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Lädt ... The Back of Beyond: A Search for the Soul of Irelandvon James Charles Roy
   Keine Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  patl | Feb 18, 2019 |  keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
James Charles Roy, a noted authority on Irish history and travel, escorts a disparate group of Americans through the lonely backwaters of ancient Ireland. Visions of a glorious enterprise evaporate as he sees a dejected and weary handful of aged American tourists disembark at Shannon Airport. Fortified by Guinness, Roy hurls himself into sharing with them the joys and wonders of Ireland’s twisted byways.Determined to avoid cliché, Roy leads his group to obscure Celtic coronation sites, monasteries, and remote abbeys as he spins a narrative that pulls Ireland’s chaotic story into coherence. His unsuspecting charges begin to shed their hesitancies, relishing their guide’s idiosyncratic approach to Ireland. Black comedy aside, Roy touches an emotional chord: how the economic phenomenon known as the Celtic Tiger has transformed Old Ireland into a high-tech power. At the tour’s end, Roy embarks alone for the inaccessible Ardoilean, a seventh-century Celtic hermitage in County Galway. His vision of an Ireland lost forever is an emotional tour de force. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)941.5082History and Geography Europe British Isles IrelandKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (3.5)
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The Back of Beyond is the story of author James Charles Roy's leadership of a small pilgrimage/tour group in the rural parts of western Ireland. An American, Roy has written extensively on Irish history (his The Road Wet, the Wind Close is extremely well researched if a bit dry to read). The story is part memoir, part history, and part travelogue. It's a good tale of a tour guide trying to show his group a reality of Irish history stripped of its overly-romanticized tendencies.
Roy's personality is curmudgeonly and slightly difficult, but he is deeply passionate about the topic. He wants his group to see the reality of Irish history through its two weeks in-country, so they tour the backroads and little known places, rather than hearing tales of shamrocks and leprechauns. The story works because of Roy's angst and his passion, but especially because his humor negates his obviously overwritten grumpiness. Its a funny story filled with facts, stories, names and places, but is not the same old tales of a Magically Delicious country.
If you're looking for a romantic tale, look elsewhere. If you want to see the little details - for Roy's thesis is that the best things in Ireland are small and easily overlooked - then read this one.
Truthfully, I've tried reading The Road Wet... a few times now. I recognize that it's good, but it's dry. However, after finishing this later tale, I'm definitely going back to read it in full, recognizing that I'm hearing from a realist who still deeply values the magic of Irish history, from its saints to its overlords, even if that magic isn't the simplistic thing that is usually told to American tour buses. (