Growing up in a one-room tenement with her parents and two siblings, Elaine Crowley became a shrewd observer: of the neighborhood within the Liberties, of street life, of poverty, of her father's infidelity, and of her mother's effort to end his affair. Her memories create a moving portrait of a 1930s Irish family contending with the pain of adversity and loss, and how love can overcome both.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
In this powerful memoir, Crowley, the author of seven novels published in England, tells the story of her working-class family's descent into poverty as her father succumbed to tuberculosis and her mother remained in denial about the seriousness of his condition. She also presents a vivid picture of tenement life in Ireland's capital in the years leading up to World War II. In a work reminiscent of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (LJ 8/96), Crowley deftly imitates the oral storyteller's art through the use of short, staccato sentences and fragments. While the memoir (originally published abroad as Cowslips and Chainies) recounts the narrator's own coming of age, a major focus is her much-adored father, a 20th-century Everyman whose weaknesses and strengths combine to manifest the universal human condition. Highly recommended for all public libraries.?Denise J. Stankovics, Rockville P.L., Vernon, Ct.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Novelist Crowley paints an affectionately realistic portrait of her impoverished--but far from grim--Irish childhood. Coming of age in a crowded one-room flat in an insular, working-class Dublin neighborhood, the author depended on the lively familiarity of her street to provide entertainment, adventure, and a sense of security. Though she worshiped her handsome, hardworking, but unfaithful English-born father, Crowley's relationship with her shrewdly practical Irish mother was far more conflicted and complex. Artfully employing her native ingenuity to adequately feed and clothe her brood, her mother relied on faith, inspiration, an implacable will, and a fierce temper to protect both her children and her vulnerable marriage. When her father contracted tuberculosis and was unable to continue working, Crowley was forced to quit school in order to help support her family. During this emotionally and financially desperate period she forged a new bond with her mother, who miraculously continued to provide sustenance and hold the family together. Neither as bleak nor as dramatic as Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996), this humorous and poignant memoir will nevertheless appeal to the same audience. Margaret Flanagan
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Night Table Reading...,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Dublin Girl: Growing Up in the 1930s (Hardcover)
Elaine Crowley weaved a wonderful story that did combine humor and pathos in a way that left the reader hopeful...to the very end. I imagine Ms. Crowley as being an extremely grounded and delightful person, in spite of the "hard times" she endured during her childhood years. And isn't that always the "best" gift we can give to ourselves/offer to others? Rather than staying stuck in her own bitterness, anger, resentment and/or rage---it's nice to see an author "get into it" (when "it" isn't very pleasant at all!), but come through it victoriously. She's someone I would have liked to know personally; her family is no doubt extremely fortunate to have her. Mary in Northville, MI
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