Customer Reviews

Irish Country Doctor

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The novel An Irish Country Doctortakes place in the 1960s, and although medical miracles are beginning to appear, the good Dr. O'Reilly practices his own medicine, his own way of treating this town full of eccentric patients. And he treats them very successfully, thank you.

Dr. Laverty, on the other hand, insistsmodern medicine and going strictly by the rulesare the only ways of properly healing patients.

It doesn't take long for Laverty to find a love interest, the beautiful Patricia Spence, a young lady determined to become an engineer.She soon becomes one of the many stumbling blocks Laverty must overcome to be the person and the doctor he wants to be.

As Laverty works as O'Reilly's assistant, he learns about love, loss of love and the hard knocks life can dish out in general and that he is not immune to experiencing some of life's more difficult situations himself.

Author Patrick Taylor has produced a beautiful story, intelligently written and filled with interesting characters. Richly illustrated with word pictures, the reader easily sees the beautiful Irish landscape, the rag-tag populace - O'Reilly's patients - that joyfully fill this novel's pages. Animals play an important role in the story. Laverty soon learns that everything has the ability to teach him something. I truly became involved in the lives of the doctors and their supporting cast of characters. The novel doesn't hold many surprises, but it is so lyricallywritten that it held my attention from the first page until the last.

The back of the book has a glossary which translates the "Ulster-Scots dialect," which is generously used throughout the book and lends much color and interest to the story, but does indeed, look like a foreign language to the uninitiated.

There is also an Afterword by Mrs. "Kinky" Kincaid, O'Reilly's faithful and wise housekeeper and cook. This portion of the novel offers a few of Mrs. Kincaid's recipes.

I found An Irish Country Doctor to be a refreshing change from the novels that line the shelves of today's book stores. If I had to put the book down while reading, I couldn't wait to get back to it, and for me, that's the sign of a good book.

The author was born and raised in Bangor County Down in Northern Ireland and did indeed work at one time as a doctor in rural Ireland. That's why his novel rings with such authenticity.

This book is just a wonderful read. It is set in the 1960's era, and is about a young med-school graduate who takes his first job in a little northern Irish village, joining an elderly doctor in family practice. It is very heart-warming, and holds your interest to the very last page. The author, Patrick Taylor, is a medical doctor himself. I am anxious to read any future books he writes.

This is an interesting book on Irish Life. If you like Irish ways and have an interest in medicine, this is your book. The interplay between the older General Practioner and his new, young assistant MD is very fascinating. They have adventure after adventure with their patients - both those who come to the "surgery" in the morning and the ones they visit on house calls in the afternoon. Kinky, the housekeeper, is an excellently drawn character who offers a great sample of the Irish brogue and Irish ways. I enjoyed this book.

James Toomey

I read the book with high expectations. A long time James Herriot fan, I was expecting some of the same richness of depth. This was a shallow, light read.
Everything has a happy ending. Even the bad guy in town is forced to do good in the end. There is not much description of the countryside, customs and people as Herriot gave us in his wonderful tales of Yorkshire.
I expect I will add it to my slush pile of books I don't want or need to ever read again. This isn't a terrible book if you are looking for something light and empty. But please don't expect anything of the genius of James Herriot

The synopsis on the inside cover of AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR compares Taylor's book to James Herriot and Jan Karon. Jan Karon I can see. James Herriot is a bit out of reach.

There's more syrup in this book than in a Smucker's factory. Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly is like a father to the residents of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland. There's a pregnant servant girl, a proud old man who lives in his car, a carpenter's wife with a ne'er-do-well husband, plus his new young assistant, Barry Laverty, who's reminiscent of a lovesick calf. O'Reilly presents a tough exterior, but he's got the proverbial heart of gold.

That's not to say AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR doesn't have some good points. If you love language, you'll love the Ulster dialect. For instance, "A beagle's gowl" is the distance a Beagle can be heard; "Near took the rickets" means had a great shock. There are also some more familiar words and expressions such as "lummuck" and "shite," all of which are defined in Taylor's glossary.

Taylor is also a doctor, so the medical scenes provide some enlightenment. I didn't know, for instance, that halitosis is a symptom of appendicitis.

My biggest problem with the book was the climax. O'Reilly resolves all of the plot conflicts in one fell swoop. But he uses blackmailing and some questionable medical slight of hand to do it. I'm thinking there's no way the villain, a tough businessman, would have believed O'Reilly's ploy for a second.

