Mark Casey has left home, the rural Irish community where his family has farmed the same land for generations, to study for a doctorate in Dublin, ...
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Jan 29, 2012
Ian
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Solace is a novel about loss and the difficulty which so many people have communicating about important issues, particularly across generations. It is set against the background of Ireland in the early part of this century, at a time when rural areas continued to cling to traditional values and ways of life while brash modern Ireland epitomised by the Dublin property boom gradually began to impinge.
Mark Casey is a PhD student in Dublin, struggling with his thesis after losing enthusi More...
Mark Casey is a PhD student in Dublin, struggling with his thesis after losing enthusi More...
Jan 09, 2012
Marleen
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Mark Casey is a doctoral student in Dublin, struggling to find any enthusiasm for the thesis he is supposed to be writing while also trying to balance his father’s demands for help on the Longford farm with his own needs. While the gap between Mark and his father appears to be getting wider, his mother tries to keep a fragile peace between the two men.
Joanne Lynch is a trainee solicitor and the daughter of a man Mark’s father has considered an enemy ever since he was wronged by him twenty y More...
Joanne Lynch is a trainee solicitor and the daughter of a man Mark’s father has considered an enemy ever since he was wronged by him twenty y More...
Sep 18, 2011
G
rated it: 
Solace, the debut novel from Irish poet and playwright Belinda McKeon, which has been getting a lot of attention lately, is a family drama, or more precisely, an exploration of the bonds and difficulties that exist between a father and a son. We initially encounter this particular father and son in a prologue that is really taken, not from the beginning of the book, but from its middle, a choice that’s partly good, and partly not-so-good.
The father is Tom Casey, a taciturn, hard-bitte More...
The father is Tom Casey, a taciturn, hard-bitte More...
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Jun 15, 2011
Eleni
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I had the privilege of reading some of this in workshop while I was getting my MFA at Columbia and I was so impressed by the writing then that I had to pre-order it before it came out. The characters are real and complex, flawed but sympathetic, but it's the overall voice that sweeps you up and carries you along. I am an emotional wimp under any circumstances and since I've been pregnant have been even more sensitive about not reading/watching/hearing things that might upset me. (The movie "
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Oct 05, 2011
Kevin
rated it:
It was ok. Nice story, but generally not my genre. I was more interested in Mark and his father as opposed to Mark and Joanne. This was possibly because the story itself began with Mark and Tom, so everyone else served no interest in me.
The story itself is beautiful, and was pretty much easy to read once you get into it (the key being 'getting into it')
The characters seemed real to me. In fact, I could easily visualise the characters, and relate with them. And I love how More...
The story itself is beautiful, and was pretty much easy to read once you get into it (the key being 'getting into it')
The characters seemed real to me. In fact, I could easily visualise the characters, and relate with them. And I love how More...
Feb 13, 2012
Mary Lou
rated it:
Mark is trying to complete his thesis at Trinity in Dublin while being distracted by the 'good' student life, and at the time being emotionally blackmailed by his father to go down home at the weekends and help on the farm.
The novel studies the confrontational relationship between father and son, and the same time the developing relationship between Mark and a girl he meets at college who is from a small town near him.
The prologue is stunning- redolent of John McGahern, b More...
The novel studies the confrontational relationship between father and son, and the same time the developing relationship between Mark and a girl he meets at college who is from a small town near him.
The prologue is stunning- redolent of John McGahern, b More...
Oct 31, 2011
Lindsay (Little Reader Library)
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Mark Casey has gone from one way of life with his parents on their farm in rural Ireland, to the city life of Dublin, where he is an academic. He teaches part-time at Trinity and is working on his PhD about a writer, Maria Edgeworth, who came from the same area of Ireland as him. He visits his parents on occasional weekends and helps his father with the tasks on the farm. They have a difficult relationship; Mark knows that his father doesn’t understand the nature or point of his academic studies
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Aug 22, 2011
Julie
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This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2011/...
This is the story of a generational and cultural divide between a father and his son. It is also the tale of a binding tragedy and the gulf of loneliness between them in today's Ireland, slowly sinking into poverty and hardship.
Tom is a farmer, married to Maura, a nurse. They have two grown children, Nuala, who is married and lives far enough off that her family rarely sees her, and Tom, w More...
This is the story of a generational and cultural divide between a father and his son. It is also the tale of a binding tragedy and the gulf of loneliness between them in today's Ireland, slowly sinking into poverty and hardship.
Tom is a farmer, married to Maura, a nurse. They have two grown children, Nuala, who is married and lives far enough off that her family rarely sees her, and Tom, w More...
