Customer Reviews

The Mammy

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

How can you laugh at a widow with seven children? When the widow is Agnes Browne, you can! Dublin is the home for Agnes Browne and her family. The cards have fallen and Agnes has so much going against her- her husband's recent death, being a single mother to her seven children, and working long hours selling produce in her stall on Moore Street. But when Agnes finds herself at the bottom of the barrel, she shows her never disputable strength.

When Agnes' best friend, Marion, is faced with tragedy, Agnes is there right by her side.
Agnes takes on her daughter's teacher, when her mothering feathers have been ruffled. No one, not even Sister Magdalen will get away with mistreating one of her children! Agnes is a bit rough around the edges when she is the target for the attention and affection from the French owner of the local pizza parlor. Not surprisingly, Agnes manages to win his affection on her own terms.

Brendan O'Carroll has created characters I will not forget. Any mother who has survived her son going through puberty, must read this book. I laughed so hard I ached! I am looking forward to the next book in this series

The photograph on the cover of this book is spectacular, and everything Mr. Brendon O'Carroll includes within is wonderful! This Irish tale is unlike any other I have read. The book is not cluttered with Irish cliché's, which even if true to one degree or another, can nonetheless become tiresome. It has often been said that there are no happy endings in an Irish tale, and while this is the first installment of three, it would take multiple disasters to change the overall mood of this Family and Friends.

The story is about two female friends, the joy they share, their everyday lives, and the pain that all relationships eventually suffer. However this friendship is not subject to damage or limitation. The dialogue is a riotous tear from beginning to end. Your own laughter will continually interrupt your page turning, but the intrusions are part of the fun. The characters laugh until they hold their sides, and you will be as well as Mr. O'Carroll's dialogue is brilliant. There is a scene when a driving lesson is to take place. If I have read better humor I cannot remember what it was.

The wonderful part of the laughter in this book is that it is not only for covering the pain of daily life. The lives you encounter are far from consistently ideal, but the laughter and joy these women share and spread is genuine, not dark, and not meant as emotional misdirection.

This is a brief work, however the Author managed to include so much more than emotional extremes. The 15-year-old eldest son of Agnes meets a man who offers him money for a job that makes no sense to the boy. Think of every negative direction this opening can take and then forget them all. Mr. O'Carroll takes this vignette within, "Mammy", and shows so much of what Humanity could be. The beauty of this mini-tale is that it is not the naïve thoughts of wide-eyed youth. It is a look at how people should treat each other, what should be important when we meet someone, and most importantly how foolish our normal reactions routinely are.

This is one very talented man with a pen, and he made this Christmas a memorable one for me.

The Mammy is simply delightful! Agnes Browne is a woman that we could all learn from.

As you read The Mammy, you can invision how poor the Browne family was, but it was as if they didn't know it. They are a family as full of laughter as they are determination and strength. A woman, left widowed with 7 children, is rarely a character that would bring you to laugh aloud when reading in public. What is even more striking is the author (a male)could have so much insight as to how women think.

Agnes Browne is a heroine. She taught her children love. She taught her children pride. She taught her children that no matter what they are a family and that NOTHING could come between Agnes Browne and her children.

I couldn't wait to get The Chisellers and The Granny! Equally as good as the first book!

Legend has it that if you capture a leprechaun, he will bring you good luck. Brendan O'Carroll must have had the luck of the wee people with him when he wrote The Mammy, a truly hilarious book.

O'Carroll, who acted in the film Angela's Ashes, wrote The Mammy as the first in an upcoming series of three. His debut novel hits its mark with every joke and captures the essence of working-class Ireland.

The series centers on a widowed mother, Agnes Browne, and her seven children, all living in Dublin, Ireland in the 1960s. Her youngest son, a toddler, speaks little but repeats every curse word he hears. Her oldest son tries to seduce girls with licorice and finds himself plagued by a number of puberty-related problems.

The Mammy opens with what could be a heartbreaking scene of loss and sorrow: the death of Browne's husband. But with apt amounts of Irish wit, O'Carroll turns the funeral scene into a hilarious escapade that leaves Browne cursing her late spouse.