All in all, if you like Jan Karon, you'll probably like AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR. If not, venture at your own risk.

I wanted to like this book--I really did. I stuck with it until the end, hoping that with the next turn of the page the author would introduce a plot twist or some interesting revelation about one of the characters that would finally make it worth the read, but alas, it never happened. I'll grant that it's a pleasant story. There's nothing offensive or disturbing about it, but it never really engaged me. We see glimpses of each of the characters' pasts, but they are not developed. Barry's passion for Patricia seems absurdly deep given the fact that he doesn't really know her. Everything is wrapped up tidily in a last chapter that's better suited to a 30-minute sitcom, than to a novel. I suggest skipping this book in favor of one that has an actual story.

I discovered this set of books by accident, and to tell you the truth, I could not lay them down. Join Dr. Fingal Flahertie, Dr. Barry Barry Laverty, Kinky the house cook, for some laughs at Ballybucklebo.
Patrick Taylor has written a heart warming series of a medical practice in a small town in Northern Ireland. The books remind me of the series similar to the late James Herriot. The only difference is Harriot was a vet, and Dr. O'Reilly is a General practioner. Last week I emailed the author, Patrick Taylor, and I expressed my appreciation for his writings. Mr. Taylor made the time to answer me and expressed his thanks for taking the time to write him and for expressing my appreciation for his writings. Patrick Taylor is actually a medical doctor in Northern Ireland.

Dr. Barry Laverty arrives in Ballybucklebo to begin his medical practice with Dr. O'Reilly. Humerous incidents are interwined through out the books with many of the towns characters. The Irish people know how to throw a party and the river of beer never seems to run dry.

Barry Laverty, M.B., can barely find the village of Ballybucklebo on a map when he first sets out to seek gainful employment there, but already he knows that there is nowhere he would rather live than in the emerald hills and dales of Northern Ireland. The proud owner of a spanking-new medical degree and little else in the way of worldly possessions, Barry jumps at the chance to secure a position as an assistant in a small rural practice.

At least until he meets Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly.

The older physician, whose motto is to never let the patients get the upper hand, has his own way of doing things. At first, Barry can't decide if the pugnacious O'Reilly is the biggest charlatan he has ever met, or the best teacher he could ever hope for. Through O'Reilly Barry soon gets to know all of the village's colorful and endearing residents, including:

A malingering Major and his equally hypochondriacal wife;

An unwed servant girl, who refuses to divulge the father of her upcoming baby;

A slightly daft old couple unable to marry for lack of a roof;

And a host of other eccentric characters who make every day an education for the inexperienced young doctor.

Ballybucklebo is long way from Belfast, and Barry is quick to discover that he still has a lot to learn about the quirks and traditions of country life. But with pluck and compassion and only the slightest touch of blarney, he will find out more about life--and love--than he ever imagined back in medical school.

I too was expecting a James Herriott like novel. It is predictable in its plot and the dialog does not flow. I was always conscious of the writer's devices to move the dialogue and was never able to just fall into the book as one can fall into another world in a really well written novel.

Travelers to the North of Ireland find wind-swept vistas, fog-blanketed coasts and a land so verdant it looks like it was brush-stroked by Thomas Kinkade. On the occasional clear day you can even see Scotland from the lush Antrim shoreline. A mere twelve miles, `tis, across the North Channel, and a cinch for the marauding Scots giants of lore to breach it in a dozen strides, seeking to do battle with Ireland's own giant, Finn McCool. Saint Patrick first landed somewhere nearby and lies buried beneath an eponymous cathedral in County Down. A land of provos and loyalists, the fervent prayer is that the North of Ireland has also entombed the Troubles.

Nestled astride close-by Belfast Lough, readers are introduced to the make-believe, picture-postcard village of Ballybucklebo. An emerald plucked from the Ireland of yesteryear, herein resides a laughable, affable and pitiable collection of all the Irish caricatures we'd ever want to meet. `Tis where we find our two Irish country doctors in residence plying a common sense and routinely placebo-driven brand of medicine mildly reminiscent of the old joke: A man goes to his doctor and informs him that his arm hurts terribly when he raises it. To which the doctor replies: "Then don't raise your arm. Next patient!"

