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Star of the Sea

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Star of the Sea is a name that inspires confidence, the sort of jaunty, streamlined ship that any would-be seafarer would be proud to board for a swift cruise across the sparkling ocean. But Star of the Sea is a hell-ship, barely seaworthy, carrying too many starving and pitiful Irish refugees from the great famine of 1847 in its hold, carrying too little food and fresh water, and numbering at least one black-hearted killer among its passengers.

Star of the Sea, a daring novel by Irish author Joseph O'Connor, is an engrossing tale of many parts. It is an engrossing murder-mystery set at sea. It is a piece of historical fiction that presents a vivid picture of a grim, hopeless time. It is a tale of disease and deprivation among the desperate poor of Ireland, whose hopes for escape are too easily shattered by circumstance. It is an indictment of class and privilege. It is a series of character sketches, colorful episodes, dark secrets and layered purposes.

This ambitious book reads so realistically, it's hard to believe it's not lifted directly from the pages of history. Set within the framework of a 27-day voyage from Liverpool to New York, the story unfolds through a series of narrative sequences, flashbacks, letters, log entries and reminiscences. The dramatic and complex plot comes to us through varying perspectives, and O'Connor juggles diverse points of view without ever letting the thrust of his story slip. He avoids the easy path, the overly sentimental images that could steal the wind from his sails; his blunt honesty about conditions in Ireland and aboard ship is a heavy enough weight in the belly that he need not resort to such obvious tricks. He wraps a vital message within an epic tale that will not soon be forgotten.

When the "potato famine" of 1847 was over, two million residents of Ireland had died agonizing deaths, most of them from starvation. The events which led to the famine, the people who were directly affected by it, and the steps taken to ameliorate or escape it are the subjects of Joseph O'Connor's intense and heartfelt novel, Star of the Sea, named for the British-owned "famine ship" which is the center of the action here.

O'Connor presents four main characters who recall the pivotal experiences of their lives which lead them to make this fateful, 27-day journey. The reader becomes emotionally involved with their stories, acquiring a broad background in Irish social history--and its tragedie--in the process. Thomas David Nelson Merridith, Lord Kingscourt, is the ninth generation of his Protestant family to govern Kingscourt, with hundreds of workers dependent upon him. Now bankrupt, he and his family are going to America, first-class. Their nanny, Mary Duane, has recently joined the family, and her stories of her past loves, her marriage, and her loss of her own children illuminate the bleak prospects available to this warm and intelligent, but desperately poor, woman.

G. Grantley Dixon is a caricature of the liberal American do-gooder, whose reports about the plight of the Irish poor are influenced by his own socialism and by the reform-minded traditions of his family. Self-centered in his attitudes and limited in his social graces, he is detested by Merridith. Pius Mulvey is a mysterious ex-convict who comes from the same town as Merridith and Mary Duane, directly connected to both of them. One of over 400 passengers who have paid $8 per person for passage, he is crammed into the fetid and dangerous quarters known as "steerage," expected to stay alive on one quart of water a day and half a pound of hardtack.

O'Connor pulls out all the stops here in this big, broad melodrama, but an honesty of emotion and a fidelity to the facts here saves the novel from bathos and gives the reader cause for thought. Moments of both ineffable sadness and high drama arise, and O'Connor's imagery, especially his sense imagery, is arresting. Occasionally, his compression of time, for the sake of story, leads to anachronisms--several mentions of evolution, with parallels between monkeys and Irishmen, ignore the fact that Darwin's Evolution of the Species was not published until twelve years after this famine. Still, O'Connor presents a compelling story with many unforgettable details of Irish history. The ending is preachy, but the author does provide a follow-up on the characters after their arrival in America. The fact that at least one character becomes a politician (later accused of misappropriation of funds) will surprise no one accustomed to politics. Mary Whipple

