Ireland, a History - Thomas Bartlett



This is quite a good book, but I only give it 4 stars for a few reasons.

While I learned a lot about the Irish independence war, the civil war, the Troubles, the Plantation, the reasons why Ireland was for so long a colony of England I did not like a few things.

The writer often tells us the same thing twice, three times or even more. This happens on the same page or on following pages. Words can be altered, but it still will be the same.
While I feel for the Irish and almost feel angry about what I read the writer has a lot of understanding for the English. I was a bit amazed by that, because the writer is being born in Northern Ireland.
I also feel he could have included more about musicians like Phil Lynott and others who played in North and South during the Troubles.
I won't forgive the writer for mentioning a country named Holland three times. When people talk I don't mind it too much, but in a work like this I do. There is no country with the name "Holland". There is a country named The Netherlands and two of their provinces (maybe you would say Counties) have the name North and South Holland. There are 12 provinces.
Last thing bothering me is the feeling that the writer imagines what politicians and common people think and selling this as factual information. I don't think that is right.

All in all I learned a lot about the history of Ireland reading this book and I can recommend it if you would like to learn more about Ireland and it's history.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson

Image
  A very amusing novel. I don't want to spoil the fun for future readers and won't talk about the characters. I loved the casual almost cynical style. It makes the book very different from standard crime novels. The last chapters are used to take care of loose ends, but it did make me wonder if the writer had a bit enough of the whole thing. It had been easy to have added quite a lot more of details. It's a bit like a TV series where you get the explanation of the episodes you watched for your eyes, lasting no more than 5 minutes. Then again, the book is long enough and it did not feel too much like rushing towards the end. Other readers might disagree with me, I would understand that. All in all I enjoyed reading it and 5 stars is exactly what it deserves in my opinion.
Read more

Human Croquet - Kate Atkinson

Image
Yet another novel by Kate Atkinson that I truely loved. Isobel, the main character and often the point of view is one of the amazing interesting characters that fill this book. The playing with time and different ways the story could develop in, might be a bit confusing but I can see how all these possibilities really cry out loud that they need to be written out in the book. I do not mind at all. Often I can be a bit of a puritan, prefer just one point of view in a novel most of times. In this book there are different layers that make it impossible to write it in such a way. What strikes me most is the effect that it has on life when the nature of people is not compatible and yet they are forced to live together. I can recommend the book very much and 5 stars is very much deserved.
Read more