Customer Reviews

In the Country of the Young

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This gorgeous, compelling, heartfelt story is everything a novel should be. On Halloween Eve, Oisin, a middle-age recluse living on an island off the coast of Maine, finds a child ghost in his house who, at his touch, is given life. Aisling had died as a child on the shores of the island, a victim of a shipwreck and a debilitating voyage to escape the potato famine in Ireland. She awakens in Oisin his own longing for his long-dead twin sister Nieve. As Aisling grows up at a frantic rate, the two must face their pasts and origins, who they were and are, as well as the special relationship between them.

If the plot sounds maudlin, the novel is anything but. In Carey's capable hands, readers are guided through the intricacies of these two lives without sentimentality or melodrama. The lyrical prose is infused with the ache of longing, and the story finds the perfect balance between the past and the present, with a fully realized nineteenth century Ireland contrasting with a contemporary Maine.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Of all the books I've read this year, this one has lingered longest in my heart.

This book is a beautiful, melancholy flight of fancy from beginning to end. It's exhilarating the way Lisa Carey breaks the rules about what's allowed to happen in a novel. Ghosts are main characters, myths are real, communication with the dead commonplace. I read this book in one sitting--it was so bizarre I just had to keep turning the page to see what would happen next.

Carey intertwines harsh reality with the magical and mythical. The details about the Irish famine, the tons of food that were exported from the country while over a million people starved to death, and the horrible conditions on board the "coffin ships" are all--sad to say--historically accurate. It may seem morbid to some, but for the ancestors of those who crossed the Atlantic in those ships--or were buried at sea along the way--the famine is a watershed event that will remain embedded in our psyche for generations, like one of Carey's characters who die but stubbornly refuse to go away.

This vividly-told love story is so difficult to describe to others that you will find yourself simply buying copies for friends and family rather than risk spoiling the chance for them to experience the tale themselves. Lisa Carey's unpretentious writing style delivers an engrossing romance complemented by brilliant imagery. You will spend hours after reading the last page, repeating the seductive storytelling to yourself.

This book is awesome! I have never read anything like it. The characters were interesting and well written, the plot was unlike anything I had ever read, and the details were fascinating. I feel like I am gushing, but the book left me with such a feeling of peace when I was done reading it.

The story is completely fictional, but I could "see" the characters and "hear" their voices. The idea that there are people out there to help those who have died along their way is something that has interested me, even though I don't totally buy into the theory. The parts of the story with the young Oisin and his twin Nieve countered with those of Aisling and her brother are heart rending.

The novel is one of a reawakening and a realization that one can overcome the losses faced in your youth. Through Aisling, Oisin is able to absolve himself of his guilt for the death of his twin, and Aisling is able to achieve the one thing she was denied while she was alive.

This is a wonderful book, and I would heartily recommend it.

This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I'm so glad I took her advice!! Anyone who values beautiful writing and a haunting love story would really be missing out by not reading this book. I had chills most of the way through, and was crying (on the subway, no less) when it was over. One of the best books I read in 2000, without a doubt, and I read a lot.

Oisin is a lonely artist who has cared for no one since the death of his sister, when they were both teenagers. Aisling is the ghost of a child who died on one of the Irish coffin ships--died despite her firce will to live. It is her will to live that gives her the power to come back; she returns to the earthly plane, and one day Oisin finds a little girl in his cottage and begins to care for her.

Then the little girl starts to grow up, seeming to age years in a matter of weeks. And one day she is a teenager, looking like a beautiful grown woman, and Oisin is disturbed by his new feelings for her.

Intertwined with the story of Oisin and Aisling in the present, we also have the story of Oisin and his sister Nieve as seen through Oisin's memory, and the story of Aisling's dysfunctional family in Ireland during the time of the famine and the epidemic. While the story irritated me at times--generally when Oisin was acting obnoxiously hormonal--but there was a reason for it--he was getting his youth back. And the relationship between Oisin and Aisling was dealt with in a way that made it romantic rather than sleazy.

All in all, _In the Country of the Young_ was a sensual and entrancing novel, complete with echoes of Irish legend. I recommend it to those who like a good story and don't mind sex scenes.

"Exquisite and beautifully written" may be overused words when describing books like this, but it's difficult to find a more apt description. Lisa Carey is a major talent, and her fluent and lyrical prose is praiseworthy indeed. A constant reader, I'm never without a book and it is certainly rare for me to stumble across writing like this. Yes, there are a few sex scenes, but in my opinion they are in no way gratuituous or out of context as some reviewers have suggested. It should be remembered that the book's characters are, in essence, sensual beings and the sensuality expressed between them is beautifully and sensitively portrayed. Saying that, the book won't be enjoyed by the conservative reader. As a fan of the early Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, I felt strongly that 'In the Country of the Young' required a similarly gothic sensibility. There is no greater pleasure than stumbling across a book you've never heard of only to find it's one of the best books you've read this year. I loved it.

This book is an exquisite, rare treat. Her writing is described as lyrical and that word barely does her justice. I've read all of her books and they just keep getting better. She has the ability to touch you way down deep, primally deep, until you find yourself sobbing out loud. Long after the book is finished I find myself thinking of her characters and pondering her themes. I will be eagerly following the career of this talented artist.

I bought this book in a clearance sale because of its title and was forever hooked on Lisa Carey. I loved the historical flashbacks that tied in with the island's current traditions; adaptations of the old ways of Ireland and many of the old Pagan holidays.

This book is both charming and shocking at the same time. I've read a lot of ghost stories, but none so creative as this. I couldn't wait to get to the ending which, I must say, did not disappoint.

I just finished this book. I had never read anything by Lisa Carey and was completely unfamiliar with any of her books, I happened to find this book by chance. After reading it, I can't wait to find all other books this writer has written. I can't tell you how gorgeous this book was, I never wanted it to end.
It is filled with tragedy and hope. Rarely have I read a book that moved me to tears like this one did.