Our crusty but learned Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly plays mentor, confessor and father-figure to wet-behind-the-ears Doctor Barry Laverty, late of Belfast's Queen's University Medical School. Gambling that rural Ireland might offer a more suitable lifestyle than Belfast, Dr. Laverty arrives in Ballybucklebo ("Bally" loosely meaning "town" in Irish) driving a beat-up Volkswagen, answering O'Reilly's advertisement for a physician to assist him. Following typically whimsical driving directions the Irish are renowned for, Laverty ultimately finds O'Reilly's combination rustic living quarters and surgery (in Ireland "surgery" equals doctor's office) where he's set upon by Arthur Guinness, Fingal O'Reilly's shaggy mutt, a brute armed with boundless affection for the human leg.

The two docs hit it off (without which---no story) and Laverty hires on after passing the muster of the matronly "Kinky" Kincaid, O'Reilly's cook, housekeeper, nurse, confidante, screening-committee and appointment scheduler. Kinky's the glue holding the practice together, protecting our doctoral duo from the likes of: Councillor Bertie Bishop, resident Orangeman and curmudgeon, an equal opportunity Scrooge bent on leaving misery in his path as he cuts a vicious verbal swath through the townspeople. We're soon introduced to the half-dozen or so listless folks who appear daily at the surgery patiently awaiting their turn to receive hypodermic injections of "the tonic", which O'Reilly confesses hush-hush to Laverty is merely vitamin B-12, a placebo which the patients think they cannot live without. We can`t forget about Maggie and Sonny either. He living down the county in his automobile until the roof on his cottage get's fixed. It's been fifty years and the two lovebirds just might get hitched when he gets the roof money together. The good doctors make automobile and house calls to the likes of Sonny and others who can't find a way to the surgery. Which brings us to Major Fotheringham and his wife, a hypochondriac couple who spend days conjuring up imagined maladies, luring a nonplussed Doctor O'Reilly to their house where he plays the game for a bit and takes leave after appearing duly concerned for their fragile health.

Another hapless patient, Seamus Galvin, learns wife Maureen is pregnant again; they're hoping for a turn of financial luck which will allow them to emigrate to Americay. Speaking of pregnant, unmarried Julie MacAteer is praying she's not (But aren't they always?), and none too keen to identify the father.

Spring is in the air and a young man's fancy turns to .....fishing. Not really. Laverty's good with the rod and reel but he's infatuated with a captivating lady he met in Belfast; yet she's unsure, hesitant, all of which leaves our good doctor pining away in Ballybucklebo. And what about Doctor O'Reilly's love life? It's a subject he plays close to the vest, not freely discussing the sad tale behind the one and only love of his life and what happened to her. Keeping his nose to the grindstone, O'Reilly stays steadfast to the task at hand, mindful that the July 12th Orange parade looms and with it the potential for violence and mayhem that accompanies that enduring symbol of the Troubles.

There's more, of course, lot's more: a life-and-death medical emergency; an embarrassing misdiagnosis. In the end of author Taylor's semi-autobiographical Irish charmer the sutures get tied and most, but not all, wounds heal. Some things you can't fix----people die; bad sometimes wins over good. But make no mistake, this is a feel-good anachronistic tale in the stead of The Quiet Man, the Irish heart-tugger that transferred so beautifully to the silver screen over a half-century ago and remains as fresh as it did in the 1950s.

Doctor Laverty's alter ego, author Patrick Taylor M.D., is alive and well, living the good life on Bowen Island off Vancouver, British Columbia, where he reminisces about his days as a physician in his native County Down, Northern Ireland.

I was not expecting anything when I found this book randomly at Borders, however, I was beyond pleasantly surprised and cannot wait to read the new books. Patrick Taylor is an expert at charachter development and I have a soft spot for O'Reily and Laverty and not many authors can melt hearts. I love the protege aspect of the story and how an older man that has learned the ropes about the medical field can teach a "know it all" youngster about the profession. The practice of medicine in all forms and psychology has become so clinical and this book reminds us of the uniqueness of people and not just their clinical diagnosis. The book ties toghther many interesting country folk from around an interesting town located in the countryside of Ireland. It is a nice setting for an Amercian to read about a town off in the green hills of a foreign country - Really takes you on a nice little vacation -Away from your day to day and off to the daily lives of two doctors far away taking care of their little town with honesty, integrity, and a little bit of eccentricity and humor.