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What Members Thought
What an epic. This book was such a treat, 21 hours of the most delightful Irish brogue. The story was so unexpected, following the life of Cyril for 70 years. Characters come in and out and we, the reader, know the relationships and meanings, while the characters don't. A great deal of well played foreshadowing. I love this book, it was resonate with me for some time, like A Little Life did, but a little less tragic.
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Ugh. I loved the first half of this book. LOVED IT. And then... then the main character stayed too abandonedly selfish and cowardly. No growth. And more and more punishment heaped upon him. But by then I was in it. IN IT TO WIN IT. I cared too much about a few of the other minor characters.... and was it worth it? Was it worth the last 200 stupid pages? Probably not. Because I still had to witness the main character bumble through his thoughts and happenings which often seemed to only exist for
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It took me two tries to get into this book but once I did, I was hooked. The book has definite flaws: some of the plot is too pat, some of the scenes go on for too long. But the characters and their predicaments are so memorable and often hilarious that it all makes up for the flaws. One particular scene had me laughing so hard, there were tears in my eyes. Boyne reminds me of an Irish John Irving.
Despite the author's obvious anger at the Catholic Church, it did seem to me that there were some B ...more
Despite the author's obvious anger at the Catholic Church, it did seem to me that there were some B ...more
I fell in love with the characters in this powerful story of living authentically and finding your own family through prejudice, heartbreak and coincidences. I loved the way that the reader got to drop in on Cyril Avery's life every seven years from 1945 to 2015, catching glimpses of historical events woven into his story.
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This was a wonderful 5 star book for me. Although it started out kind of strangely for me - TMI on what a gay adolescence entails. But then there was so much clever dialog and humor - I started laughing - a lot - the scene in the bar with Mary Margaret and Brendan Behan is hysterical - and then i just grew to love each chapter. There were some tough scenes, but Cyril (the main character) is so endearing with all the things he had to endure and all his unusual family relationships. I cared for hi
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Enjoyed it the second time as much as the first. Found little charming details I missed the first time .
Jan 01, 2018
Curlysue
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
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