Aug 22, 2011
A debut novel of love and loss set in contemporary Ireland, where a family’s troubled past cast its shadow over an uncertain future.
Looking for a distraction from writing his stalled thesis, Mark Casey falls for a green-eyed girl he meets at a pub. Joanne Lynch, however, is more than a pretty solicitor trainee, she comes from the same patch of rural farmland in County Longford where Mark grew up. The son of a demanding and truculent farmer, Mark resents the time he must take away More...
Looking for a distraction from writing his stalled thesis, Mark Casey falls for a green-eyed girl he meets at a pub. Joanne Lynch, however, is more than a pretty solicitor trainee, she comes from the same patch of rural farmland in County Longford where Mark grew up. The son of a demanding and truculent farmer, Mark resents the time he must take away More...
Aug 22, 2011
T P
rated it:
An interesting work. I'm not sure that it lives up to the billing and the hype surrounding it. Some of the characterization is excellent - particularly Tom Casey. The book really comes alive when he's around. Other characters, though, seem to be mere ciphers to play a specific plot role. The sense of Dublin and students is good. The evocation of tragedy and the sense of solace are excellent but a little marred by various melodramas.
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Sep 26, 2011
Iuliana
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This is a very easy book to read and i really enjoyed the first half of the book. I liked the characters of Tom and Mark, but didn't care much for Joanne. I found the wrong parts of the story were developed, i.e. Joanne's case, Mark's thesis as well as the story around Joanne's former lecturer. I found these didn't serve as much purpose as possibly intended, and i found myself wanting to skip through to the parts where something actually happens.
I found the ending weak and I was anno More...
I found the ending weak and I was anno More...
Nov 20, 2011
Terri
rated it: 
Didn't like it much. The review for the book says the father and son were brought together through tragedy. I didn't see that they came together that much. It is a "relationship" book. Not really my genre either, not one I would have picked, I read it for a book club. If you like relational books with no real plot...that's all I'll say....you might like this book.
Aug 17, 2011
Ethel
rated it:
I highly recommend this debut novel. It's expertly written, rich with prose and characterization. Perhaps I most admired how McKeon zoomed in close on tiny moments making them meaningful and memorable and pulled back from the most devastating moments in the book, making them bearable and all the more affecting and powerful.
Feb 15, 2012
Kate
rated it:
An accomplished and evocative first novel. I spent many childhood Summers in Longford, where the book is set, and McKeown hasreally captured something about the county and the people.
Feb 03, 2012
Séamus
rated it:
Wow, what a great debut. Hugely accomplished for a first novel. Gripping story with great characterization. Can't wait for her next.
Aug 22, 2011
korey
rated it:
This is an ok read. I found it a bit sleepy in many places and thought the ending was a bit weak. The characters are good and loved reading about Dublin and small towns outside the City, but the story fell a bit short for me.
Feb 04, 2012
Caoimhe
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I enjoyed this book in spite of the sad subject matter. It takes a while for the story to unfold, but this keeps the reader guessing and works well overall.
Sep 21, 2011
Kate
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A young man balances life with his elderly father and an infant daughter. A compelling story of an ordinary life.
Aug 27, 2011
Rubyryan
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I loved this book as it reflects many of the attitudes I have observed in my lifetime and reminds me of "home".
Feb 10, 2012
Jenny
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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifest...
Beautiful writing, in a non-showy way; very sad story.
There was no way he could not realise how much he had changed in himself, how diluted the energies of his mind had become. As though the shelves of a library had been ransacked. It's not fair, she thought... (210)
That was the ability to trust that she must have inherited from somewhere deep inside her father, because it was not anywhere on her father's surface, and it wa More...
Beautiful writing, in a non-showy way; very sad story.
There was no way he could not realise how much he had changed in himself, how diluted the energies of his mind had become. As though the shelves of a library had been ransacked. It's not fair, she thought... (210)
That was the ability to trust that she must have inherited from somewhere deep inside her father, because it was not anywhere on her father's surface, and it wa More...
Oct 12, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
Was written very well, but then died off in the end and you were kind of left thinking "That's how it ends?" Otherwise it was an interesting story.
Aug 22, 2011
Dan
rated it:
McKeon has a true talent to create characters you believe in and care about. I love
discovering an author's debut, and she delivers with SOLACE. Brilliant.
discovering an author's debut, and she delivers with SOLACE. Brilliant.
Aug 22, 2011
Tim
rated it:
A great story, beautiful, hard going at times. Very of it's places, but probably somewhat universal as well. Go read it.
Aug 22, 2011
Kathleen
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Feb 22, 2012
