Galway Bay

December 1, 2008
In this scattered retelling of her own family's struggles during the Great Irish Starvation, Kelly captures the suffering but neglects the inner lives of her thinly drawn characters. In Bearna, Ireland, in 1839, Honora Keeley falls in love with Michael Kelly after finding him swimming in Galway Bay, and they soon marry despite her father's objections. For a short time, life, while far from perfect, is sweet. Then comes the blight, destroying most of their potato crop. After losing the harvest for the third time in four years, the Kellys flee to America and settle in Chicago. Though the research is meticulous and the famine horrors are catalogued in great detail, the Kellys' lives in America are presented haphazardly, making it difficult to keep track of the huge cast of characters when decades are skipped seemingly at random. The characters themselves function more as types—greedy landlords, arrogant Englishmen—to further the plot. Despite its flaws, the novel may appeal to fans of Frank McCourt and Irish history, as the trials of the Kelly family echo the struggle of the Irish to assimilate while retaining their own heritage.

December 15, 2008
In 1839, Honora Keeley, days away from entering a convent, meets the love of her life on the bank of a river in Connemara. Blissfully unaware that the famine is rapidly approaching, Honora and Michael marry and begin their family amid the poverty of the Irish countryside. Basing this sweeping Irish family saga upon the experiences of her own family, documentary producer and journalist Kelly ("Special Intentions") follows Honora and her family from Galway to Chicago, escaping starvation in search of Michael's brother Patrick. Reminiscent of Frank Delaney's "Ireland", this novel focuses on the resilience and determination of the two million people who fled a callous government with nothing but hope from the perspective of Honora, her sister Maire, and their children. This readable and highly personal novel of the Irish experience is an excellent addition to the already rich collection of Irish historical fiction. Highly recommended.Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2009
Kelly uses a well-known chapter in Irish American history as a springboard for a vividly lavish historical novel. The mid-nineteenth-century potato famine in Ireland resulted in approximately one million deaths and one million emigrations. After leaving a desperate and depleted Ireland, Michael and Honora Kelly make their way to America. Eventually settling in Chicago, the Kellys and their children struggle to survive and thrive in the Promised Land. This multigenerational family saga mirrors the experiences of countless other immigrants who transformed both their own lives and the face of America. Kelly does an admirable job of conveying both the despair and the determination that gripped a generation of Irish immigrants. Through the eyes of the extended Kelly clan, the reader is treated to a panoramic overview of the Irish American experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)