Midlife Irish: Discovering My Family and Myself

by Frank Gannon

Exploring the themes of family love, loss, and national identity, the author describes his return to Ireland, where his deceased parents had been born, to reconnect with his own Irish identity and rediscover his own mother and father's past, as well as its links to his own future. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Ireland, Biography, Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warm, witty, affecting. A lovely memoir.

[Armelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The random "quotation" marks every other "sentence" really distracted me from Frank Gannon's "tale" of finding his Irish "roots."

[Gerry Durisin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something about Gannon's writing -- too flip, too many non-sequiturs -- annoyed me throughout most of this book, but I stuck with it, and was pleased with the ending of his memoir, and with the overall impression of his trip to Ireland and his search for information about his parents' pasts.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If You Know, You Know....thanks Frank!

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly a light-hearted series of observations about Ireland, some of them kind of thought-provoking. What nudges the book beyond that are his memories of his Irish parents and the way they were so different from everyone around them. The author grew up with a disconnect between his parents' Irishness (holy water fonts in every room of the house, potatoes all the time) and his parents' unwillingness to talk about their lives in Ireland. He goes to Ireland to finally tie up the loose ends. All in all, a pleasant, humorous, and sometimes sad read.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Dad was 1st generation Irish born in America. I loved the book. The author goes to Ireland to seek his roots..........mostly funny, but sad realities and memories are uncovered. His tender understanding of his Mother's hurt from childhood really touched me. He is darn funny, too! Loved this book.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

(book club choice & personal) second time reading this - author grew up in NJ, parents from Ireland. Enjoyable quirky humor. I never read a book twice - first read about 5 years ago, then it was my choice for the month for book club

no audio book available

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed it purely because I enjoy reading about my Irish heritage. Wouldn't recommend it to my non-Irish friends as the book/ writing style is not terribly engrossing.

[NuNu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found many areas of Frank Gannon's memories of his parents which could have been written about my Irish relations who had come to America from the "Old Country"