Star of the Sea (Paperback)

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

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.