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The Walking People
Greta Cahill never believed she would leave her village in the west of Ireland until she found herself on a ship bound for New York, along with her sister Johanna and a boy named Michael Ward. Greta discovers that in America she can fall in love, raise her own family, and earn a living.Though she longs to return and show her family what she has made of herself, her decisio...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
May 27th 2010
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published May 20th 2009)
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This is Mary Beth Keane's first novel. I sincerely hope it doesn't turn out to be her only novel.
The prologue is dreadfully boring, which is unfortunate, but it's less than 20 pages. Aside from that, this book really captures a lot of truth about the immigrant experience and the flavor of Irish life. If you have Irish immigrant heritage (which I do not), I'd say this is a must-read, or at least a must-try.
The first half of the book takes place in Ireland, describing...more
The prologue is dreadfully boring, which is unfortunate, but it's less than 20 pages. Aside from that, this book really captures a lot of truth about the immigrant experience and the flavor of Irish life. If you have Irish immigrant heritage (which I do not), I'd say this is a must-read, or at least a must-try.
The first half of the book takes place in Ireland, describing...more
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While I've read a host of books about early 1900s immigration, The Walking People is a story about a different generation of immigrants -the Irish who came to America in the early 60s. Greta's family lives in a tiny, nearly abandoned town in Western Ireland, near the sea and not much else. Life during Greta's childhood was much the same way it had been for hundreds of years, they were warmed by a turf fire and ate by candlelight. 'Tinkers" or "Traveling People" walked the highways...more
Like Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, The Walking People, the debut novel from Mary Beth Keane, deals with the story of Irish immigrants. Whereas Brooklyn recounted a few years in the life of Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey, The Walking People looks at the total life experience of Michael and Greta Ward, who came to New York City in the early 1960's.
The prologue of the book opens in 2007, as we watch the last day at work for Michael Ward. He has been a sandhog, digging tunnels underground in New...more
The prologue of the book opens in 2007, as we watch the last day at work for Michael Ward. He has been a sandhog, digging tunnels underground in New...more
The Walking People starts out in late 1950s Ireland, in the small village of Ballyroan, off the coast of Galway, and finishes in New York City in pretty much the present day. It focuses in on two girls, Johanna and Greta Cahill, and the son of a traveller (tinker, walking person), Michael Ward, whose lives intersect every so often. The local economy in Ireland is horrible -- the Cahill family has to earn a big chunk of its living by poaching and selling salmon from the river. As time goes on, an...more
Mary Beth Keane titles her debut The Walking People in reference to a class of Irish (also called Travellers or Tinkers) who refuse to settle, but instead roam Ireland for the entirety of their lives. These people experience extreme prejudice from those who are settled. The world of the settled and the traveled combine launching the exposition in this extraordinary novel characterizing the modern Irish Immigrant experience as well as complexity of love within familial relationships.
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While Keane's book takes a bit of background to get into, the reader is soon immersed in the world of an Irish family during the 1950's to the present day. While the time era sounds recent and fresh, there is no connection of the rural Irish family to the trendy American ways across the ocean. As the family endures love, adventure, excitement, and heartache the reader follows the generation across the ocean to America, land of opportunity. Greta and her sister, along with a friend make their way...more
Very engaging first novel, with scenes set in Ireland in a boggy cottage about to fall into the sea, in a nearly abandoned village with no electricity, not so long ago. Three people from this world migrate to New York, where their relationships change. The voices are strong and although not written in dialect or brogue, give a sense of another time. Yet it is contemporary, and the 2 people who stay in America cannot imagine going home, nor even how their children would cope with a visit to Irela...more
Over the time span of about 50 years this story chronicles Greta Cahill's life -- first in Ireland then in New York City where she arrived with her older sister and with Michael Ward in the early 1960's. Greta was a misfit at home and never had aspirations to leave her village on the west coast of Ireland to or have the life that became hers... Michael Ward grew up in a family of Irish Travellers. Their lives are joined by circmstances and by love. Along the way certain events evolved into se...more
A stunning debut novel! This book is a must-read for anyone who likes novels about Ireland and transatlantic travel. The Walking People tells the story of Greta Cahill, her sister, Johanna, and a boy named Michael Ward. The three of them come to America from a small town outside of Galway during the 1960's. The story covers the early years on the Irish coast with the travelers, or "walking people," New York in the 1960's - modern day, the Irish immigrant experience, and the sandhogs wh...more
This was a well-written and obviously well-researched book about of Ireland of the 1960's and the "traveller" community in general. The opening sections of the book that take place in Ireland are the best in terms of invoking a certain time and place, and developing characters in the Cahill family as well as Michael Ward.
But when the book shifts to New York and moves forward in time, the same lingering over details fades, and the details that do exist (i.e., watching All ...more
But when the book shifts to New York and moves forward in time, the same lingering over details fades, and the details that do exist (i.e., watching All ...more
The Walking People may become one of my top 5 all-time favorite books. Even as I write this, I am not sure how to articulate the reasons why I loved this book so much. I was sucked in at the Prologue. I was shocked that every 60-80 pages something would happen that I simply did not expect. I was impressed by the believability of the relationships and the amount of research that must have gone into this book regarding Ireland, the Irish workers in New York, and the evolution of technology. Defini...more
Good insights to Irish immigrants after 1960 and the changes in rural Ireland since then. The Walking People refer to the Travelers, or Tinkers, in Ireland. They traveled in bands, with livestock and tents. Their sense of “home” is of being with each other and not a specific city, country or permanent residence. The novel covers 44 years of personal history and touches on culture, racism and cultural identity for the second generation immigrant; enjoyable and informative.
