Customer Reviews

Shamrock Tea

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

 

 

...SHAMROCK TEA, the novel, is almost as hallucinogenic as the concoction itself. The book is a wonderful swirl of fiction, art/political/social history, philosophy, religion and Irish culture.

Carson takes the reader on quite a trip, with 1959 as a jumping-off place, centering around three children. As the story unfolds, connections are made between systems of thought as well as points in space and time -- and the idea of parallel universes is not left out, either. In the book, points in the space-time continuum is described as being similar to pages of a book -- separate, but lying very close to each other, distant and adjoined at the same time.

The cast of characters is immense -- besides the children mentioned above, and their guardians and teachers, appearances are made by Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, the artist Jan Van Eyck (whose amazing painting THE ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT plays a huge role of its own in the story), and innumerable saints from throughout the history of the Catholic Church. Everything -- and everyone -- is inter-connected, which is one of the messages of the story itself.

The novel is constructed in 100 chapters, each of only about 3 pages in length, and each named for a color. The boy who narrates the story begins by describing the wallpaper in his room, along with his general sensitivity to colors in his surroundings -- and from this seemingly ordinary starting point, the reader is off on a journey that is by turns frightening and wonderful, but always fascinating.

I'm looking forward to reading Carson's FISHING FOR AMBER -- and, being a fan of Irish traditional music, his LAST NIGHT'S FUN as well.

I am a reader who demands a good story, so novels that play with structure often bore me. "Shamrock Tea," however, is just fascinating to read. I have to give credit to the author here, because I can't think of any good reason to be gripped by discussions of pigment and what seems like an infinitude of hagiography. The reason is: just plain superlative writing. This is not a book without a plot; it has an extremely well-structured plot that is not immediately evident to the reader. The sense that something, and something major, is happening even though one can't perceive it creates an almost addictive tension. Moreover, even after the primary "missing piece" of the plot is supplied near the end of the book, the author has the plot taking another dizzying turn. It's really exciting to read writing of this caliber!

If you read this book, you will understand why I'm hoping that Carson has plans, not for a sequel, but a companion novel (think of the structure of the "Norman Conquest" trilogy of plays, here -- characters offstage in one play are onstage in another, co-occurring play about the same characters). I'd trust him to make it work brilliantly.

I see that I have not mentioned what is actually the major theme of the novel, and find that I'm reluctant to do so because it's so much fun when the pieces come together and enlighten (rather than surprise) you. I will say that although this book is not written like a fantasy, people who read complex, cerebral fantasies are likely to enjoy it very much even thought it's not quite in that genre.

I was not sure what to expect when I picked up this book. I was attracted by the cover, the title and inside blurbs which seemed to promise a story of history and magic but I was more than surprised. I was amazed.

This book is a journey. You start down the path thinking that it is a treatise on colors, and then that it is a treatise on saints and colors and you just keep going. Written in 3-4 page chapters, it is the type of book that lures you in and that while it seems like it should be an easy read....it most definitely is not. It is, however, a wonderful read.

The prose is mesmerizing and the wealth of information can be overwhelming. Slowly, you are introduced to the story of the narrator and it is near the end of the book that it all begins to come together. Only then do magic, art, history and religion meld together and the circle begins again.

I recommend that you keep a copy of Van Eyck's "Arnolfini Wedding Painting" and an excellent dictionary at your side. Be prepared to read every word, this book is not a "skimmer".

If nothing else, you will certainly learn a lot from reading this book, if merely about colours from the chapter titles. Also, there are various gemstones, minutiae about the lives of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Gerald Manly Hopkins, Ludwig Wittgenstein.....And, you will learn A LOT, unless you are already a professional Hagiographer, about the lives of various Saints in the Catholic Church, of whom and what they are patrons, and, most especially, when their feast days fall on.

You will also, by necessity, become an expert on The Arnolfini Portrait, by Jan Van Eyck. And here let me add for the prospective reader who wants to follow the narrative, as I did, in an informed a manner as possible, the copies of this portrait on the inside of both the front and back flaps of the book are simply not large enough for you to see the details described in the text, for that you will either need one of those large art books with full page reproductions, or, and this is far more useful (and fun), you will need to go to the National Gallery's website, find The Arnolfini Portrait there, and download their ActiveX control which allows you to zoom in on small squares of the painting.---And, yes, everything described is there. But even with these blow ups, it takes a little casting about of one's eye to spot some of them - But, as I say, all the more fun.

Now, ahem, as to the narrative itself: Well, there's not much "plot" in the ordinary sense of the term. On the other hand, nor is it a picaresque. It's about well, all the things mentioned above, as well as time travel, wormholes, Einsteinian space-time, parallel universes and, above all, the visionary experience....I suppose one might throw in Nietzsche's notion of "eternal recurrence" for good measure

The best way to describe this book is an updated take-off on Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. In fact, the book's only female character, Berenice, says "curiouser and curiouser", a la Alice, time and again.

The book, then, is, well, a curiosity, in the best sense of the term.

Reading Shamrock Tea was not as easy as first expected. Given that this book has 101 3-page chapters, I figured it would be a fast one to get through. However, that is not the case. While I could still turn the pages rather quickly, the words were not frivolous ~~ Shamrock Tea definitely makes you think.

When first opening the book, the reader may not be aware of what is going on. But the longer you read, the easier it is to pick out what is happening to the main characters. Here is what I gathered: The narrator, a young boy with the last name of Carson, and his cousin, Berenice, discover that smoking a substance labeled Shamrock Tea and staring into a picture, The Arnolfini Portrait, they would find themselves pulled into its world. Later, Carson meets a friend at school named Maeterlinck, and together with Berenice, they find out the secret about their lives and the mission they are to undertake.

Having said that, this novel does not take the quick road to get to the end. The author goes off on tangents about characters who aren't really characters in the book, telling stories about their lives, the Catholic saints' lives, and more. Plus, the longer he goes on, the more confusing you can get ~ the stories of these characters and saints can, at times, blend together and suddenly you aren't aware of what happened to who.

I am not disappointed with this book. I found it to be rather interesting, when I understood what was going on (which took me awhile). Shamrock Tea is definitely a novel for an intellect, one who knows their Catholic saints or their Irish history. Since I know neither, I had trouble. But I was entertained, nonetheless, which is always a good thing.