Novels by O'Connor, Taylor & Ahern
Inishowen, An Irish Country Doctor, and If You Could See Me Now
These three Irish novels from Joseph O'Connor, Patrick Taylor, and Cecelia Ahern provide a glimpse of contemporary Ireland for a variety of readers.
An Irish Country Doctor
An Irish Country Doctor, by Patrick Taylor (Tom Doherty Associates, 2007), is a delightful read set in Northern Ireland in the 1960’s. Reminiscent of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small, it chronicles the joys and frustrations of fresh-out-of-school Dr. Barry Laverty, discovering life in a small village.
Laverty’s employer is a crotchety, taciturn man with the splendid name of Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly. Laverty is appalled by O’Reilly’s unorthodox methods, such as having a line-up of villagers bend over and then jabbing them through their clothes with a vitamin injection while telling them it’s a tonic. At the same time, he has to admire O’Reilly’s in-depth knowledge of the villagers’ histories and idiosyncrasies (including a couple who have loved for decades but won’t marry because the man's house is missing a roof), and the deep care O’Reilly feels for each, but won’t admit. Along the way, Laverty discovers how to court a girl while having no money, no time, and often no clean clothes.
Whether or not Laverty takes to the life of a country doctor or heads back to the city for an impersonal but better-paid practice is something you’ll have to read for yourself.
If You Could See Me Now
Children often have imaginary friends. But what if that imaginary friend is real, assigned to be their best friend until their needs are met? And what if the parent begins to see him, too?
The characters in If You Could See Me Now, by Cecelia Ahern (Hyperion, 2006), come to life in this sometimes funny, sometimes poignant story. Elizabeth is an uptight, in-control, single woman living in County Kerry and raising her six-year-old nephew, Luke, since her flighty sister isn’t capable of it. Ivan, on assignment for his job in "ekam eveileb," is Luke’s imaginary friend. As Ivan plays with Luke, Elizabeth struggles to go along with the fantasy. When she finally sees Ivan, she doesn’t connect him with Luke’s imaginary friend, and she doesn’t realize that others can’t see him, with hilarious results. Ivan must figure out why Elizabeth can see him - it’s never happened before. And as he becomes her best friend, helping her break down her protective walls, he has to decide what to do with his own feelings.
Fiction, yes. The characters are well developed, the story captivating. But if people and relationships and Ireland all hold some magic, are you sure it couldn’t be true?
Inishowen
Inishowen, by Joseph O’Connor (Vintage, 2001), begins in Dublin with a unknown woman collapsing in the street on Christmas Eve. A study in characters with haunting pasts, Inishowen introduces us to Martin Aitken, a divorced police inspector filled with memories and regrets, who has been demoted in the department and has a boss trying to drive him completely out; Ellen Donnelly Amery, an ill American woman with a tendency to disappear on the spur of the moment, who has been trying to connect with her Irish birth mother for ten years; and Dr. Milton Amery, Ellen’s husband and a New York plastic surgeon, who is trying to deal with two rebellous teens and a missing wife, all while carrying on the last in a long string of adulterous affairs.
O’Conner reveals his characters one layer at a time, pulling the reader into their lives, their losses, their dreams. Tension builds as Aitken discovers who Ellen is and tries to help her, as Amery discovers clues to Ellen’s whereabouts, and as the story leads to Inishowen in Northern Ireland where the past must be confronted.
Inishowen is not a fast, breezy book, but for readers who like to get into their character’s heads and live through a compelling story with them, it’s a great way to experience Ireland.