I just finished reading this one, and man, what a treat!!! I've been a fan of Irish American History since I took a class on the subject in college. As the daughter of an Irish immigrant (of the 1960's, though, not the 1840's as in this book), I have a special place in my heart for these stories. Joseph O'Connor has crafted a tale of the horrible Potato Famine of 1847 -- and the years proceeding and following it -- in such a way as to make the reader feel completely immersed and care about each of the complex characters. Having visited Ireland myself a few years ago, I really appreciated the details of the Irish landscape and the people who make this land great. I particularly liked the way this novel ended. Not a nice neat package; in fact, it keeps you wondering up until the end about what exactly DID happen. As the narrator states, things are never simple. Life just doesn't work that way, so why should literature? People are complex: no one is completely evil, no one completely innocent. I highly recommend this one, particularly to those who have Irish ancestry. This is one to be savored for each beautifully-crafted word and phrase; it's not to be rushed through. Enjoy the journey! Climb aboard The Star of Sea!

This excellent historical novel vividly portrays the anguish of the Irish people who suffered through the potato blight and ensuing famine that left over two million dead from starvation. O'Connor brings the human suffering to life through a series of chapters, written by a journalist on the ship, in which particular characters are defined, as well as the manner in which their lives intersect. Against a harsh background, the passengers on the Star of the Sea embark on a voyage that will take them far from the horrors they have known, to a new life in America. During the course of this voyage, one passenger will be brutally murdered by another, but whom and why remains a mystery until the end. Yet there is an air of expectancy in that knowledge, as the unfolding plot reveals close associations between some passengers, forged years ago by time and circumstance.

The Star of the Sea carries First Class passengers as well as those in steerage. A member of the English aristocracy, Earl David Merridith of Kingscourt, his family and their nanny are ensconced in relatively comfortable quarters, along with other such men of substance. There is a sharp contrast between First Class accommodations and the cheapest berths, below decks, where hundreds are warehoused like cattle and disease is rampant. The poor are forced to endure yet more punishment with unsanitary facilities and insufficient food. Vessels like the Star of the Sea, with its well-meaning Christian captain, are all that is left for such throw-aways. Many succumb daily to a variety of shipboard diseases, sent quickly overboard to their watery graves.

A man who wanders the decks at night, when the others are sleeping, is much remarked upon by all. He is a small-boned figure, with a crippled foot, who treads the upper deck incessantly, back and forth, mumbling to himself. Called "the ghost" or "the monster" in his filthy clothes and unkempt appearance, he is, in fact, one Pius Mulvey, a survivor of the unremitting brutality that decimates Ireland's poor. Mulvey has, in fact, become a monster, a creation of his own extreme circumstances. Traveling the roads of Ireland and England, Mulvey has tasted every form of depravity and honed criminal skills along the way. While others suffer tragedy and find a source of strength, Mulvey has fed off his own venal acts, capable of the most heinous crimes. As a creation of his situation, his survival-at-any-cost attitude, Mulvey becomes an "Everyman" of the famine, a stark example of what becomes of a broken human spirit after repeated degradation and suffering.

Due to unwise investments, the Merridiths have lost the land their family has held for generations and, by opting to save themselves, they turn away from the destitute souls who seek to stay on the land. The only Irish citizen they take along is Mary Duane Mulvey, the widowed nanny of their two children. During the course of the journey, the Merridiths take pity on the duplicitous Mulvey, believing him victim rather than victimizer. They welcome him into the intimate circle of their family, oblivious to his true nature. Mary Duane recognizes Mulvey at once and is loath to have anything to do with him, yet she has a history with Mulvey as well as with David Merridith, adding another layer of complication to the relationships.