The funeral parties get backed up entering the cemetery, so Browne loses track of which coffin belongs to her husband. Without realizing it, she follows the wrong body and is surprised when she sees another woman crying by the gravesite. Without a second's thought, Browne assumes the grieving woman is her late husband's mistress and mutters "'Yeh dirty bastard" under her breath.

Another comical scene ensues when Browne attacks a nun with a cucumber and ends up in court - all because of a pair of knickers. The tale itself is nearly as funny as when Browne has to explain it to the judge. Soon, her only daughter takes the stand and, with a little Irish luck, Browne wins the case.

In The Mammy, Agnes Browne becomes an every-woman, the ultimate mother and friend. She manages her children (a wild brood), helps her friend through cancer and handles her husband's death with grace. And through O'Carroll's imaginative writing, just about everything Browne does is funny.

In the end, the book itself becomes a little treasure lying at the end of an Irish rainbow.

The Mammy is the first book of O'Carroll's trilogy, and it's a winner. While I loved and admired Angela's Ashes, The Mammy, dealing with the same issues of Irish poverty, weak or absent fathers, saintly mums, and the alleyways and neighborhoods of urban Ireland, transcends bleakness to rise to non-stop hilarity.
There isn't an unlikeable character in the book, even if it's a scoundrel. The dialogue sings, the action never stops, and the situations are side-splittingly funny. It's a book that should not be read in bed at night beside a sleeping mate: the bed shaking with your laughter will waken your partner.
Don't miss The Mammy - and then read the other two in the trilogy.

This novel was a joy to read. The protagonist and her seven children were likable, the descriptions of Dublin in the 60's were vivid and I especially enjoyed it when Agnes whacked her daughter's schoolteacher, Sister Magdalene, in the face with a cucumber for cutting her daughter's "fringe" (bangs) off. Even better, the judge who hears the assault charges takes Agnes's side, presumably because he could relate to Cathy's dilemma with the nuns.

While I enjoyed the story for what it was, I couldn't help but think of another Irish writer, Roddy Doyle. "The Mammy" had likable enough characters, but they lacked the depth of the characters created by Roddy Doyle. O'Carroll created so many children in the Browne family, but the only ones the reader really got to know were Mark and Cathy. Perhaps if the novel had been a bit longer, we could have followed some of their escapades as well.

All in all, though, the story is a good one. Agnes is tough, loveable, and humorously naive in the ways of the world. She does just fine on her own after her no-good husband, Redser, gets hit my a delivery truck. I will definitely pick up the Chisellers and the Granny to follow the Browne family as they grow up.

Oh, Brendan O'Carroll, you put a twinkle into my emerald green eyes. I laughed out loud with my bedroom window open, and I am sure my neighbor's thought me daft, or up to something roguish. This marvelous tale of Agnes Browne and her brood of seven, is delighfully rich with humor, truth, and substance. It is rather like reading Frank McCourt on anti-depressants. I am in love with this impoverished family, and would gladly join their clan. I will read on to "The Chisellers" and "The Granny." This is a most entertaining read for a rainy afternoon or a sunny beach blanket, or a snuggled down to sleeptime.

This is an excellent book. I never laughed out loud when reading a book before, but this book will make you burst with laughter. It's really well written..Make sure you read all three books in this trilogy. The second is ok, but the third is completely fabulous.

I really enjoyed this look at the all to typical family life of Agnes Browne. Agnes, who may not be the brightest mammy on the block, has a certain sincerity about her that allows the reader to take to heart her everyday life and find serval comparisions of it to their own. This book, which deals with very pressing issues such as cancer and the death of a spouse, concludes with the notion that if you live whole-heartedly and are true to yourself and family, life will find a way of turning tradegy into a livable, sometimes even delightful, experience. What a great BOOK!

if you need a bit of irish laughter, hand wringing and entertainment then this is the book for you.i loved the images that this author portrays.excellent can not wait for his next book.its no wonder there is a movie brewing.