A Long Long Way eBook: Sebastian Barry: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Product Description

Independent

'Unsurpassed in First World War fiction, A Long Long Way is a small masterpiece with an exhilarating resoluteness and authority.'

Sunday Times

'A beautifully written book with human value.'

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Customer Reviews

52 Reviews

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.5 out of 5 stars (52 customer reviews)

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70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to read again, 11 Aug 2006

By

Patricia (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Long Long Way (Paperback)

I read this book a few months ago and when I finished it I felt I had to read it again to capture some of the powerful descriptions of human feelings, love, fear, confusion, betrayal, disappointment, compradeship, etc., I picked it up again last week and have enjoyed reading every page of it a second time.

In this book Sebastian Barry has dealt with a subject rarely even talked about until recently in Ireland. That is, the dilemna of 1916 when Irishmen were fighting against Britain in Dublin while at the same time Irishmen were fighting in WW1.

This is the human side of that dilemna. As Colm Toibin says on the cover of the book "This is Sebastian Barry's song of innocence and experience composed with poetic grace and eye, both unflinching and tender, for savage detail and moments of pure beauty. It is also an astonishing display of Barry's gift for creating a memorable character, whome he has written, indelibly, back into a history which continues to haunt us".

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73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly crafted novel, 17 July 2006

By

A. Coyle "acoyle7" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Long Long Way (Paperback)

I'm not really one for war novels but was drawn to this because of its focus on Irish soldiers fighting in the Great War against the backdrop of the Easter Rising in their own country (I'm Irish myself) and because it was nominated for the Booker Prize. I whizzed through 'The Da Vinci Code' before this (well, I thought it was about time that I knew what people were going on about) and found it a blessed relief to savour the poetic prose of Sebastian Barry's novel after the dross of Dan Brown's. Barry describes interactions and interiority with poetic insight, so much so that I re-read many passages, just to taste properly all that they had to offer. However, some of his graphic descriptions of the field of battle are stomach-churning - and so they should be. In Willie Dunne, he creates a deeply empathic character whose growing sense of out-of-placeness and disillusionment with the discourses of war build incrementally across the novel. I found the end both shocking and deeply moving. This is a superbly crafted book that I would recommend unreservedly.

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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evokes pain and sorrow, 23 Feb 2006

By

B. Gudmundsson (Iceland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Long Long Way (Paperback)

I don't like using big words when describing books. But I think I will have to do it this time around. A Long Long Way is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. Let me explain.

I've long been interested in fiction that takes place in a war or is in someway related to a war situation. At first because of the action, but as I grew up I liked to read about how people react in a war situation. Following Willie Dunne's ordeals I felt so many pains, so many sorrows. Sebastian Barry shows great depth in describing both the conflicts of war but more importantly the agonies of war, the fear and hopes of the soldiers. I'm not a big fan of poetry. But in this case I think the fact that Sebastian Barry is a poet as well as a novelist and dramatist may explain why his style is so good, so capable of conveying emotion (mind you I haven't read any of his poetry).

A Long Long Way is perhaps the best novel I've read in a long time. If I try to categorize it as war fiction it tops all the books I´ve read recently (Doctorow's The March - good -, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried - very good -) and war related fiction such as Gunther Grass's Crabwalk - very good - and Ismail Kadare's General of the Dead Army - somewhat disappointing.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Long Long Way
I am deeply moved by this story of a hopeless and homeless soldier. even though I am a Chinese knowing nothing about Easter Rising, the human story told touches every soul.

Published 18 days ago by Dan

5.0 out of 5 stars Ireland Uprising and Down in the Trenches
For some reason I am drawn to read a lot of books, both factual and fictional, about the two major wars of the twentieth century. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Lady Fancifull

5.0 out of 5 stars A damned good read!
A Long Long Way

This book is my first taste of Barry and I am not disappointed. He has all the 'earthiness' I enjoy in an author. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Ainetheon

3.0 out of 5 stars Kindle formatting lets a great book down
Why oh why do publishers think that, while they offer a printed book with text formatted to both sides of the page ("Justified"), an electronic book should be sent out totally... Read more

Published 1 month ago by M. J. Harris

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting Reading
Having listened to a critic's acclaim of Sebastian Barry on the radio, I was curious to read "A Long Long Way". Read more

Published 2 months ago by 5fot6

5.0 out of 5 stars a great writer, a great story
Sebastian Barry does not write beach blanket fare. These brilliant novels are sad weighty affairs. And I love them. Read more

Published 4 months ago by brookner fan

5.0 out of 5 stars Very moving and so well written!
This is a very well written historical fiction book about an Irish soldier in WW1. Its brutally honest and raw with a very poetic way of describing feelings, senses, experiences... Read more

Published 7 months ago by niamh

4.0 out of 5 stars The fighting Irish .. but for what?
Only got to this afer The Secret Scripture. This is much better.

It tells a credible story the story of a fairly innocent Dubliner joining the British Army at the start... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Kilronan

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful harrowing story
I have read all of Mr Barry's books, and just finished reading this for the second time. the whole book is beautifully written and is like a poem from beginning to end. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Suzanne McKinney

4.0 out of 5 stars lyrical and moving
I was drawn to this book because of the exploration of a divided Irish perspective on the First World War. Read more

Published 12 months ago by David Roulston

› See all 52 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Popular Highlights

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The birds began to sing in the stand of trees behind the fallen body. It was as if he never had been. It was as if there never had been a proper reason for a life, as if all stories and pictures were a lie and a nonsense. It was as if blood were ashes and the song of a life was only the painful extension of a babys cry. How his mother had loved him and rejoiced in his coming and fed him were hardly known. He seemed in that moment to leave no echo in the world. &quote;