History of the Rain in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 30, 2020 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ireland-irish, audiobooks, women-centered, 2020

Phenomenal story set in County Clare, Ireland current-time. It is now one of my all-time faves. In the very beginning, I almost gave up on it. I couldn't settle on it or focus, but I was coming off of a year of difficult teaching considering how the poor children were dealing with the emergence and drama of....COVID! I wasn't sure if the novel was just too lyrical for me during this long, drawn-out, house-bound, working-from-home, insane, COVID time, and could I have the patience to focus and li Phenomenal story set in County Clare, Ireland current-time. It is now one of my all-time faves. In the very beginning, I almost gave up on it. I couldn't settle on it or focus, but I was coming off of a year of difficult teaching considering how the poor children were dealing with the emergence and drama of....COVID! I wasn't sure if the novel was just too lyrical for me during this long, drawn-out, house-bound, working-from-home, insane, COVID time, and could I have the patience to focus and listen to it? Yes!

Hella glad, I stuck with it. (current teen lingo.) Anyway, this lovely novel helped me slow down my sometimes sad, sometimes freaking-out, when will I see my elderly mother, and stop-thinking-about-COVID brain, and in the process….I am grateful that it took me away to beautiful County Clare.

I had been thinking about this book for a year or more, as I work my way through books set in Ireland by Irish writers. This was my first read by Niall Williams and I am a fan! His writing is witty, intelligent, fun and funny, deep and empathic, with a strong storytelling vibe...told in the voice of a young girl, a twin, named Ruth. He inhabited her brain and persona, and nailed it. Ruth is a sweetheart of a child, who loves her family, especially her kind father and semi-delicate, twin brother Aeney.

Here's another upside: This is an Irish family where there aren't beatings, fall-down drunks, nasty priests or nuns, and no physical or emotional abuse. Thank the Lord! It's a family that you hear about over time from the sweet and gentle voice of Ruth, who is confined to bed with some illness that you don't have much information about, unless you pay attention, but you will discover it towards the end. Her room has over 3-4,000 books and Ruth is the storyteller. She frequently imparts beautiful emotions and feelings, while quoting titles and authors, and even a line or two from a novel, or small bits of poetry.

I have Irish ancestors from a great many places from north to south. Part of my Irish roots are from the Wexford area, which isn't too far-ish (in my U.S. mind) from County Clare. Ruth's family lives beside a river in the village of Faha (best name ever), and we learn a great many things about the people, land, and weather. This is the kind of book that will stay with me. I didn't want it to end....I loved it. ...more

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Apr 07, 2024 Kemlo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, book-club-2023

This is the kind of book where the narrative voice either works for you or it doesn’t. The narrator, Ruth, is an extremely bookish and physically unwell Irish girl in her late teens. She has a lot to say about her little corner of Ireland, her ancestors, her family, and the struggles and losses she’s experienced. Her sentences tend to run-on, and she often digresses and meanders before getting to her point, but I think she’s a wonderful character and narrator. I enjoyed her sense of humor and ly ...more

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Aug 26, 2014 Rachel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, man-booker-winner-finalist, libraryrealbook

Misery Lit with hope and humor and a language that will stay with me for a long long time. Thanks to the Booker Long List for leading me to a book I'm not sure I would have found any other way. ...more

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Apr 06, 2015 Sunflower rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-books, fiction-read-2015

Brilliant tale, well written. Chronically ill Ruth lives in a room filled with books that belonged to her father, as she lies and watches the rain fall she takes us through her family in her search for her father.

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