Customer Reviews

The Many-Coloured Land: A Return to Ireland

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Christopher Koch, one of Australia's greatest living novelists, makes no apologies for his unabashed love of Ireland's past.

From the traditional music, to Dublin's grimy streets of the 1950s, to the poor, western counties, Koch remembers his first trip to Ireland and then revels in the dark, smoke infested pubs of 1990s Ireland on his return. Koch doesn't seem overly impressed about the Celtic Tiger (that was only going to last a few more years anyway), much preferring the company of crusty banjo players and Gaelic singing oldies in pubs that haven't changed for a hundred years.

Koch is a masterful researcher, and tells of his great-great grandmother's journey as a convict to Tasmania in vivid detail. This leads into his week as a young man is wet, poor Dublin.

Kock isn't a particularly humorous writer, and there's always a hint of melancholy in his world views, but this is a terrific narrative of modern Ireland and the slow disappearing world of Irish folk.