Holy Pictures [Paperback]

Clare Boylan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 1998

For Nan, on the threshold of puberty, and her younger sister Mary, innocence blends uneasily with the trials of convent life and a shadowy knowledge of the facts of life. For their mother, buffeted by the whims of her tyrannical, unreliable husband, the days take on an unreal, dreamlike quality. And while Nellie, the Dickensian maid with a dubious past, regales the children with tales of her antics, home becomes a haven to a stream of unwelcome guests - as the dangerous depths of the adult world loom ever closer...

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Fresh, beautiful and quirky' OBSERVER 'Full of laughter as well as affection ...a midsummer dream' THE TIMES

About the Author

Clare Boylan is the author of five novels and three volumes of short stories. Her latest novel, EMMA BROWN, was published by Little, Brown in September 2003.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Abacus Uk (August 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0349110085
• ISBN-13: 978-0349110080
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,503,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A novel something like Angela's Ashes, July 5, 2002

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Holy Pictures (Mass Market Paperback)

Holy Pictures is set in Dublin, probably around the turn of the 20th Century, though it doesn't say exactly when. The novel centers around the Cantwell family, notably daughter Nan.

Papa Cantwell owns a (blush) corset factory. But ladies are turning from steel-belted, all-weather laced corsets to rubberized, comfortable (well, relatively comfortable) models. Mr. Cantwell is as inflexible as his corsets and seeks to contour the past as tightly as cinched waists. Modernize? Not he! And there are predictable consequences to his business. He's a boor and a brute. His wife is a typical gentile booby, drifing along or actually drifting downwards with her husband. She's hapless against the tides of ruin that are washing up on their middle-class conventional life. She goes to the hairdresser, neglects the housekeeping and the kids.

Nan does well in school and tries to make sense of the increasing disorder in the family. For Mr. Cantwell, it would seem, has a past, a past that comes back in the shape of a bundle of letters written in spindly green ink. Nan's coming-of-age as a woman is shot through with the sins of the adults in her life. Truly, the sins of the fathers are in this case, visited on the children. She notes that "grownups get money for nothing." and that they take advantage of the weak, even children, whenever they can. The "nothing" is of course, not "nothing", and Nan finds out about the facts of life a bit too late as always.

This is a fine, fine first novel and really has only the flaw of being over-ambitious and a bit exotic. The events are crammed in, doubtless from the author's incredible creativity and observant eye and ear. First novels sometimes are a bit over-stuffed, and despite the fact this is not a long book, it is very packed with events, characters, and imagery. But this is a minor literary criticism. This is a wonderful book to read, and if you can find a copy of it, do so. You will probably enjoy it as much as I did.

I'm comparing "Holy Pictures" to Angela's Ashes (which was a memoir.) So the comparison is only that Boylan writes of tough times growing up in Ireland, and that the protagonist is a bright, worthy character surrounded by less-than-sterling adults. There, the comparison ends. But if you liked Angela's Ashes, you will very probably like "Holy Pictures." Unfortunately, it is out of print, but used copies are available, or maybe your librarian was of a literary bent and bought a copy for your town. I hope so.