O'Connor's writing is impeccable, his illustration of the socio-economic class struggle of the mid-1900's pitch perfect. This horrific tale witnesses the virtual annihilation of a proud race. There is great compassion on these pages and piercing awareness of a dispassionate fate, the legacy of the famine. For some of the characters, their endless trials render them more complex; but for others, the façade of humanity is ripped away, revealing a heart scarred by rage. The claustrophobia on the Star of the Sea is almost unbearable, each day a burden, another glimpse of the past. Many live in hell and it is familiar, as is depravity and the utter loss of hope. Whatever the future for these unhappy passengers, they are forever marked by the passionate love and abject loss of a land that no longer provides for the living, become instead a vast graveyard of dreams. Luan Gaines/2003.

In the bitter winter of 1847, a ship named Star of the Sea sails from Ireland, bound for New York. It is a miserable November, the cold seeming worse because of the Great Famine that has stricken the country. Thousands are dying from starvation and disease. Thousands are fleeing, after selling everything they owned to buy passage to America. And thousands are perishing in the attempt. Joseph O'Connor tackles a tragedy too long ignored. He turns the writing over to G. Grantley Dixon, an American journalist traveling home to Manhattan on the Star. Thus the story feels more authentic, as Dixon uses excerpts from the captain's log and bits and pieces from his own unpublished novel, along with other similarly clever literary devices. We join Dixon and other first class travelers aboard the Star, a ship with a dank hold overfull of steerage passengers with little choice but to bear the wretched filth --- and often too weak to care.

O'Connor has created some wholly unlovable characters. A notable few of the cast are brilliantly moral, despite overpoweringly desperate conditions in the midst of an historical bleakness. Lord Kingscourt, sailing with his wife and two sons, comes on as a quite likable fellow at first, a fellow fallen on hard times of his own --- and hard times of his own making. As you get to know him, his darker side slowly emerges. I finally found myself nearly devoid of sympathy for this errant soul. But Lord Kingscourt is a product of his past and his choices, as indeed we all are. He fell in love with the wrong woman and spent his life in marital misery. Mary Duane, his children's nanny --- and the object of his desire --- sees things from a different viewpoint. She lost a husband and a child, and now she does what she must to survive. Lurking in the corridors, on the decks and in the hold is the Ghost, Pius Mulvey, a murderous prison escapee with a plan for assassination aboard the ship. As the Star sails, Lord Merridith, his wife Laura, Mary Duane and the despicable Pius Mulvey are profiled.

Everywhere in this novel are the stark reminders of the chasm between classes. The present action takes place onboard the ship bound for America with her starving and diseased, but hopeful, cargo. Unfortunately, many of the steerage passengers, carried below decks in the frigid hold with clogged toilets and stinking blankets, will not make the journey alive, much to the good captain's sorrow. Meanwhile, in First Class, the tables are set with fine cutlery, the wine is abundant, and the beds in the private cabins are warm and snug.

I am a week late with my review of this book because I just didn't want it to be finished. I love to savor a good book, but this one gets inside your soul. There is so much going on --- injustices that evoke a sense of outrage, a dose of history (with a few authorial liberties taken), secrets revealed right and left about the characters, and a few famous ones, like Charles Dickens, wandering onto the page now and then --- that it helps to put it down and take a while to ponder O'Connor's message.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, written with the musical lilt of the Irish and a hint of the Erin impishness. O'Connor didn't simply write this book --- he choreographed it.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

"Star of the Sea" is a fabulous book. It humanizes an inhuman piece of Irish history. The history of the Irish famine is so painful---even for those of us who have never been more than slightly hungry---that we often avoid learning about it. Documentaries and history books are stark and brutal and sometimes we watch or read them more because we should than because we really want to know. O'Connor uses his formidable writing skill to examine the time of the famine in such a good story that you may be able to forget for a bit that he's writing about actual events...and that there was famine, coffin ships, and wickedness beyond our comprehension.

I loved the whole book, but I was particularly impressed with the ship's captain who embodied the spirit of "Friends" I have known. It always seemed to me that the Quakers who offered soup to the starving Irish were misunderstood and that their generosity was a reflection of philosophy rather than a form of coercion. I admire Frank O'Connor for presenting what was likely the true Quaker motive during the Irish Famine.

