The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan: A Novel of the Civil War

Becoming Mary Mehan #1

by Jennifer Armstrong

In a rich tapestry of dreams, legend, and the pivotal events of the American Civil War, this haunting novel portrays a family of Irish immigrants fighting to find its identity in the New World while a nation struggles to be born anew out of the carnage of war. In a starred review, "Publishers Weekly" called it "a finely wrought historical novel...remarkable for its artistry and the lingering musicality of its language."

Genres: Historical Fiction, Civil War, Young Adult

119 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Jennifer Armstrong learned to read and write in Switzerland, in a small school for English speaking children on the shores of Lake Zurich. The school library had no librarian and no catalog – just shelves of interesting books. She selected books on her own, read what she could, and made up the rest. It was perfect. As a result, she made her career choice – to become an author – in first grade. When she and her family returned to the U.S. she discovered that not all children wrote stories and read books, and that not all teachers thought reading real books was important. Nevertheless, she was undaunted. Within a year of leaving college she was a free-lance ghost writer for a popular juvenile book series, and before long published her first trade novel, Steal Away, which won her a Golden Kite Honor for fiction.

More than fifty additional novels and picture books followed, and before long she also tried her hand at nonfiction, winning an Orbis Pictus Award and a Horn Book Honor for her first nonfiction book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. In late 2003 she will travel to the South Pole with the National Science Foundation to do research for a book on ice.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan: A Novel of the Civil War by Jennifer Armstrong (1996)

This book has been in my house begging to be read since 2004. With seven years of build up maybe it's not a surprise that this book did not leave me dazzled. Maybe that was the only possible outcome. The story is interesting but from the outset the book had a lot working against it including a plain cover (mine has a white background with black text and . . . nothing else) and some difficult pronunciation ("Mairhe" is pronounced "Moira" and is the Irish form of "Mary" all of which I thought was made clear in the novel but someone didn't because there is a note at the start of the book explaining all of that--which makes the whole thing feel intimidating).

At 128 pages (hardcover) I hesitate to explain much of the plot but I will say this: Armstrong does a great job if you look at this as a slice-of-life novel. Although I liked Mairhe as a heroine the entire story hinged on a character being likable and I just didn't like him very much. It happens. Her descriptions of the Civil War battles and Washington of the time are stunning and evocative in a way few writers ever manage. The writing here is lyrical and immediately brings to mind an Irish brogue which adds to the dream-like quality of the entire book.

If anyone can even find this book anymore (NYPL no longer has it) I'd recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction, who is interested in the Civil War, or wants a book about the immigrant experience as much of the plot hinges on what it means to be American (or Irish) in an era when America was still figuring out its identity as a country.

[James Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather unusual book about a young girl named Mairhe Mehan who came to the U.S. from Ireland. She lives in an Irish slum in Washington, D.C. with her brother, Mike, who's working on helping to construct the Capitol dome.

She works at an Irish bar and gets along there well. Things change for the worse, though, when her father basically goes insane, destroying almost everything in their home. Her brother volunteers to fight for the Union Army, going off and leaving her alone. She lives upstairs over the bar, now, and her father in a church that was converted into a hospital.

She also has the "second sight," that is, she can psychically see things happening and this "gift" provides her with one of her darkest moments.

There's a lot in the novel about what's going on in the Civil War, and everything that goes on in her own life is described in a fashion which makes it easy to form mind-images of the events.

There are a couple of places where the story gets a little confusing at times, shifting from one scene to another within the space of a paragraph or two, but it still all fits well together. This may not be the happiest book to read, but it's still worth reading.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the many books my grandmother gave me before she died, but it is the one that reminds me of her the most.

Overall, it's a short work of historical fiction about an Irish girl living in the D.C. slum Swampoodle during the Civil War. I guess you have to read the book to know the struggles she faces.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grades 6+. Mairhe, who lives in an Irish slum in Washington DC in the 1860s, struggles to come to grips with the impact of theCivil War after her brother joins the Union army and her father gives away all their belongings in hopes of going back to Ireland.

[Renae · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was hard to wrap my head around, but it pulled together near the end. There is some lovely writing here. Blending of the dance of life with the dance of battle.

It might bear up under a second reading...

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mairhe, her brother and father come to the U.S. to escape the famine in Ireland. They live in a shantytown in the Irish section of D.C. during the start of the civil war. Tells the story of how lots of Irish boys went to war for both sides, when neither side considered them citizens.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was an o.k book and was interesting. it had lots of big words in it witch made it better

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short snippet of the Civil War from an Irish girl's perspective.