Brigid

by Jill Blee

Jill Blee's second novel, Brigid, is at once a travel story and an historical novel set in modern Ireland, where Jill's first visit to her ancestral homeland is hijacked by the very real presence of her long-dead great aunt, Brigid.
Brigid has some unfinished business which quickly becomes Jill's main quest, through which she is brought into a much deeper experience of the great famine than her history books could ever give her.

Genres: Australia

262 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it this both really interesting and annoying in equal parts. I couldn't put it down though, so in the battle between reader me and it, it won. Its a historical fiction, written by a historian, of a dreadful period in Irish history. The historical content is accurate as I checked names and places as I read though, not everything, but a lot, as I like my historical fiction to err on the fictional side than the history is it based on. And err fictionally, I though, it did. The story involves a long dead aunt (Brigid) invading the mind of a woman (Jill) travelling to Ireland looking for answers to a family puzzle. This is an interesting idea but how it was done in this book, for me, just did not work. The dialogue as written in the voice of Brigid - always in italics - sounded Irish in my head as I read, but I never reached a point in which I was able to believe in Brigid as 'real' and not a clever ploy by the author. I believed in her great grand neice, and found her travels interesting, but the moment it went to italics I lost that bit where we escape into a story, and just read the author telling me the character Brigid is telling the story now. Hope that makes sense as its difficult to describe why not. Especially given that, otherwise, I kept reading. I needed to know what Jill was finding out, and share her travelling details so after awhile I just turned off when the text turned to italics, though I followed it for awhile in case I missed something important - but never did. I'm still glad I read it til the end however. Its well worth it and it was a small adjustment to make, and others might not have the same problem. Plus its not unusual for a reading experience to be a bit mixed.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I discovered Victorian author Jill Blee back in 2009 when I borrowed an audio book called The Liberator’s Birthday, and I liked it so much (see my review) that I hunted out her other titles: her first novel The Pines Hold their Secrets, and her second, Brigid. (I think I bought them direct from her website, but I don’t seem to be able to find it now). Unfortunately, this book is not as successful as The Liberator’s Birthday.

Brigid appears to be a professionally published book with a beautifully designed cover (by David Wong) and good production values – but the text looks suspiciously like a self-edited effort. There are far too many irritating typos including one in the very first paragraph; there is a persistent problem with the contraction it’s and the possessive pronoun its; and confusion over synonyms like pore/pour and horde/hoard shouldn’t have survived a first proof-reading. But that’s not the only problem…

Good editing would have tidied up an interesting concept and eased it into a more engaging tale. The narrator travels to Ireland but has her holiday hijacked by the spirit of her long-dead great-great-aunt Brigid, who bullies her into abandoning her original plans to tour Ireland. Instead, she is to trace her ancestors’ tragic experience during the Potato Famine and solve a long-standing mystery that prevents Brigid from resting in peace. This is a story with good potential, but the structure chosen to deliver it derails itself repeatedly. A travelogue punctuated by irritable conversations between narrator and the dead aunt just doesn’t work.

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/08/02/br...

[Lauren Keegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I posted a review of this novel on my blog:

http://australianbookshelf.wordpress....