't have any way of knowing how accurate the details are, and I'd like to know the author's source for them, but they all ring true to me. I find it interesting that many of the characters' expressions are what I've heard in my own family! I don't doubt some of them were passed down through the generations.

The other thing I appreciated was the author's commentary on the conflict between working people and the elite. It made me see similarities between the present and the Irish famine of the 1840s.

Enthralling!
What an enthralling book. Such wonderful depiction of Irish life, the way it REALLY was. I just can't put it down!! A++++ on this magnificent piece of work!

A great historical novel
Because he was famous as a participant in the Irish Civil War (in 1922, he raised a red flag over the Dublin Rotunda) and because his best-known book is "The Informer," Liam O'Flaherty is regarded primarily as a novelist of the Irish rebellion. In a letter to the Irish Statesman, he celebrated "the wild tumult of the untamed storm, the tumuilt of the army on the march, clashing its cymbals, rioting with excess of energy." Like our own Theodore Dreiser, he was capable of being crude, grandiose and melodramatic, and he was often swamped by his own rhetoric. But he was also capable, far more than Dreiser, alas, of reaching and expressing astonishingly delicate perceptions of the human soul.

At his best, O'Flaherty was one of the great natural forces of 20th Century literature. Like Jean Giono or Knut Hamsun, when writing about the land, the sea and the simpler creatures, including here peasants and seamen, his writing takes on the elemental forcefulness of classic folk tales. "Famine," his greatest work in this mode, is matched only in his best short stories. It reads as freshly today as it did when it was first published 45 years ago.

In 1845, the population of Ireland was estimated at 8.5 million. By 1851, it had been reduced by two million, half of whom had died and half of whom had fled, mostly to the U.S. and other former British colonies. The raw numbers do not do justice to the magnitude of the catastrophe that had befallen Ireland. In large parts of the south and west, traditional culture had been uprooted and destroyed.

Focusing on a family of County Galway tenant farmers, the Kilmartins, "Famine" inserts us into the horror of the "great hunger." A study of the uses of power -- by the old English ascendancy, by the rising middle class of usurious merchants, by the embattled (and mostly defeated peasants), it records the final days of an ancient, ritualistic society, unhinged by the destruction of the customs and traditions that had given shape and meaning to life. It is also about survival, especially that of Mary Gleeson Kilmartin, who fights for her family with fierce determination.

["Famine" was first published in 1937 but was never available in soft cover until a handsome edition was offered by David R. Godine's line of quality paperbacks, Nopareil, which also published works by Benedetto Croce, Edmund Wilson, Paula Fox, William Gass and Stanley Elkin. It was thought at the time that the publisher might be moved to reprint O'Flaherty's excellent short story collections, "Spring Sowing" and "The Tent." If you can find the Nonpareil edition, buy it; it is avaialble now in a version from Interlink.] ... Read more

Product Description
A tale of temptation, betrayal, and reprisal, this powerful novel is set in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War. It tells of Gypo Nolan, who informs on a wanted comrade. The source of the Academy Award-winning film directed by John Ford. Preface by Denis Donoghue.
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Customer Reviews (8)

The Informer
A great book!A twelve hour window into 1920s Dublin, it follows an informer that get tattles and gets his 'friend' killed.

Fenian Hulk Finks on Friend, Fatally Fails to Flee
In the confused political situation in Ireland between 1916 and 1925, all kinds of ideologies competed, common criminals took up party work only to revert to their original callings.Leaders were betrayed, assassinated, jailed.The long dream of independence came to life, but in a fog of disappointment and disillusion.When the dust settled, all the brilliant men lay dead.O'Flaherty has set his novel in the politico-criminal underworld of this period, with a large dollop of that disillusion.Nobody comes out smelling like a rose.Gypo Nolan, the main character, harbors great physical strength, but little brain.Unlike most protagonists, he thinks little.The author describes his feelings or changes of mood, an interesting tack to take.Gypo informs on a former colleague in the Party, who is promptly surrounded by the police and gets shot dead during the standoff.With his 20 pound reward burning a hole in his pocket ( it might have been equivalent to about 20 weeks pay for a worker), Gypo treats a crowd to fish and chips, then drinks, fights, and whores, giving a big part of his loot away to a sad woman he meets by chance.The Party suspects Gypo, who fingers an innocent man.At the subsequent "trial", the truth comes out.Gypo is locked up, but escapes.The denouement is not long in coming.

