Ed O'Connor

Advantages: Grreat plot ideas
Disadvantages: Too many of them.

...was such a good idea. Still, the disdain and misogyny of male dons are about to become the least of her worries. There is an excellent story in here. Indeed there are three excellent stories in here. O'Connor's mistake was in trying to weave them altogether, because in that he doesn't quite succeed. The book is subtitled: 'a psychological thriller' ~ and it could have been one, if the author hadn't spent half of his time trying to make it a police procedural. Underwood's own degeneration is just one more thread that could have stood alone - as a short story, or a one-off play, if not as an entire novel. To take each thread in turn. The strongest is the psychological thriller ~ we know Frayne from the outset, all we have to discover are his motivations and next intentions. Why the poetry? If this had been the sole focus ~ it would be better... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Compulsive, smart and intensely readable.
Disadvantages: Slow in parts

...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: A modern masterpiece
Disadvantages: None

...Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea is a story of escape: escape from crippling poverty, starvation and inevitable death; from past sins, shame and vengeful retribution; from wasted hopes and failed ambition and from an intolerant, callous and hubristic regime that casts adrift from society those whom it no longer recognizes as its fellows. Set in the winter of 1847, this is a fictional account of the twenty-six day voyage from Queenstown to New York, of the Star of the Sea, a single-funnelled clipper, transporting refugees from the Irish potato famine. The story opens with an engraved frontispiece, the first indication that the author intends to lend authenticity to the account with contemporary visual as well as textual material. What follows, we are led to understand, flows from the pen of G Grantley Dixon: New York Times... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful