The Star Of The Sea [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

G. Grantley Dixon is a caricature of the liberal American do-gooder, whose reports about the plight of the Irish poor are influenced by his own socialism and by the reform-minded traditions of his family. Self-centered in his attitudes and limited in his social graces, he is detested by Merridith. Pius Mulvey is a mysterious ex-convict who comes from the same town as Merridith and Mary Duane, directly connected to both of them. One of over 400 passengers who have paid $8 per person for passage, he is crammed into the fetid and dangerous quarters known as "steerage," expected to stay alive on one quart of water a day and half a pound of hardtack.

O’Connor pulls out all the stops here in this big, broad melodrama, but an honesty of emotion and a fidelity to the facts here saves the novel from bathos and gives the reader cause for thought. Moments of both ineffable sadness and high drama arise, and O’Connor’s imagery, especially his sense imagery, is arresting. Occasionally, his compression of time, for the sake of story, leads to anachronisms--several mentions of evolution, with parallels between monkeys and Irishmen, ignore the fact that Darwin’s Evolution of the Species was not published until twelve years after this famine. Still, O’Connor presents a compelling story with many unforgettable details of Irish history. The ending is preachy, but the author does provide a follow-up on the characters after their arrival in America. The fact that at least one character becomes a politician (later accused of misappropriation of funds) will surprise no one accustomed to politics. Mary Whipple

However, to think that the famine is the main aspect of the book and the main thrust of the story is wrong. The book is based strongly around wonderful characters who are so brilliantly written that I couldnt help but feel I knew them. I can picture them completely in my head, not as characters but as real people with real emotions. I can only really enjoy a book fully if the characters do this, and O'Connor has certainly produced a great set of extremely well written characters, not one of whom I didnt like.

The story is also a roaringly good tale with twists galore, most of which are unexpected which is unusual to me as I am normally pretty good as working out whats to come. At times in the middle of the book it did feel a little slow going, and the very end after the climax was a little long for my liking but these are the only two slight criticisms I have and they did not spoil the book at all for me. The use of "flashbacks" to describe previous events works well in this book. Some books to me have seemed disjointed when this method has been employed but this is not the case with Star of the Sea. If anything it adds to the suspense of the book and builds up a strong picture of the characters and motivations. The different styles employed for different sections of the book, such as the use of the captain's log book, the journalist's observations etc, to tell different parts of the tale also works brilliantly. O'Connor skillfully weaves these various styles of writing together to create a unified book that reads brilliantly and is full of suspense.

Most impressive about the book though is the language. The first chapter in particular really gripped me, it is so wonderfully written, and evokes such a strong sense of atmosphere that sets up the rest of the book brilliantly. The language used throughout is truly beautiful, wonderfully varied and every word it seems put to excellent use. This is accompanied by obviously very thorough research into the subject of the famine and how all types of people lived at the time.

Overall this is a wonderful read - great story, beautiful characters and all extremely well written. I would highly recommend it to anyone.