THE INFORMER is fast paced, highly descriptive.I felt that sometimes the urge to describe everyone and everything in detail got the better of the author, his descriptive style began to resemble a Thomas Hart Benton mural, with each individual a caricature of a `type' or a `stock character'.The "firm jaws", the "mouths belonging to an average Irishwoman of the middle class", "he looked like a waiter thrown out of employment through old age".....very graphic, colorful, but somehow cartoonish.Anyway, little gripes aside, this is a novel that will hold your attention.It hangs together very well, connecting Irish history and society with a film-noir atmosphere of suspense, action, and intrigue.It catches the Dublin and the Ireland of the time, now changed out of all recognition by prosperity and respectability.And more luck to Ireland for that.

The Real Story
This is a good novel about Ireland's ongoing troubles. It spares us the contrived world of the Clancy brothers and rebel songs. The story is set in the years after the establishment of the Irish Free State. The protagonists, unlike in the movie, are not patriots per se but rather communists or IRA members who wanted complete independence from the United Kingdom. Gypo Nolan and his victim Frankie McPhilipare less than valued members of the organization. The story deals with successful efforts to track down Gypo who informed on Frankie.It is noted that Gypo betrayed Frankie to the police not to the Black and Tans as in the movie. It is a gripping story and it is also a good antidote to stories of the noble Irish and the evilBrits. Please note carefully O'Flaherty's description of the leader of the organization. The author was a member of the Communist Party who had a somewhat different take on the situation in Ireland. If you want an alternative view of the Irish troubles which is also a good read this is the book for you.

Good read
I've read this book twice.It was actually better the second time.The movie adaptation is even better than the book, with the lead actor receiving the Oscar for that year.Whether you watch the movie or read the book, you can't go wrong in my opinion.The struggles of life in Ireland, the betrayal by a friend for money, and the descriptions of the characters and places kept me turning the pages.

Good but not great
A review of this book is most fair when it is broken into three sections of 60 pages each.The first two sections are fantastic as it takes us through the story of Gipo, a man haunted by informing on his best friend.O'Flaherty does a fantastic job of painting the scene of poverty in Dublin that would lead to someone informing on their buddy... and then we have the pleasure of watching him use the blood money.If it ended on page 120, I would definitely give the book 5 stars.

The last 60 pages are very boring and drawn out.Whereas the story could have been a fascinating tell of the above mentioned material, the last is so obvious, that it is physically painful waiting for the conclusion.

All in all, the book is a great study in the darker side of human behavior.I am glad that I read it for that reason.However, the climax leaves a lot to be desired. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

brilliant satire on the Irish society of the twenties
Liam O'Flaherty's "A Tourist's Guide to Ireland" is a brilliant satire trying to enlighten the innocent traveller. O'Flaherty (1896-1984) who fought together with the writers Sean O'Faolain and Frank O'Connor forthe independence of Ireland depicts the reality of the Irish Free State of1921 and the frustration following the seperation of this country.Published in 1929, his book which has got a harmless and misleading title,presents a poignant, satirical portrait of the Irish society of theseyears. O'Flaherty mainly critices four classes of the society: priests,politicians, publicans and peasants. The great power of priests, their rolein the parish in which they act like dictators, their greed for money, theomnipotent role of the politicians who behave towards Ireland like suitorsto a woman (first they are in love with her and when they possess her theytreat her very badly), publicans who rob the tourists anyway and peasantswho he asks the tourist to pity and admire at the same time are in thecenter of his interest. He warns the tourists to be very careful with themand he gives them a lot of advice how to cope with them best. Thissatirical illustration of a national portrait gallery doesn't prevent theauthor from dividing tourists in four classes themselves. The first threeclasses are people who come either for knowledge and pleasure or a rest.The fourth class however consists of tourists who only come for profit andwho are robbers and swindlers. O'Flaherty writes in the traditions of thegreat satirists of the 18th century such as Jonathan Swift. This timehowever Gulliver doesn't have to travel abroad in order to criticise hisown people but stays in his country and uses a "harmless" touristguide to "enlighten" his readers. The book is definitely a veryinteresting and amusing read and is very recommendable. ... Read more

Product Description
This book celebrates Liam O'Flaherty and his land, featuring biographical information, excerpts from his short stories and novels, and period photographs. A perfect gift for the lover of Ireland's landscape and literature. ... Read more

Product Description
These long-awaited volumes bring together, for the first time ever, the complete short stories of Ireland's master storyteller, Liam O'Flaherty-from great classics like The Sniper to previously unpublished originals. These 182 stories include all those included in previous anthologies; the Irish language stories; stories which have never before been collected inn book form; and original stories published here for the first time. This luxurious set will be a treasure for all those who know and love the work of one of Ireland's most skilled and passionate writers. ... Read more