The Last Storyteller
The Last Storyteller: A Novel Of Ireland by Frank Delaney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is how a story should be told: heroes and villains, trials and tribulations, hope and joy. An engrossing, layered plot and captivating characters. I especially enjoyed Delaney’s masterful juxtaposition of bygone tales and current drama. When THE storyteller Ben MacCarthy meets up with happy-go-lucky gadabout Jimmy Bermingham (and we soon learn, he’s in the IRA), they come upon Emma Sloane who is on the run from a father who whips her and would marry her off to a wealthy but ancient and heartsick man. This unfolding catastrophe mirrors the old tale that Ben’s mentor, John Jacob, has just told him about the lovely young Emer being betrothed to the hoary but heroic Malachi MacCool. Ben sees the parallels immediately, which commits him all the more to the constancy of storytelling. The meeting of Ben and Jimmy and Emma occurs early in the novel. With this encounter, Delaney sets the hook of what makes a story a great story: “And so three people, complete strangers to one another, set out on a coldish rainy afternoon in County Kilkenny in the year 1956, not knowing what on earth lay ahead.”
What was most enjoyable about this novel for me was that Ben was not just the storyteller of Ireland’s history and myths, he was telling his own story. Divided from his beloved Venetia and their two children, his tale is the tale of a quest. As a reader, I was drawn in and held fast as Delaney weaves the journey.
A compelling tale that you shouldn’t miss.
