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Storytelling kept alive the myths, legends and history of the Blasket Islands. In her old age, Peig Sayers, recounted her life to her son who recorded the tale in this book. She recalls the events of her life and her simple philosophy in a moving poetic style. Such everyday tasks as collecting turf for roots, catching and eating seals, and preparing for a wake are depicted alongside such momentous events as drownings at sea, pilgrimages, and the spread of the news of the Easter uprising in 1916. There were 'clouds of sorrow', but helping to lift them was the friendship she found in the community, which 'was like a little rose in the wilderness'. The Blasket Islands are three miles off Irelands Dingle Peninsula. Until their evacuation just after the Second World War, the lives of the 150 or so Blasket Islanders had remained unchanged for centuries. A rich oral tradition of story-telling, poetry, and folktales kept alive the legends and history of the islands, and has made their literature famous throughout the world. The 7 Blasket Island books published by OUP contain memoirs and reminiscences from within this literary tradition, evoking a way of life which has now vanished.
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My sorrow, isn't it many a twist life does! Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
My sorrow, isn't it many a twist life does! Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Very interesting book as it brings home to me what it was like to live in rural Ireland in thoes days and the art of story telling.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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4 reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Back to the Essentials
27 July 2002
Format:Paperback
In spite of other reviewers making light of this wonderful woman's story, I see it in a different light altogether. I think we all have a lot to learn from Peig's life and experiences. We are spoiled on material goods and suffer from spiritual deprivation. Peig may have had the "poor mouth" but she never whined about it. We whine about a red light that doesn't turn green fast enough or the fax machine when it seems to take forever. Does anyone really think we are better for that? I think not. I am now in my third reading of Peig Sayer's autobiography and, over the years, I keep getting more out of her vision. Do I want to live like her? Not entirely. Who wants to lose their children and be separated from those we love? Do I envy her close ties to nature and her personal relationship with God? Yes, I do. It's not that I want to be Peig Sayers, its just that I think she has a lot to say to those of us who have become so far removed from the essentials of God's world. I love her story and I wish I had known her.
Marion Brown
Marion Brown
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful
A classic of "poor mouth" literature !
22 Sep 2000
Format:Paperback
This is the story...of a lovely lady! This book was the bane of every school child in Ireland for decades. It used to be on the curriculum so that, despite the fact that you would have to grit your teeth to read it, it was a bestseller in Ireland. It tells the story of Peig Sayers, a woman who lived in the poor and rural south-west of Ireland in the early 20th century. In this book, everyone was poor, no-one had anything, people were evicted from their hovels, life was hard, people died young, children were barefoot, the livestock slept in the house, it was always raining....well, you get the idea.
Peig was born on the mainland of Ireland, but married a fisherman who lived on the Blasket islands, a small collection of islands a few miles off the coast of Kerry. Tough as things were on the mainland, things were tougher still here! You were lashed by the Atlantic, the wind could blow you off the cliffs, and you could be drowned while you were fishing, and that was on a good day! The book tells of her struggle to be accepted by the islanders, how she brought up her large family, how she coped with the death of some of her sons fishing, and the folklore, stories, and culture all around her.
This book, and others like it from other authors on other islands ("The Islander" being another good example) formed a literary style which became known as "the poor mouth". They all share similar characteristics as they described the oppresive hardships suffered stoically by the people. Even now in Ireland, anyone whinging about their bad situation would be dismissed as "putting on the poor mouth" and everyone would know what was meant. There is even a spoof "poor mouth" book by Flann O'Brien, which is well worth reading as an antidote to all the hardship and depression!
Now that Peig is no longer force fed down poor school children's throats, it has been re-appraised as a valuable historical record of western Irish culture, and no longer as an instrument of torture. Now that you don't HAVE to read it, more people now seem to WANT to read it! The book was originally written in the Irish language since that was the only language Peig spoke, but this translation in English is available.
If you want a glimpse of an Ireland now long gone (and it really is long gone, despite what anyone might tell you), you can't go wrong with Peig. Just make sure you have a good supply of prozac close to hand.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A simply-told description of the authentic life my Irish ancestors might have led
28 Jan 2011
Format:Paperback
As a novelist who sometimes writes historical fiction, I've found the memoirs of everyday people the most useful in learning the small but essential details of daily life way back when. By that I mean the memoirs produced by local history associations or university presses, not the "narrative non-fiction" blockbusters of today like Eat, Pray, Love or Running With Scissors. As a descendant of the Irish diaspora circa 1832, I'm especially interested in memoirs which can tell me what life was like for my ancestors in the west of Ireland before they sailed to America and set down new roots in St. Lawrence County, NY. I read this book in a tiny cottage in Couminole, where my front window gave a great view of the now-abandoned Great Blasket Island where Peig Sayers raised her family, and at six generations removed from the life my family led in Ireland, I enjoyed getting a simply-told description of the authentic life they might have led, rather than a Hollywoodized versions of the Ireland they left.
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