Last Resort

Brulagh #2

by Dan Binchy

Returning to the village of Brulagh introduced in his highly praised debut The Neon Madonna, Dan Binchy's hilarious second novel offers a delightful tale of the eccentricities of rural life in the Republic of Ireland.Luke Diverali, a suave, sophisticated American, is touring Ireland in an attempt to escape from a rather inconvenient investigation into his banking activities. His speculator's eye finds Brulagh not only attractive but, more importantly, ripe for development. If he can only overcome the obstacles that present themselves, both in business and in love, he can see huge profits just over the horizon.Luke encounters familiar characters from The Neon Madonna, such as the endearing Father Jerry, as well as a host of new ones - at the races, at the dances, and in his relentless pursuit of money. But in the funny, unconventional, and completely absorbing Ireland of Dan Binchy's tale nothing turns out quite as planned.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[George]

Interesting... not really inspiring or serious, but somewhat of a spoof on insular behavior in communities, and how politically motivated projects are paid for... i thought it ironic that the EC has in fact tried to gain reparations for the People of IreLand from APPLE, when they in fact don't want it.

This book did somewhat answer that question for me. People in a community often `believe` they are acting in their own best interest when in fact are being manipulated in ways they don't even understand. The twist in the tale is somewhat akin to other irish stories *(dare i bring `the quiet man` up?), and the real surprise which was too predictable is that several of the protagonists are in fact distant blood relations, by birth. This tie that many irish american families feel to the old country is perhaps reestablished in a similar way ... The driving force in the book is Diverelli's response to being characterised as a Wop by people he perviews as crazy's at best or just plain country bumkins, but in the end finds he is merely one of them by blood birth marriage etc..

In a very REAL sense the Alphra's dowery is her Castle paid for by the Earl...

[J]

The story seemed intriguing, but after several weeks I had only managed to get through the first 50 pages. The language is so thick and difficult, that I eventually give up.

Perhaps it was a matter of Irish English versus American English ... I could understand it but it took so much longer than normal. It took a moment to read the words and translate them into the story in my mind. I felt like I had to cut through the language to get to the story - like clearing a path through the jungle to travel forward. I kept hacking away and the mental exercise became exhausting. The thrill of the story motivated me forward but eventually the progress was so slow that the journey was no longer worth it. I'm sad I wasn't able to experience the entire story, but it was just so hard to get through the language.

[Brandy]

Excessive cursing and use of racial slurs, unnecessarily in my opinion. A little rambling and disjointed, the character development is completely lacking. The "love" story aspect is so poorly fleshed out it's ridiculous and completely unbelievable that these two get engaged at the end. The main plot line is the only thing that kept me reading which I guess is a good thing but ultimately even that isn't interesting enough to justify reading this book. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone.