- Hardcover: 359 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Press; 1st Edition 1st Printing edition (4 Nov 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0593048849
- ISBN-13: 978-0593048849
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 464,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
John McCarthy's A Ghost Upon Your Path is a warm and intriguing book. While McCarthy was a prisoner in Lebanon, his mother died of cancer. He had always thought of himself as English, but after his father died, he decided to investigate his Irish roots by moving to Ireland. The result is this blend of personal discovery and travel book. McCarthy discovers that modern Ireland is far from the romanticised world so often portrayed. At the same time he receives a warm welcome from the distant cousins he discovers in his ancestral land. In doing so, he finds a country that is his own at a deeper level than he first imagined.
A Ghost Upon Your Path is written in a crisp, evocative journalistic style, and is crammed full of interesting facts about Ireland and peopled with the interesting characters McCarthy meets in his pilgrimage home. One wonders whether this book would have been published if McCarthy was not already a celebrity? Family history is not really interesting to non-family members. But McCarthy has the sense to personalise the search into his roots by telling us of his ambiguous feelings for his mother. Underlying the story is the sense that there are more ghosts in McCarthy's life than he is telling. Most intriguing is the sense that he (as the cover photo suggests) will never really recover from his Beirut ordeal, and that as a result, his trek to Ireland was simply another journey of a solitary man, restless in the pursuit to discover his true home. --Dwight Longenecker
Review
An exploration of Ireland, the phenomenon of Irishness and the Ireland of the mind by the journalist and celebrity hostage (famous for his terrible incarceration with Brian Keenan). What is it about Ireland that draws people there? McCarthy promises rather more than standard travelogue and cultural history. He aims to get to the heart of Ireland, and to the Ireland of his heart, taking the reader through language, literature, music and religion, as well as through an account of his own particular relationship with Ireland. Previous books jointly written with Jill Morrell and Brian Keenan were conspicuous bestsellers. He is a very high-profile author and his past success will be repeated with this new book, despite (or possibly because of) its slightly unexpected subject matter.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Before I read this book I expected to like it and to enjoy reading it, having recently read John's book: Some Other Rainbow, which he co-wrote with Jill Morrell, but I have to say I quickly became disappointed with my expectation unfulfilled. Indeed at times it was hard to keep going to the end because I was so un-engaged with both the subject matter and the writing. This is in strong contrast to the experience I had in reading Some Other Rainbow, which had me waking up in the middle of the night with the last passages I had read before switching out the light at the forefront of my mind.
A Ghost Upon Your Path has been written following 6 months that John spent in County Kerry in south west Ireland. His objective was largely to finally come to terms with the death of his mother, having not be able to say goodbye to her at the time of her death due to his cruel captivity in Lebanon. His objective was also to trace his own family, who on his father's side, originated in Ireland. He also wanted to engage with Kerry generally in an attempt to get under the skin of Ireland and find out how it was fairing having been created, at the time that he wrote this book, about 80 years beforehand. Now all of these aims are understandable, if not indeed laudable but the end result for me is a mish-mash of consciousness, with no apparent cohesion; the thread of the book, such as it is, is broken repeatedly.
The passages on the ancient history of Ireland dotted here and there within the narrative I found confusing and because of this I quickly became bored, as I'm afraid I did with John's disjointed account of his own family tree, which he himself found confusing. I just ended up thinking so what? I can't help feeling that if John had not been the author of this book it would probably not have been published.
One short passage recounts a plumbing problem within the cottage where he stayed, really nothing could be more un-engaging, this happens to all of us at some stage, but is not sufficiently noteworthy to be included within a book, surely?
The passages which shed light on Ireland's recent history and its current struggles were interesting and thought provoking and instructive for me never having been across the Irish Sea, nor having studied anything about Ireland. Although in a book of this nature John's observations and discussion must necessarily be somewhat lightweight and skimming the surface of a deep pool.
