I haven't done much these last few days because I've been so totally engrossed in this larger than life novel set aboard a sailing vessel in 1847 at the height of Ireland's potato famine. Rich in period detail, multi-dimensional characters, historical fact and vivid descriptions of what life was like for thousands of poor who were forced off their land because there was no money to pay their landlords, the novel moves back and forth from small villages along Ireland's western coast, to the brothels and slums of London, to the posh first class cabins and crowded and disease ridden steerage section of the "Star of the Sea" on its 28 day journey across the Atlantic to New York.
O'Connor is a masterful writer who uses multiple voices to tell a story that's hard to put down. He uses a variety of narrative forms, including the captain's log, diary entries, newspaper clippings, letters, songs, and personal narratives, pulling everything together by making it a story within a story written years later by one of the characters in the novel.
On one level the book is a mystery, since we know from the outset that one of the steerage passengers, Pius Mulvey, has a mandate to kill first class passenger Lord David Merridith, the landlord responsible for evicting thousands of starving tenants from his estates. It's definitely a page turner because of the way the plot unfolds, weaving together intriguing back stories for each of the major characters who we get to know quite well by the end of the voyage.
O'Connor himself is from Ireland and writes about the rugged coastal landscape as only someone who is familiar with it can do. And it's clear that he has carefully researched the period in order to paint such a vivid picture of the horrors that took place there during the mid-19th century. All this is especially interesting to me, not only because we've been to Ireland several times but also because Denny's relatives left there in 1848 on a ship very much like the "Star of the Sea" and under the same circumstances as those depicted in the novel. Most likely Darby and Johanna O'Dea, were also steerage passengers who had to endure the unimaginable conditions that O'Connor has written about so compellingly. So I thought of them frequently while I was reading this unforgettable novel, I also tracked down the author's website where he has written a fascinating account of how he came to write the novel (http://www.josephoconnorauthor.com/for-book-clubs-star-of-the-sea.html) And I understand that he has also written another book that takes place 18 years after "the Star of the Sea" docked in New York. It's called Redemption Falls and I've already added it to my list.
O'Connor is a masterful writer who uses multiple voices to tell a story that's hard to put down. He uses a variety of narrative forms, including the captain's log, diary entries, newspaper clippings, letters, songs, and personal narratives, pulling everything together by making it a story within a story written years later by one of the characters in the novel.
On one level the book is a mystery, since we know from the outset that one of the steerage passengers, Pius Mulvey, has a mandate to kill first class passenger Lord David Merridith, the landlord responsible for evicting thousands of starving tenants from his estates. It's definitely a page turner because of the way the plot unfolds, weaving together intriguing back stories for each of the major characters who we get to know quite well by the end of the voyage.
O'Connor himself is from Ireland and writes about the rugged coastal landscape as only someone who is familiar with it can do. And it's clear that he has carefully researched the period in order to paint such a vivid picture of the horrors that took place there during the mid-19th century. All this is especially interesting to me, not only because we've been to Ireland several times but also because Denny's relatives left there in 1848 on a ship very much like the "Star of the Sea" and under the same circumstances as those depicted in the novel. Most likely Darby and Johanna O'Dea, were also steerage passengers who had to endure the unimaginable conditions that O'Connor has written about so compellingly. So I thought of them frequently while I was reading this unforgettable novel, I also tracked down the author's website where he has written a fascinating account of how he came to write the novel (http://www.josephoconnorauthor.com/for-book-clubs-star-of-the-sea.html) And I understand that he has also written another book that takes place 18 years after "the Star of the Sea" docked in New York. It's called Redemption Falls and I've already added it to my list.
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