Synthesis

[Troy]

Final thoughts go here. Also, if you want to tackle some of the discussion questions at the end of the book, create a new topic within this folder, and title it "Discussion Question # "insert here the question number found in the book." I didn't want to read the questions yet cause they usually assume you've read the whole book by that point.

[Tom]

This was my second time reading this novel, and some parts are still a puzzle to me, especially the character of Anthony MacMurrough. Are we to embrace him as the "pedophile with a heart of gold?" O'Neill seems to be suggesting MacMurrough is experiencing some form of Easter season redemption as he rescues Doyler, counsels the 2 boys like an old-auntie matchmaker, and then vaguely heads off to war to prove his manhood and defend the family name. It struck me as a hard-to-believe transformation for a person who in the early chapters was a cynical devotee of Oscar Wilde, thumbing his nose at middle-class morality.
The dual death at the conclusion -- one immediate, the other foreshadowed for a few years into the future -- still affected me deeply, a final gritty end to a book that depicts vividly a harsh time and place in history. I would love to see a film version of this book if handled with subtlety. The visual imagery could be overwhelming.

[Avory]

I didn't necessarily have a problem with MacMurrough, but then I believe the boys were 16 or 17 so they were more or less adults.

My general thoughts: I thought that it was beautifully written, but also very slow and painful. Like many gay history books, I ended it with the overall sense that my life is pointless, that failure is inevitable, and that gay and lesbian people do not deserve love. Perhaps it's true, but I'm a bit tired of having it jammed down my throat.