I am on a bit of an Irish tear. The top of our Netflix queue features a couple of Irish titles that I've been meaning to get to for years -- The Snapper, The Informer, Man of Aran. And these days my to-read bookshelf is about half Irish writers. A huge part of that is the fact that we spent three weeks in Ireland last May and I'd really like to go back. NOW! Since that's not going to happen, I take the trip via novels and movies. The economic bust may have slain the Celtic Tiger, but the flowering of Celtic artistry in film, in fiction and in music remains astonishingly prolific and amazingly excellent. Case in point -- novelist Joseph O'Connor. You may have heard of his sister, Sinead? If you're a reader, write his name down along with the title of the book I've just finished: Star of the Sea. Wow! This book just knocked me out. When I'm working hard on a novel, I don't spend a lot of time reading fiction because I've got so much other reading to do. And I don't stay up late reading in bed because I've got so much writing to do the next day. But with this novel, I couldn't help myself. Dunno how late I stayed up to finish the book -- didn't dare look; dragged ass all day -- but I was sorry to be done and wanted to start all over again. The time is November 1847, the height of the Great Famine, the now place is an emigrant ship sailing to New York and the then place is Connemara, the rugged western edge of counties Galway and Mayo where bogs are more brown than green and people died of starvation by the tens and hundreds of thousands. The book presents as a contemporary work by an American journalist and includes quotations and illustrations from 19th century publications as well as emigrant letters and songs. The result is an immensely rich and unforgettable read.
Beth@BethQuinnBarnard.com

Star of the Sea is a grim, realistically rendered tale about the voyage of forefathers in somber ships across the Atlantic to America. It is written to project the points of view of its four main characters and the narrative invention is remarkable. The author proffers a balanced perspective from divergent points of view among characters whose apparently separate lives intertwine with incredible effect at the close. The harshness of the Irish landscape during the potato blight was followed by a cruel existence onboard famine ships. Driven by dreams of a better life in America, many died within dockside of the paradise they sought. O'Connor is a gifted novelist with a narrative facility, which cannot be denied. After so much dismal reality in such an utterly bleak tale, if he intends redemption, it must come at the hands of survivors in America in an engaging close crafted with intelligence. We have the inhuman strengths of our forefathers to thank for their collective legacy invested in the new land that was their hearts' fondest desire. And we have Joseph O'Connor to thank for making this epic struggle come alive so vividly in his literary feast about the potato famine in 1847, which became such a defining historical moment for Ireland, Britain and America leading up to the tale's culmination on Easter 1916.

O'Connor has written a compulsively readable book. Common Enough. Much rarer, it is also skillfully written, well plotted and satisfying. Under the guise of 'The Star of the Sea' O'Connor brings together a ship load of emmigrants all seeking to escape the desperate famine of Ireland in the 1840's. Most novels, most non-fiction, that deals with the Great Famine tends to examine England's role in Ireland's tragedy. O'Connor reclaims the disaster through an entirely Irish focus. Our narrators come from all stratas of Irish society, Lords and Ladies, Captains and Crew, Doctors and Maids, and the great mass in steerage, offering up new dead at the end of every day at sea. By weaving together the lives of men and women from the disparate classes, O'Connor creates a tense forum of responsibility and fate that powers an extremely strong narrative towards a murderous climax.

A stunning work of art. The author uses the intertwined lives of several characters to convey the tragedy of the Irish famine and the human cost of migration, and does so in glorious prose.

I've never read a more moving evocation of the Irish famine, which is the book's central focus. But this is also a tale about the Irish diaspora. O'Connor strips that event of romance of hindsight and conveys the pain and suffering that accompanied the emigrants on their journey.

As a writer, I'm impressed by the book's complex structure; it's not easy to pull off these shifting points-of-view, but O'Connor does so with ease and grace. This is a beautifully written novel and a marvelous accomplishment.