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Death and Nightingales
It is 1883 and against the fearsome beauty of the Fermanagh landscape, the fate of Beth Winters slowly unfolds. Beth is determined to decide her own destiny yet seems doomed to repeat the tragic mistakes of her family.Through the events of the day of her twenty-fifth birthday, decades of pain and betrayal finally build to a devastating climax. In this powerful and gripping...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
September 27th 2005
by Vintage Books
(first published June 10th 1993)
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This is a fine novel and worth a read. It was a Christmas present from Mam. I had an idea that Eugene McCabe was a dark playwright but I think I was mixing him up with Pat McCabe. This might be his only novel but he has some short stories.
There's a kind of unevenness in it, maybe? It opens with a very difficult and very impressive few pages, but then loosens up into something more smooth but a bit less forehead-slapping. Perhaps I just got used to his style.
Interesting to get a story about both...more
There's a kind of unevenness in it, maybe? It opens with a very difficult and very impressive few pages, but then loosens up into something more smooth but a bit less forehead-slapping. Perhaps I just got used to his style.
Interesting to get a story about both...more
Brilliant gothic crime novel of sorts set in late 19th-century rural Ireland. A dark tale of greed,sectarian hatred, lust, incest, murder and pig blood that had me completely mesmerized until the very last sentence - i haven't read many books as good as this that were written in the last 20 years - highly recommended.
we had to read this book for english in secondary school and i was absolutely delighted by it,i really thought that it was enthralling at the time,unfortunately i cant remember the whole story now,but it was dark and there was some twisted characters in it,and on the whole was an intriguing read!
I couldn't really get into this book at all, I did love the story and I found Beth's story really interesting but the scenes with Billy bored me a little. It is a very interesting snapshot of the history of the time but ultimately not really for me.
So much is put into this account of a single day in a woman's life, in 19th-cent Ireland. Her own bitter marriage, other lovers, othe women's lives, history and religion; and above all the natural world, wild or domesticated.
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May 11, 2012
Gail
added it
'A lack of bird-call, a sense of encroaching light and then far away the awful dawn bawling of a beast in great pain.'
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Oct 28, 2012
Litro Magazine
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Litro Magazine by Jordan Phillips http://www.litro.co.uk/?p=4274
Compelling and very Irish. Loved it
See my blog
I haven't read a lot of Irish literature since Joyce's Ulysses totally baffled me but I picked this novel up at a laundromat and found myself reading it. Engaging and metaphorical.
Having had my fill of Ulster novels recently, I came across this title by an Irish author previously unknown to me.
Set in a time hopelessly prior to Bloody Sunday, McCabe's novel is beautifully structured, rhythmically perfect, and perfect in its rendition of the lush countryside of Fermanaugh. Elizabeth's character is deep, complex, and well worth the effort. Highly recommended. NJAIN. (Not Just Another Irish Novel).
Set in a time hopelessly prior to Bloody Sunday, McCabe's novel is beautifully structured, rhythmically perfect, and perfect in its rendition of the lush countryside of Fermanaugh. Elizabeth's character is deep, complex, and well worth the effort. Highly recommended. NJAIN. (Not Just Another Irish Novel).
A depressingly engrossing read about the hopeless love of an abused, bastard farm girl who takes matters into her own hands more than once. The book follows her journey through these decisions. I found it interesting, but not enough to really recall how it ended…
It was difficult to get into this book, it's quite slow at the start very descriptive of location and surroundings, but three quarters of the way in it gets very interesting and makes the first part worth while.
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It took me awhile, but this book grew on me. One of those Irish things that you need to be far away from to appreciate. Really plays on cycles. Very dark
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