I was not sure about this book until.... | The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty

Worth reading, more than once | The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty | Sebastian Barry

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	• The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty Sebastian Barry Penguin (Non-Classics), 1999 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The adventures of a man who can not go home

The Whereabouts Of Eneas McNulty was published in 1998 and is set in roughly the same time period in Ireland as The Secret Scripture by the same author. It's the story of Roseanne Clear's brother-in-law, the one with a price on his head and marked for death by the IRA, continuing the turbulent saga of the McNulty's of County Sligo. At 16 Eneas goes to sea in the British Merchant Navy, spends time in the dives and whorehouses of Galveston, grows out of the boy and into the man, musters out - goes a year home in Sligo with no work because of his service for the British and then, irrevocably goes the step too far in joining the RIC, The Royal Irish Constabulary, the police force augmented by The Auxiliary, the Tans. After a brutal killing of a fellow policeman by the IRA , while he is left unscathed, he is mustered out of the RIA returning in terror and shame to Sligo. There he is labeled a traiter marked for death and his boyhood friend is the assassin chosen to kill him. His life becomes the lonely life of the man ever on the run, beginning on the cattle boat he takes to England to find work. The Wall Sreet Journal says `Eneas's gripping and tragic story serves as a reminder of the fine line that lies between hero and murderer, politician and criminal.' This is a book full of beautiful, arresting prose, compelling characters, a story of mis-adventure told with grace by a masterful storyteller .

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I was not sure about this book until....

This book was a gift to me from someone who knows my love of the Irish and of writers from that country. I began it hesitantly, not sure of the country I was entering, until I got perhaps ten pages into the book. The protagonist was describing how his mother sliced bread:

"..She did it in a trice. In the sewing of a wren's mitten."

I never looked back. His writing is brilliant, evocative, heartbreaking.

Worth reading, more than once

So good that after I had read a library copy, I purchased my own so I could read it all over. This novel takes on indirectly (as in his more recent "A Long, Long Way From Home") Barry's own family's experience as Irish divided between serving the British and aiding those who rebelled against the King. The other reviewers here cover much of the plot, but I might add that a touch of magic realism near the explosive climax makes for a nice touch, and the tension between truth-telling and perceived loyalty moves the story of the modern-day Aeneas along his wanderings efficiently and poignantly.

Barry, also a poet and best known--at least before this novel--as a playwright, brings to his fictional characters a narrative style somewhat at odds with what one might expect. He's not Joyce, that is, striving for a correlative voice to match his character's interior musings. Rather, he takes the rich legacy of Joyce and makes it impel his own telling of the interior life of those that Barry finds empathy with, and whose inner as well as outer itineraries this author feels, you sense, he must tell. This impelling of a writer to find release through his creations makes for a very effective novel, indeed.

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journey through life

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.

An Irish Everyman

Irish history is written in the blood of its people and yet the theme of this book is love. Love of family, love of friends, love of one's home seen through the eyes of a simple man with grace and dignity. Set to wandering, he yearns for what he can't have for no fault of his own. The writing is magically Irish and even though you might not have an Irish accent, Sebastian Barry provides one with his lilting prose. Eneas is tossed by Fate and pursued by the mad dogs, including his best friend, who want to punish him for his reluctance to join the mob and kill. Befriended by another lost soul, he finds solace and acceptance. It is hard to praise this book too much. Required reading for anyone bent on mayhem and murder. It should be a requisite in Ireland's schools, both North and South.

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Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "the finest book to come out of Europe this year," The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is acclaimed Irish playwright Sebastian Barry's lyrical tale of a fugitive everyman.

For Eneas McNulty, a happy, innocent childhood in County Sligo in the early 1900s gives way to an Ireland wracked by violence and conflict. Unable to find work in the depressed times after World War I, Eneas joins the British-led police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary--a decision that alters the course of his life. Branded a traitor by Irish nationalists and pursued by IRA hitmen, Eneas is forced to flee his homeland, his family, and Viv, the woman he loves. His wandering terminates on the Isle of Dogs, a haven for sailors, where a lifetime of loss is redeemed by a final act of generosity. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is the story of a lost man and a compelling saga that illuminates Ireland's complex history.

"From the first sentences of the book we know we are in the hands of a master storyteller." --The Wall Street Journal

"Magnificent. . . . No one who loves fiction will want to reach the end of this bewitching, penetrating, unforgettable book." --San Francisco Chronicle Book Review (front page)

"Elegant, comical, tragical, musical. It's a symphony of a novel and you'll sing along and wander with Eneas into the next century." --Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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