Customer Reviews

Whereabouts of Eneas Mcnulty

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A beautiful, sad book. Eneas McNulty is an innocent set loose in a world treacherous and unforgiving but he remains gentle, kind and amazingly generous through all that befalls him. A fascinating look at 20th century Ireland through the eyes of a wonderfully realized character.

This has to be the best novel written, at least in the English language, in the latter half of the 20th century, and I've read A LOT of the best books of this time period. It is simply amazing, and I'm not even going to give a word of it away in this review. It has everything that makes a novel good, but most striking is the sheer poetry of the language. An absolute masterpiece.

The Irish have always been known as great storytellers, but now they're all turning into great writers as well, and it seems they're coming out of the woodwork. Sebastian Barry's The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty places the protagonist in the small village of Sligo where he is an innocent among angry partisans. When he chooses to alleviate his problems of employment by taking a job with the Royal Irish Constabulary, the British-led police force, he irrevocably alters his life - as you might imagine! With beautiful language and ethereal descriptive passages, Barry allows readers to follow Eneas' travels and travails - all of us hoping for a happy ending.

I was hesitant to read this book despite the recommendation of a friend and despite the accolades written here. How foolish. Reading this book was like sinking into a great mattress. I was near hypnotized by the beauty of the text which simply flowed. At times I was so overcome that I had to put the book down, the sadness of it all is wrenching. But never is the book depressing or is it hateful while describing the hate that people so easily engender. This is an extraordinary work.

...and sure, Mark Twain would likely love the hero of this wonderful book. Eneas is truly an innocent - he never shies from hard work, he loves his family dearly, and (his gift and his damnation) he has no neither mind nor care at all, at all for the politicks. He's not really a simpleton, merely a simple man. Born in 1900, he comes of age with the Irish struggle for independence so vividly painted by events such as the Easter uprising of 1916. When his mates - especially his best boyhood friend, Jonno Lynch - are enlisting in the fight to throw off the British oppression, Eneas, finding it difficult to locate gainful employment, enlists first in the British Merchant Navy (which in itself might have been forgiven by those who deemed themselves his judges later), then in the Royal Irish Constabulary. The RIC being mainly a police force, Eneas couldn't see the harm in lending a hand in that quarter - but as the fight for independence grew more fierce and factional, the RIC was tied too closely in the eyes of some to the hated Tans, who were responsible for some right bloody work. Eneas, finding himself on a blacklist kept by those calling themselves patriots, is given a choice - get close to and kill the much-hated and feared Reprisal Man of the Tans, or suffer the consequences of a death sentence. Our hero cannot bring himself to kill a man, so he refuses - and when he sees that those who have threatened him with extinction mean just what they say, sees no other choice than to flee his beloved Sligo and his native Ireland altogether.

Thus his adventures and travels begin. He signs on with a merchant vessel and winds up in Galveston, Texas. He enlists with the British Army for World War II in order to save France (a country for whom he bears a great love, of unknown origins) from Hitler. After being shell-shocked on the beach at Dunkirk and lodging with a French farmer for a growing and harvesting season, he makes his way back to England, pays a quick visit to Ireland, then winds up in Nigeria, digging a canal for a British company. He finds the best friend of his life in the person of Harcourt, a Nigerian national he first meets on a boat heading to Ireland, then again in Nigeria. Harcourt's friendship becomes one of the true treasures of Eneas' life - and a lifelong friendship it is.

Barry's language and prose capture his characters, the setting and their story perfectly. The reader can't help but feel a great empathy for Eneas, and for others in the book as well. Through the story of one man - and a very believable story it is indeed - Barry lays bare the pain through which Ireland has passed in its journey to find itself. There's a lot of sadness to be found here - but there's a lot of joy as well, so.

Read this book - and read Barry's novel ANNIE DUNNE as well (even better, I think, but that's me...).

What a gift Sebastian Barry has given us all. --A remarkable book which seems to have pushed the language a little closer toward expresing feeling in words. The writer is a poet; his use of language has a transparent quality that make the poetry of life itself more apparent.

The title hints at a modern day Aenid, and indeed this Eneas wanders far and wearily, like his ancient counter-part. I wonder if Barry recognized the power of his own voice as he took up the linguistic legacy of Joyce, giving a nod to Ulysses in his text?

But as much as the language of the book is delightful, so too is the story. Barry has taken as his hero someone who has fallen on the wrong side of romantic history. The author does more than redeem Eneas's suffering, he very quietly requires the reader to re-think attitudes about the romantic and heroic aspects of war.

This book is certainly the finest piece of recently written prose I have come upon. I am extremely grateful to Sebastian Barry for sharing his gifts with us.

The best. I had the pleasure of spending two weeks in Ireland this summer--my first trip there. It was an illuminating experience, to say the least. Ever since I have returned, I have absorbed myself in all things Irish. Sebastian Barry's book is by far the best of the lot--including the much overrated. A Star Call Henry. This is luminous prose, which tells the full range of modern Irish history more graciously than any book I have read on the subject--so far. Each year I pick a book of the year for myself and send it out for Xmas to selected friends. This is the winner for 2000--and the year is not even over. A must.

Sebastian Barry's command of language, his passion for life, and his ability to leave room for his characters to breathe, and for the reader to therefore be drawn in and inhabit their special world is unsurpassed. I assume that the succes of books like 'Angela's Ashes' may attract readers to the latest spate of Irish novels (Roddy Doyle's 'Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha' is the best of the previous lot), but Barry's book leaves McCourt's trifle in the dust. A gem in every line, an epiphany per page, a revelation and redemption for all who make this brilliant journey.

Don't be fooled by Frank McCourt's praise for this novel into thinking that it is anything like Angela's Ashes. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is a much better book than McCourt's. While McCourt romanticizes every Irish stereotype, Barry imagines a character that falls through the cracks of history. Nothing about being Irish is taken for granted. McNulty's travels take him to England, Scotland, Texas, WWII France and, most interestingly, a newly independent Nigeria. Barry's novel asks the reader to be critical of all his or her assumptions about nationalism, colonialism and political violence. At the same time, the warmth of the unexpected relationships McNulty forms throughout the seventy-odd years the novel covers leaves a lasting impression.

this book was recommended to me by a high school teacher who knew that i was interested in irish authors and wanting to explore beyond mccourt,doyle, and oconnor...the writing is totally luminous, lyrical, and totaly like homer...i also likened it to les murray's book called fredy neptune which also involved a world traveler that was like eneas, an innocent. i particularly loved the manner in which eneas was drawn repeatedly to his homeland, hoping that the situation had finally resolved itself...finding that it hadn't, had the courage or whatever to get on with his life...fabulous read.