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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best historical novel of nineteenth century Ireland,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Tenants of Time (Paperback)
Spanning four decades of tense Irish history after the Famine years, Flanagan's tour de force masterfully weaves the life stories of four boyhood friends from County Cork whose adult lives result in different and conflicting choices regarding their roles in Irish society and politics. Together, they join the Fenian brotherhood in 1865, but the revolution's failure pushes them on divergent paths for fuller meaning in their lives. In exploring these developments, Flanagan expertly combines the characters' life challenges with the dramatice course of Irish history in the late Victorian era, presenting vivid depiction of the Fenian assassins, the agrarian struggles of the Land League, the rise and fall of Parnell, and the inevitable growth of Ireland into the modern era. Yet this striking panorama of Irish history never overshadows the rich and complex dynamic of the relationship between Hugh, Robert, Ned and Edward, whose struggles to find fortune and meaning in their world thrusts them into tragic internecine conflict. This is a novel you will never forget, and I would rank it among the best historical novels ever written.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second Book of Flanagan's Stunning Trilogy of Irish History,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Tenants of Time (Hardcover)
"Tenants of Time", Flanagan's book between "Year of the French" and "End of the Hunt", deals with the Parnell era in Irish politics. But it is much more than that. Three men bound together by an act of failed rebellion in their early years, remain tied to one another and their actions on that day while a young historian tries to understand "a single moment in history" represented by that doomed rebellion.The characters are large and complex, the ideas even bigger and the setting so evocative that you won't want the book to end. Great literature that is also a great read. I really can't do the book justice. Read the first fifty pages and I bet you can't stop. One minor complaint: Delaney's circumstances too closely mirrored Parnell's in the O'Shea debacle.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vivid and memorable,
By
This review is from: The Tenants of Time (Paperback)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although I found it a less stunning experience than the author's previous novel, "The Year of the French." Once again, he's chosen a little-known incident in Irish history and written about it vividly, with a cast of memorable characters. He depicts the landscape, the people, and the historical setting with a wealth of detail, and both dialogue and descriptions are beautifully expressed. I think the book isn't as strong as its predecessor for two reasons: while "The Year of the French" had one central character whose rise and downfall had the force of Greek tragedy, this novel is built around a group of characters and doesn't seem as strongly focussed. Again, there are two climaxes -- the abortive rebellion, and its consequences many years later -- so I felt rather let down after the first, and the story seemed to lose its momentum for a while, by contrast with the inexorable progression of events in his first novel. Still, it's not only an extremely good historical novel, but a good NOVEL and well worth reading (even if you're not Irish!).
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