Customer Reviews

The End of the Hunt

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This is a part of Irish history that most Americans, including many Irish-Americans, don't know well if at all. Thomas Flanagan's story of Irish independence, centering on the figure of Michael Collins (the Big Fella)is a story of historical significance and personal tragedy. While this is not a full rounded history of the time, since it focuses on Collins and ignores for the most part the other Irish leaders, it is still a grand adventure and captures perfectly the tone of time and place. Flanagan is a writer of significant skill and his handling of character and story - not to mention his skill with language - make this book a memorable and moving reading experience.

I loved the Thomas Flanagan trilogy.

By chance, I believe I came across the primary source books for each of the three.

The Year of the French seems quite obviously informed and inspired by Thomas Pakenham's Year of Liberty, a novelistic but dense nonfiction recounting of the western uprising in 1798.

The End of the Hunt takes much of its feel from "The Big Fellow", Frank O'Connor's beautiful account of Michael Collins' revolutionary career.

If these two are obvious the third is less so:

The Tenants of Time builds very effectively upon the foundations of Micheal Davitt's book, "The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland." This book, by an 1867 Fenian who became a leader of the Land League movement and an obstructionist member of the British parliament, is rich in detail about the Land League and the parliamentary struggle of the late 1800's that shows up in the Flanagan book.

I recommend these books to readers who have finished the trilogy, just as I would recommend the trilogy to all.

Thomas Flanagans' The End of the Hunt follows The Tenants of Time as an engrossing novel about Ireland's fight for independence. His most recent novel centers on Michael Collins, but, like previous Flanagan efforts, is told through the eyes of a collection of characters. These individual insights give the reader a well-rounded view of events as they occur and allow us to peer from different angles at the tactics, strategies, subterfuges, and idiosyncracies of the warring parties. From the Easter Rising of 1916 to the edge of Irish civil war, Flanagan weaves a taut web of intrigue, conflict, and tragedy with a "behind-the-scenes" access which affords the reader an extremely suspenseful experience.

Though admirably fast-paced throughout, the story quickens as Collins and crew reluctantly sign a treaty with Great Britain which runs counter to the oaths of their IRA brethren. Creating the Irish Free State, Collins finds himself and his fellow free staters caught between the unconditional IRA demands of full independence and the British who continue to hold Northern Ireland with iron fist and require the rest of the country to ultimately submit to their sovereignty. The balancing act is exciting to behold as Collins continues to abet IRA action whilst holding an ever-demanding Great Britain at bay.

Ireland's struggle to be free of Britain's imperial grasp is a story that, to this day, continues to make headlines. Thomas Flanagan has again provided a ground zero view fraught with peril, passion, and seemingly insurmountable odds. I recommend this book highly as I do his earlier effort, The Tenants of Time.

A wonderful novel, beautifully written. There is music, and passion, and complexity in Flanagan's language, reflecting the times and the characters of which he writes. Reminded of "the chain of repetition and futility" that characterizes much of Irish history, we are witness to the conflicts of a proud and troubled people struggling to define and possess their cultural heritage, their political future, and their individual lives, at the time of the Easter uprising. This is not a novel read dispassionately. Dublin, and the Irish countryside and coastline, are vividly depicted, and Flanagan's characters reveal themselves in moments of grace and intensity, generosity and selfish treachery. It is a time of World War, and rebellion, and there is no absence of obvious violence and emotion. But it is Flanagan's gift to reveal inner selves, private, hidden, that gives his characters life beyond the events of their time, and joins them to ourselves. A young woman, widowed by the death of her soldier-husband, returns to their flat after an evening with friends, and inhabits her loneliness, her loss, and her longing. "I was entitled to my grief, and now that had faded to a private emptiness decorated by such feelings and small hopes and cruelties as I had shopped for. And so I sat there, sipping the brandy which Charlie had always called the only one worth drinking, and its complex taste a touch of his remembered tongue upon my tongue." You will not soon forget these people, or this book

Through the eyes of participants and observers, Thomas Flanagan
does a masterful job of recounting the struggle of the Irish
people to break free of the centuries-old control of the
British Empire. The meticulously-detailed account of the "Troubles"
centers on the seven-year period between the Easter Rising in 1916
to the Civil War in 1922. The story comes to life through the
personal struggle of those individuals involved to come to grips
with the contradictory nature of dividing the country. Portraying
conflicting views of the country's plight is where Flanagan shines.
No clear winner emerges in the end as Flanagan successfully defines
the sincere passion and commitment of those lined up on both
sides of the conflict.

One of my primary interests is Irish history. It is my opinion that Thomas Flanagan is the best writer of Irish historical novels. I read his three books when they were originally published but I recently had the pleasure to reread them. The End of the Hunt is the last in the series. Tis a pity that Flanagan did not have the opportunity to write more in the series. The End of the Hunt is an excellent book. As with the two earlier books, I got caught up in the action and felt that I was an eyewitness to the events as they happened. The different characters vividly bring to life the historical events of the time. Flanagan is a masterful story teller. I strongly recommend his other two books:

The Year of the French

The Tenants of Time

If you had to read one book about Ireland 1916-1922, this would definitely be it! It starts in the aftermath of 1916 and proceeds through the end of the Civil War. Flanagan does so well in bringing the history, the players - actual and fictional - and the atmosphere to life that I can't believe he wasn't there. (Don't think so, though...) Michael Collins, Ernie O'Malley, DeValera -- they're all here. Finally, this is quite simply an absolutely beautifully written book, even if you're not interested in Ireland, the time period, or the people involved.

The thrird novel, after "Year of the French" & "The Tenants of Time", in Flanagan's magnificent historical novels of Irish history.

"End of the Hunt" paints an exquisite, compelling portrait of Michael Collins Ireland with all the complexity and personal tragedy of the Irish Civil War in tact. Told with bold narrative strokes and page turning action that belies the deep characters and big ideas in a book as beautiful as Ireland herself. Flanagan is no Joyce, he is Ireland's Tolstoy. Characters that breath and a book you won't want to leave.