What did engage me was the psychological basis of the book, John's recount of his coming to terms with the loss of his family unit by the death of this father and mother. But it is his relationship with his mother that is the focus of his mind's journey. All of this I found fascinating and it is good to read of his eventual coming to terms with his loss.
Having 'enjoyed' Some Other Rainbow so much A Ghost Upon Your Path would not stop me from reading any of John's other books, but I would not recommend this particular book and it saddens me to write this.
A Ghost Upon Your Path has been written following 6 months that John spent in County Kerry in south west Ireland. His objective was largely to finally come to terms with the death of his mother, having not be able to say goodbye to her at the time of her death due to his cruel captivity in Lebanon. His objective was also to trace his own family, who on his father's side, originated in Ireland. He also wanted to engage with Kerry generally in an attempt to get under the skin of Ireland and find out how it was fairing having been created, at the time that he wrote this book, about 80 years beforehand. Now all of these aims are understandable, if not indeed laudable but the end result for me is a mish-mash of consciousness, with no apparent cohesion; the thread of the book, such as it is, is broken repeatedly.
The passages on the ancient history of Ireland dotted here and there within the narrative I found confusing and because of this I quickly became bored, as I'm afraid I did with John's disjointed account of his own family tree, which he himself found confusing. I just ended up thinking so what? I can't help feeling that if John had not been the author of this book it would probably not have been published.
One short passage recounts a plumbing problem within the cottage where he stayed, really nothing could be more un-engaging, this happens to all of us at some stage, but is not sufficiently noteworthy to be included within a book, surely?
The passages which shed light on Ireland's recent history and its current struggles were interesting and thought provoking and instructive for me never having been across the Irish Sea, nor having studied anything about Ireland. Although in a book of this nature John's observations and discussion must necessarily be somewhat lightweight and skimming the surface of a deep pool.
What did engage me was the psychological basis of the book, John's recount of his coming to terms with the loss of his family unit by the death of this father and mother. But it is his relationship with his mother that is the focus of his mind's journey. All of this I found fascinating and it is good to read of his eventual coming to terms with his loss.
Having 'enjoyed' Some Other Rainbow so much A Ghost Upon Your Path would not stop me from reading any of John's other books, but I would not recommend this particular book and it saddens me to write this.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Finding Irish hearts- a lovely and contrary place
10 Sep 2010
Format:Paperback
If you have ever felt at home, someplace you have never been before, you will be able to relate to John McCarthy's `A Ghost upon Your Path'. He returns to Ireland to find more of his family history and even though it is not emphasized nor brought to the forefront of the book , he finds inner peace. He was captured for over 5 years while he was working in Beirut in 1986 as a journalist and this has to have played a part in this physical and inner journey.
Many streams of Irish history are covered; they mainly center around his family history and those he comes to know in the town of Inch. He ponders the role of the church in Ireland, including recent revelations of abuse, and the troubles between Protestants and Catholics. There are intelligent musings on the history and the failings of much of modern society in Ireland.
It is all, it is interesting reading, including his descriptions of squalls blowing in off the coast, sunsets and sunrises. Throughout there is the sadness of being captive during his mother's final illness with cancer and what must have been her pain of knowing her son was a incarcerated in a far away land; but these thoughts do not overwhelm the story of Ireland and finding your family's ancestors.
Those who like to read of Irish history, the search for ancestors and the hunt for self and inner peace would enjoy this reminiscence.
Many streams of Irish history are covered; they mainly center around his family history and those he comes to know in the town of Inch. He ponders the role of the church in Ireland, including recent revelations of abuse, and the troubles between Protestants and Catholics. There are intelligent musings on the history and the failings of much of modern society in Ireland.
It is all, it is interesting reading, including his descriptions of squalls blowing in off the coast, sunsets and sunrises. Throughout there is the sadness of being captive during his mother's final illness with cancer and what must have been her pain of knowing her son was a incarcerated in a far away land; but these thoughts do not overwhelm the story of Ireland and finding your family's ancestors.
Those who like to read of Irish history, the search for ancestors and the hunt for self and inner peace would enjoy this reminiscence.
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