Solace of the Road - Siobhan Dowd

This was apparently Siobhan Dowd's last novel published, posthumously. I first heard about Bog Child over the summer through a friend, but when I went to buy a copy, I decided to purchase Solace of the Road first, after reading a review. It was on a whim, I really liked the sound of the title.
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I loved this story. I immediately got caught up with Holly/Solace and her self discovery quest. She's likable, self reliant, sarcastic, creative, and restless, with a forward looking attitude. She has personality traits and runs into situations that just about anyone of any age can identify with. I loved it when she compared herself to Jane Eyre when she lost her luggage. And as the title suggests, when the open road beckons, there's comfort in moving along it. Sometimes you just need to be moving forward to be able to see things differently.

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Holly's had a tough time with life so far and decides to take fate by the horns. She leaves her current foster parents' home to head for Ireland, where her imagination leads her to believe her alcoholic mother is waiting for her. She's armed with nothing but a tough cookie attitude and an ash blonde wig, calling herself 'Solace'. She's tough enough to hit the road with virtually no money, but she's still childishly naive enough to think she'll be happy at the end of her journey. For me, this was really where the "bittersweet" side of the story comes out; Holly is a fourteen year old girl, and doing her best to cope and do what she thinks is right in a world that just isn't always kind or fair. She meets all kinds of characters along the way that help shape the direction she's headed, as she ultimately learns to accept who she was and is. Like the Bonnie Raitt lyrics say, "We can't change the past, but we can leave it behind."

In the Woods - Tana French

First of all, let me just say that I can't adequately express my feelings for this story without giving a lot away. But don't worry, I'm not in the mood to write spoilers so I'll just be vague.

There are two story lines you follow while reading this book, most of the book focuses on the police investigation of a murdered girl in Knocknaree, Ireland in the present. Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox are the partners working the case. But the big complication is that Rob, actually Adam Ryan, is the sole survivor from an unsolved incident that took place in Knocknaree when he was a kid, in which his two best friends end up missing and he has no memory of what happened. He becomes as much drawn up in his past as he is in trying to focus on the Katy Devlin's murder in the present.

Now, I'm a fan of stories that make use of how the past touches the present. And I'm even okay with the fact that not all stories have a satisfying sense of closure. But when I finished the book, my general feeling was "that's it?". Not only because the investigations didn't satisfy me, neither did the way the main characters left things or who they ended up with. It made me sad, actually.

I began reading this book for the Ireland reading challenge armed with the knowledge that this was the author's first published work, so I tried not to be too judgmental. I enjoyed the read, but I also figured out the "whodunit" part maybe halfway through. It seemed kind of obvious. The characters themselves were more interesting to me than the plot. I enjoyed that the author made them human enough to make mistakes and did a good job of exposing what makes them fragile or predatory, but there were still some elements of the unrealistic to their relationships. I'd give you examples of what I mean, but it would give too much away.

In the words of Levar Burton, "You don't have to take my word for it." If you have the chance, give it a read and see what you think. I've been told her novel The Likeness has some of the same characters, so I will probably get to that at some point. But it's going to take a while, I'm going to have to get over feeling depressed about the previous story.

How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill

I read this for a class in college, but decided I wanted to reread it for the medieval and Ireland book challenges. It's been about ten years since the first read through, and I honestly couldn't remember what I thought of it, but it didn't take me long into rereading this book to remember what I think about Cahill's writing. I think the Irish monasteries certainly did their part to pass on knowledge and save certain texts from extinction. And also definitely provided a level of civilization and order that was scarce at the time. But the Irish certainly weren't alone in this task, and Cahill would have you give them most of the credit. (All of the credit, if you judge a book by its title.) I don't know, I just don't think he's a very objective historian, more like a sports fan rooting for his team. Or maybe I just don't understand his sense of historical humor? He certainly has Irish pride! He makes a great argument for his case by leaving out/failing to mention certain information and that makes me feel like he's manipulating the facts. I don't think this was meant to be a scholarly book per se, but I do think a better title for this book would be, "How Some of the Irish Saved Their Part of Civilization". Let me put it this way: if what you're looking to learn about is Irish Christianity's contribution to Western Europe in the early Middle Ages, then this is a well written and informative read.