I discovered Mary Beth Keane on fivechapters.com where they published her story "Diving" a couple weeks ago. She's a talented, sensitive writer, catching all the details and re-telling them beautifully through her very real characters. The story of Greta, a strange girl from a large Irish family, finds herself living out her years in New York City, raising a family of her own, complete with secrets and flaws. Keane gives us a clear picture of Ireland, New York, and the struggle of liv...more
I really loved this book, read it in just a couple of days (snow days so we had nowhere to go!), but this is one of my new favorites. It follows the life of three young Irish people as they emigrate to the US in the 20th century. It starts in their shared childhoods, on the sea in Ireland, and ends many years later after much living. Kind of a mix of Thomas Hardy and Wallace Stegner, Keane's writing style is effortless and lovely. Read this one!
Although 50 pages too long (the editor should have helped cut the number of scenes and detailed descriptions)and filled with flawed characters the reader wants to shake (like real life?), the book is a more than credible first novel. Kudos to the author for her characterizations and research. Are we on to a new trend in immigrant fiction with this book and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn? The Irish in mid-20th-century NYC.
I picked this book randomly off the shelf at the library (the title caught my eye) and absolutely loved it! It was an engaging and well-written story about immigrants from Ireland to the United States. It earns the highest praise I can give a book, which is that I was living in its world while reading it. For more see http://booksandmiscellany.wordpress.com/...
Another book about the Irish immigrant experience in the U.S.---specifically New York. Almost covers the same first years as Brooklyn by Toibin.
This one is about an Irish "tinker," who wants to stop roaming around Ireland and settle down but he leaves for the US. The question is will he and his wife ever return to Ireland for a visit? They're hiding a secret and it effects their lives.
I read Under This Unbroken Sky (by Shandi Mitchell) about a Ukrainian family in Canad...more
This one is about an Irish "tinker," who wants to stop roaming around Ireland and settle down but he leaves for the US. The question is will he and his wife ever return to Ireland for a visit? They're hiding a secret and it effects their lives.
I read Under This Unbroken Sky (by Shandi Mitchell) about a Ukrainian family in Canad...more
In the 1950'sJohanna and her sister, Greta lived with their parents, Lily and Big Tom and their brothers in Ballyroan, Ireland. It was a very quiet little town, as many people from the town had immigrated to America. They lead a simple life of farming and fishing salmon. Joanna and Greta went to school while their brothers farmed with Big Tom. The family didn't think that Greta would really amount to much, she was quite awkward and they called her a goose. She stuck to Joanna like glue and rarel...more
I couldn't put this book down after about 75 pages, and I was really sad when it was over. The author tells a very captivating story of Irish family life in a remote village on the far west coast where tragedy strikes and the two youngest girls eventually set sail for America and make their way in NYC. Rich character development, fascinating narrative, great writing!
I really enjoyed this story - I just fell in love with the Goosey Greta. I could NOT figure out the beginning of the book though (how it started) until the very end. I just kept reading and reading and thinking "so what was with that first chapter..." I love stories that make you fall in love with the characters, despite their flaws.
Once I got into the book, it read pretty quickly. The author seems to have some of the most important events occur off stage, as it were, and the large spans of times between the narrations were sometimes jarring. My book group enjoyed it on the whole and had the same reactions to it I did.
Outstanding. Three young people emigrate from Ireland to New York in the mid-twentieth century. Events from their past keep them from all returning to their native land, yet the pull of family and homeland remains strong. Finally, the next generation brings about healing and understanding. A bad description, but it was so well written. I don't want to give the story away. Can't wait until the author writes another.
I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the characters and the story. There are a few lines in the book that I particular enjoyed, like "We don't settle in places. We settle in people." However, I expected more from the ending and was hoping for a more satisfying conclusion. The ending works, I just wanted more. :) Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to others.
The Walking People is a character-driven story about an Irish couple, Michael and Greta Ward. The story begins in Ireland. Michael, as a boy, first meets Greta Cahill and her family when his nomadic family group (the walking people) camps just down the road from Greta's family farm. Several years later Michael returns to the Cahill farm with thoughts of settling down. When Michael, Greta, and Greta's sister, Joanna, all emigrate to America, their true characters begin to blossom when faced w...more
I really like reading about Ireland and immigration stories. This book had both! I thought it was a great story and since this is the authors first book, am hoping that she writes something else soon. The ending kind of left me hanging - I wanted to know how a certain interaction would play out - but overall, I really liked this book!
I enjoyed this book - it led me into a world I had not known before. I cared about the characters and couldn't put the book down. I was a little disappointed with the lackluster ending. Still I highly recommend this work. It is well-written and absorbing.
Wow - I don't know what I was expecting, but this book surprised me! It's long but so is the story, so it wasn't tedious and I found myself glad that I still had more left to enjoy. Very well done. I can't believe this is the author's first novel.
First part of the book deals with life in Ireland and then 3 young people choosing to immigrate to America. Once in America, the story leaves out huge chunks of their life and fast forwards. Didn't get the ending at all. Kind of ended abruptly to me.
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